The ski
After painstakingly wrapping it up and transporting it the long distance down from the mountains, the archaeologists from Oppland County Council took the ski to the Museum of Cultural History for a closer examination. It was discovered that the ski was an extraordinarily well-preserved find from Norwegian pre-history, no less than 1300 years old (radiocarbon dating 670-775 AD). In Norway, some twenty skis dating from the period from the Palaeolithic to the Middle Ages have been found. The ski from Reinheimen is the only complete ski that has a well-preserved binding. The ski measures 170 cm in length and is 15 cm wide, with an elevated footstep in the middle. This elevated section has a horizontal hole through which the binding was threaded. The binding was made of a wicker twig that ran over the skier’s ankle and was secured with leather straps around the heel.
The ski testifies to its close kinship with modern skiing traditions in deep powder snow. It is short and wide, resulting in good movement ideal for powder snow and providing stability when moving through the landscape.
Alpine finds at the glacier’s edge
Ever since the Stone Age, people have been drawn to high-altitude snow during summer, since this was a predictable hunting ground. On hot summer days, the reindeer would gather on patches of snow left in the mountains to escape the heat and insects. Hunters have known how to take advantage of this behaviour and lay in wait near high-altitude snowdrifts in late summer. During the reindeer hunt, people lost objects and arrows missed their mark never to be retrieved. Luckily for us, the hunters frequently missed and the ice has preserved the objects well. Wood, leather and textiles that otherwise would have disappeared within a few years have remained intact for millennia. Since the ice that has served as a protective freezer around these objects is now rapidly receding, we are provided with unique insights into both the climate and cultural history of Norway.
Around 1300 years ago Norway was hit by a cold period; it was colder and snowier than during the preceding Roman era or later during the Viking Age and medieval times. Most likely, high snow was left in the mountains well into summer. This provided good opportunities to move quickly through the barren landscape. Walking on foot high in the mountains through the rocky talus in leather shoes without stiff, thick soles, like those we use today, was a far greater challenge than gliding elegantly along on the snow. The figure below shows the variations in the size of glaciers and snow patches at Lake Juvvatnet near the Galhøpiggen peak.
When the curve indicates high activity, it means that the glaciers were large and there was thus more snow and the snowy patches were larger. We can see that the ski stems from the end of a long, snowy period. Objects that went missing during a period with increasing snow volumes on the glaciers were covered and ended up deep down in snow that gradually turned into ice.
We have not found any obvious damage to the ski, so we have no good explanation of why it was left on the glacier. Nor do we know whether the other ski of this pair was lost, or whether it too will soon appear out of the melting ice.
References
Oddmund Farbregd (1972): Pilefunn fra Oppdalsfjella. Miscellenea 5. Det kongelige norske videnskabers selskab, Trondheim.
Espen Finstad, Julian Martinsen, Runar Hole og Lars Pilø (in prep) Prehistoric skis from glaciers and ice patches in Oppland, Norway.
Atle Nesje, Lars Holger Pilø, Espen Finstad, Brit Solli, Vivian Wangen, Rune Strand Ødegård, Ketil Isaksen, Eivind N. Støren, Dag Inge Bakke and Liss M Andreassen (2011, 2012): The climatic significance of artefacts related to prehistoric reindeer hunting exposed at melting ice patches in southern Norway. The Holocene 22(4):485-496.
Read more
The Reinheimen ski (Secrets of the ice)
Glaciers, ice patches and archaeology (Secrets of the ice)
Want to experience more?
The ski is currently on display at the Norwegian Mountain Center in Lom. Here you can get a closer look at how people moved across the ice and snow in prehistoric times. Many exciting and unique finds from the ice in Oppland are exhibited together with the ski from Reinheimen and the exhibition is a good starting point for a trip up to Juvfonne and the Climate Park 2469. Juvfonne is a place where much hunting equipment from the Iron Age have been found, and a tunnel has been dug deep into the ice there. A guided tour in this unique setting provides an insight into the story of climate and hunting in this open alpine landscape and into the depths of the ice.
Video
A reconstruction of the ski has been designed and tested, but how did they go skiing in prehistoric times? To learn more Norwegian archaeologists and skiers headed to the northwest of the Altai Mountains where there is a strong skiing tradition with roots far back in time.