Home of "Ice Giants" thaws, shows pre-Viking hunts

Reuters on Yahoo ^ | 9/14/10 | Alister Doyle

[NormsRevenge]

JUVFONNA, Norway (Reuters) – Climate change is exposing reindeer hunting gear used by the Vikings' ancestors faster than archaeologists can collect it from ice thawing in northern Europe's highest mountains.

"It's like a time machine...the ice has not been this small for many, many centuries," said Lars Piloe, a Danish scientist heading a team of "snow patch archaeologists" on newly bare ground 1,850 meters (6,070 ft) above sea level in mid-Norway.

Specialized hunting sticks, bows and arrows and even a 3,400-year-old leather shoe have been among finds since 2006 from a melt in the Jotunheimen mountains, the home of the "Ice Giants" of Norse mythology.

As water streams off the Juvfonna ice field, Piloe and two other archaeologists -- working in a science opening up due to climate change -- collect "scare sticks" they reckon were set up 1,500 years ago in rows to drive reindeer toward archers.

But time is short as the Ice Giants' stronghold shrinks.

"Our main focus is the rescue part," Piloe said on newly exposed rocks by the ice. "There are many ice patches. We can only cover a few...We know we are losing artefacts everywhere."

Freed from an ancient freeze, wood rots in a few years. And rarer feathers used on arrows, wool or leather crumble to dust in days unless taken to a laboratory and stored in a freezer.

Jotunheimen is unusual because so many finds are turning up at the same time -- 600 artefacts at Juvfonna alone.

Other finds have been made in glaciers or permafrost from Alaska to Siberia. Italy's iceman "Otzi," killed by an arrow wound 5,000 years ago, was found in an Alpine glacier in 1991. "Ice Mummies" have been discovered in the Andes.

[Tijeras_Slim]

ping me if they find huge cat toys.

[NormsRevenge]

The Juvfonna ice field at 1,850 metres (6070 feet) above sea level is seen in the Jotunheimen mountains in Norway September 9, 2010. Climate change is exposing reindeer hunting gear used by the Vikings' ancestors faster than archaeologists can collect it from ice thawing in northern Europe's highest mountains. REUTERS/Alister Doyle

[NormsRevenge]

A 3,400-year-old leather shoe found in the mountains of south Norway after a record melt of ice, apparently linked to climate change is seen in this 2006 handout photo. Climate change is exposing reindeer hunting gear used by the Vikings' ancestors faster than archaeologists can collect it from ice thawing in northern Europe's highest mountains. REUTERS/Handout/Photo courtesy of Vegard Vike (NORWAY - Tags: ENVIRONMENT SCI TECH)

[Jack Hammer]

Darn it, I was wondering where I left my shoe...

[EyeGuy]

“Climate change is exposing reindeer hunting gear...”

###

No. No it isn’t.

Nothing like socialist propaganda disguised as a news story.

[Izzy Dunne]

Does anybody ever ask in these stories, why, if man is causing the climate to change with his SUVs and cattle flatulence, that there were people living there back then, presumably without SUVs ???

[dirtboy]

I guess they can’t be bothered to contemplate how all this land was ice-free during the time of the Vikings.

[muawiyah]

At 3500 years ago these are not strictly speaking "the Viking's ancestors" ~ more like "the Sa'ami ancestors of Vikings, the Norse not yet having made their way out of their flimsy wikiups somewhere in Western Asia".

There, that's so much better.

The link up between the Sa'ami and the Norse didn't really get going until the 900s when the Norse adopted a boat designed and used by the Sa'ami for use in mountain streams and the Arctic ocean.

The design was scaled up, given a neat dragon prow, and turned loose on a drowsing Europe!

Nothing was ever the same.

[Tax-chick]

ping

[healy61]

There is always one shoe by the road. It has gone on for centuries. Who knew?

[worst-case scenario]

I thought there was no climate change.

[C210N]

Is this rooter’s entry in a “see how many times you can place ‘climate change’ in your essay” contest? Furthurmore, how do these guys get away with the notion that once something is covered up by, say, ice from a long time ago that it can never ever ever and ever be uncovered again unless caused by man?

[AmusedBystander]

"It's like a time machine...the ice has not been this small for many, many centuries," So, it was hotter several centuries ago when these Vikings were roving about. Who'd a thunk it.

[Rebelbase]

Looks like about a size 5 shoe?

[mountainlion]

None of the stuff looks like a hut to me. I saw sticks, rocks and ice.

[Myrddin]

These areas became covered in ice after the socialist governments destroyed the oil industry, cars and aircraft. The exorbitant taxation cooled the climate dramatically.

[Dead Corpse]

“Giant” doesn’t mean what it used to. ;-)

[Fractal Trader]

ping

[Blood of Tyrants]

Don’t be ridiculous. EVERYBODY knows that George Bush invents a time machine next year and goes back in time and caused globull warming in the 15 century BC.