The climatic significance of artefacts related to prehistoric reindeer hunting exposed at melting ice patches in southern Norway
The main aim of this study is to describe consequences of climate change in the mountain region of southern Norway with respect to recently exposed finds of archaeological remains associated with reindeer hunting and trapping at and around ice patches in central southern Norway. In the early years o...
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crsagepubl:10.1177/0959683611425552 2024-04-28T08:20:09+00:00 The climatic significance of artefacts related to prehistoric reindeer hunting exposed at melting ice patches in southern Norway Nesje, Atle Pilø, Lars Holger Finstad, Espen Solli, Brit Wangen, Vivian Ødegård, Rune Strand Isaksen, Ketil Støren, Eivind N. Bakke, Dag Inge Andreassen, Liss M 2011 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0959683611425552 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0959683611425552 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1177/0959683611425552 en eng SAGE Publications http://journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license The Holocene volume 22, issue 4, page 485-496 ISSN 0959-6836 1477-0911 Paleontology Earth-Surface Processes Ecology Archeology Global and Planetary Change journal-article 2011 crsagepubl https://doi.org/10.1177/0959683611425552 2024-04-09T08:00:37Z The main aim of this study is to describe consequences of climate change in the mountain region of southern Norway with respect to recently exposed finds of archaeological remains associated with reindeer hunting and trapping at and around ice patches in central southern Norway. In the early years of the twenty-first century, warm summers caused negative glacier mass balance and significant glacier retreat and melting of ice patches in central southern Norway. As a result, prehistoric remains lost and/or left by past reindeer hunters appeared at ice patches in mountain areas of southern Norway. In the warm summer and autumn of 2006 the number of artefact recoveries at ice patches increased significantly because of melting of snow and ice patches and more than 100 objects were recovered in the Oppland county alone. In 2009, detailed multidisciplinary investigations were carried out at the Juvfonne ice patch in Jotunheimen at an elevation of c. 1850 metres. A well-preserved Iron Age hunting station was discovered and in total c. 600 artefacts have been documented at the Juvfonne site alone. Most of the objects were recovered and brought to the Museum of Cultural History at the University of Oslo for conservation, exhibition and storing. Thirteen so called ‘scaring sticks’ recovered from the recently exposed foreland of Juvfonne were radiocarbon dated, yielding ages that group in two separate time intervals, ad 246–534 and ad 804–898 (±1 sigma). By putting the temporal distribution of the radiocarbon-dated artefacts into the context of late-Holocene glacier-size variations in the Jotunheimen and Jostedalsbreen regions, we conclude that the most extensive reindeer hunting and trapping associated with snow/ice patches was related to periods with prevailing warm summers when the reindeer herds gathered on high-altitude, contracted glaciers and ice patches to avoid insect plagues. The ‘freshness’ of the fragile organic finds strongly indicates that at least some of the artefacts were rapidly covered by snow and ice and ... Article in Journal/Newspaper glacier SAGE Publications The Holocene 22 4 485 496 |
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English |
topic |
Paleontology Earth-Surface Processes Ecology Archeology Global and Planetary Change |
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Paleontology Earth-Surface Processes Ecology Archeology Global and Planetary Change Nesje, Atle Pilø, Lars Holger Finstad, Espen Solli, Brit Wangen, Vivian Ødegård, Rune Strand Isaksen, Ketil Støren, Eivind N. Bakke, Dag Inge Andreassen, Liss M The climatic significance of artefacts related to prehistoric reindeer hunting exposed at melting ice patches in southern Norway |
topic_facet |
Paleontology Earth-Surface Processes Ecology Archeology Global and Planetary Change |
description |
The main aim of this study is to describe consequences of climate change in the mountain region of southern Norway with respect to recently exposed finds of archaeological remains associated with reindeer hunting and trapping at and around ice patches in central southern Norway. In the early years of the twenty-first century, warm summers caused negative glacier mass balance and significant glacier retreat and melting of ice patches in central southern Norway. As a result, prehistoric remains lost and/or left by past reindeer hunters appeared at ice patches in mountain areas of southern Norway. In the warm summer and autumn of 2006 the number of artefact recoveries at ice patches increased significantly because of melting of snow and ice patches and more than 100 objects were recovered in the Oppland county alone. In 2009, detailed multidisciplinary investigations were carried out at the Juvfonne ice patch in Jotunheimen at an elevation of c. 1850 metres. A well-preserved Iron Age hunting station was discovered and in total c. 600 artefacts have been documented at the Juvfonne site alone. Most of the objects were recovered and brought to the Museum of Cultural History at the University of Oslo for conservation, exhibition and storing. Thirteen so called ‘scaring sticks’ recovered from the recently exposed foreland of Juvfonne were radiocarbon dated, yielding ages that group in two separate time intervals, ad 246–534 and ad 804–898 (±1 sigma). By putting the temporal distribution of the radiocarbon-dated artefacts into the context of late-Holocene glacier-size variations in the Jotunheimen and Jostedalsbreen regions, we conclude that the most extensive reindeer hunting and trapping associated with snow/ice patches was related to periods with prevailing warm summers when the reindeer herds gathered on high-altitude, contracted glaciers and ice patches to avoid insect plagues. The ‘freshness’ of the fragile organic finds strongly indicates that at least some of the artefacts were rapidly covered by snow and ice and ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Nesje, Atle Pilø, Lars Holger Finstad, Espen Solli, Brit Wangen, Vivian Ødegård, Rune Strand Isaksen, Ketil Støren, Eivind N. Bakke, Dag Inge Andreassen, Liss M |
author_facet |
Nesje, Atle Pilø, Lars Holger Finstad, Espen Solli, Brit Wangen, Vivian Ødegård, Rune Strand Isaksen, Ketil Støren, Eivind N. Bakke, Dag Inge Andreassen, Liss M |
author_sort |
Nesje, Atle |
title |
The climatic significance of artefacts related to prehistoric reindeer hunting exposed at melting ice patches in southern Norway |
title_short |
The climatic significance of artefacts related to prehistoric reindeer hunting exposed at melting ice patches in southern Norway |
title_full |
The climatic significance of artefacts related to prehistoric reindeer hunting exposed at melting ice patches in southern Norway |
title_fullStr |
The climatic significance of artefacts related to prehistoric reindeer hunting exposed at melting ice patches in southern Norway |
title_full_unstemmed |
The climatic significance of artefacts related to prehistoric reindeer hunting exposed at melting ice patches in southern Norway |
title_sort |
climatic significance of artefacts related to prehistoric reindeer hunting exposed at melting ice patches in southern norway |
publisher |
SAGE Publications |
publishDate |
2011 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0959683611425552 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0959683611425552 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1177/0959683611425552 |
genre |
glacier |
genre_facet |
glacier |
op_source |
The Holocene volume 22, issue 4, page 485-496 ISSN 0959-6836 1477-0911 |
op_rights |
http://journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1177/0959683611425552 |
container_title |
The Holocene |
container_volume |
22 |
container_issue |
4 |
container_start_page |
485 |
op_container_end_page |
496 |
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1797583211049517056 |