Archaeologists Unearth ‘Rare’ 5,000-Year-Old Arrowheads in ‘Rapidly’ Melting Ancient Norwegian Ice

Researchers at the Glacier Archaeology Program have recovered 48 prehistoric arrows from melting mountain ice in Jotunheimen, Norway

Tabitha Parent
Tue, September 29, 2026 



An ancient slate arrowhead, dating to approximately 5,000 years ago, was discovered in melting ice in Norway.

Credit: Ã…sa Rommetveit Celius, Innlandet County Municipality, Secrets of the Ice.

NEED TO KNOW

Researchers found Stone Age arrowheads during a three-week expedition in Norway's Jotunheimen mountains


The Glacier Archaeology Program has recovered more than 5,000 artifacts from 73 ice sites since 2006


Melting ice is revealing increasingly older ancient hunting gear, clothing and travel objects once preserved for millennia

After spending three "intense weeks" in the mountains of Jotunheimen in Innlandet, Norway, members of the Glacier Archaeology Program are reporting their most dramatic findings.

In a post on the Secrets of the Ice website, researcher Espen Finstad recapped some of the crew's most recent ancient archaeological finds from their exploration of the Kvitingskjølen mountain area at Langfonne, Storfonne and Hadklefonne.

"For thousands of years, ancient ice has safely preserved unique objects from the past," Finstad wrote. "Now that ice is disappearing."

A 5,000 to 6,000 year-old arrow with its wooden shaft and bindings.
Credit: Åsa Rommetveit Celius, Innlandet County Municipality, Secrets of the Ice.

With the "rapidly" disappearing ice, Glacier Archaeology Program researchers have been able to uncover increasingly older and older artifacts from the sites in Innlandet, including many from the Stone and Bronze Ages, as older and older layers of ice disappear.

Finstad added that, when the program (a collaborative initiative between the Innlandet County Council and the Museum of Cultural History in Oslo, Norway) first began its work 20 years ago in 2006, most of the artifacts being discovered were less than 2,000 years old. Many of the items were dated to the Viking Age, and finding anything older than 2,000 years was considered quite rare.

"Now the picture has changed dramatically," wrote Finstad. "Increasingly, the [artifacts] melting out of the ice are more than 2,000 years old. Many date to the Stone Age and Bronze Age. The oldest are more than 6,000 years old."

Images posted to the site show different ancient artifacts uncovered by the archaeologists.

Since the work began in the region, the group has recorded 73 archaeological sites and recovered more than 5,000 artifacts from the ice, including everything from arrows, bows and other hunting equipment.

Archaeologist Espen Finstad hold a prehistoric arrow recovered from melting mountain ice in Norway.
Credit: Espen Finstad, Innlandet County Municipality, Secrets of The Ice.

Evidence that ancient people hunted reindeer appears in some of the more recent findings, along with other clothing, shoes, packhorses and common items of the age.

"We expect to see more of the same in the years ahead," added Finstad. "Based on what we have observed over the past two decades, the ice on many of the archaeological ice sites we have been studying may be completely gone within 20 years."

Finstad also spoke to the limited window of opportunity that their research resides within. "Every field season matters, as the objects decay fast once they emerge of the retreating ice."

He added: "We have been at the edge of the ice. We have seen it happening. And we are witnesses to a rapidly changing archaeological landscape."

Read the original article on People