6,000 years of arrows emerge from melting Norwegian ice patch

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Archaeologists in Norway have discovered dozens of arrows—some dating back 6,000 years—melting out of a 60-acre ice patch in the county’s high mountains.

 A record-setting total of 68 complete and partial arrows (and five arrowheads) were ultimately discovered by the team on and around the melting ice patch–more than archaeologists have recovered from any other frozen site in the world. Some of the projectiles date to the Neolithic period while the most “recent” finds are from the 14th century A.D.

While the sheer number of historical projectiles is stunning, the Langfonne discoveries are also upending generally accepted ideas in the relatively new specialty of ice-patch archaeology, and yielding new clues as to ice’s potential to preserve or destroy evidence from the past over the course of thousands of years.

Co-author Atle Nesje, a glaciologist at the University of Bergen, says that thousands of years ago, warm summers probably exposed older artifacts, which were carried to the edge of the ice patch by streams of meltwater before freezing again. The weight of ice pressing down on lower layers might have caused them to shift, carrying their frozen contents with them. 

 

Source: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/11/6000-years-arrows-emerge-melting-norway-ice-patch/

Edited November 26, 2020 by FfFfFfFF

[xoxo Craig 50,574]

Does that mean some of these tools predate the Iron/Bronze age?

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41 minutes ago, xoxo Craig said:

Does that mean some of these tools predate the Iron/Bronze age?

Yes!

6000 year ago is possibly when the first blue-eyed person was born as well.