Arrow found in Norway is thousands of years older than originally thought: NPR

An archaeologist holds an arrow believed to be from the Iron Age on Mount Lauvhøe in Norway. Upon closer inspection, the team determined that the artifact dated back to the Stone Age and was likely around 4,000 years old.

Secrets of ice cream

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Secrets of ice cream

An archaeologist holds an arrow believed to be from the Iron Age on Mount Lauvhøe in Norway. Upon closer inspection, the team determined that the artifact dated back to the Stone Age and was likely around 4,000 years old.

Secrets of ice cream

Norwegian archaeologists have discovered a spire that appears to date from the Stone Age, that is, it is around 4,000 years old.

The discovery was made on the side of Mount Lauvhøe, which rises to just over 6,500 feet in the Norwegian municipality of Lom. Archaeologists had found spiers from the Iron and Middle Ages when they last surveyed the area in 2017. However, this spear was found after the ice melted at the site in recent years, according to Lars Holger Pilø, co-director from Secrets of the Ice. , which is part of the Norwegian Department of Cultural Heritage.

He said the find predates earlier discoveries by more than 2,000 years, adding much more “temporal depth” to the site. Researchers can determine the age of the artifact by its shape, but they will submit a sample of the wood for carbon-16 dating once the field season is over.

This find is likely evidence that ancient hunters tracked reindeer, which cut their way over snow and ice during the summer months thousands of years ago to avoid clouds of flies.

“Sometimes when an arrow missed its target, it sank deep into the snow and got lost,” Pilø posted. “Sad for the hunter but target for archaeology!”

The area where the spire was found is one of 66 ice sites in Norway, which have preserved more than 4,000 archaeological finds over the years, Pilø said.

As the arrow was broken at both ends, it was difficult to date it, according to a Secrets of the Ice post on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. Archaeologists initially thought the artifact dated to the Iron Age, but after removing the glacial silt, experts determined it was much older than they initially thought.

“The arrowhead was probably a stone projectile chipped off by pressure, which means the arrow is probably around 4,000 years old,” the post read.

In another article, archaeologists described the preserving power of ice over time: “Ice is a time machine: it brings precious objects from the past back to our time in an unchanged state, such as sleeping beauties. »