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The reindeer move up to extreme heights during the summer to cool down and avoid pestering insects. The ice patches are well suited for this purpose, and this was known by hunters in the past. They were waiting behind hunting blinds at the ice pacthes. Remains from the old hunts are now melting out of the ice – fantastic finds, arrows, scaring sticks, spades etc. The most spectacular find so far is the oldest shoe of Norway – 3400 years old.
The Juvfonna ice patch in the Klimapark area was used as a reindeer hunting ground in the Iron Age, more than 1000 years ago. Extensive archaeological fieldwork was conducted at the ice patch in August 2010. More than 50 hunting blinds were found and hundreds of artefacs were recovered.
Radiocarbon dating show that hunting took place at the ice patch in the first millennium AD. Completely new knowledge of man use of the high mountains is being obtained. The material is also of importance to climate researchers, who can use the archaeological remains to reconstruct the size of the ice patches in earlier times.
The reindeer in Jotunheimen today are domesticated, but they still visit the Juvfonna ice patch during the summer, like the reindeer did 1600 years ago – when the hunter were lying in wait in great anticipation.
Sist oppdatert: 08.06.2010
Publisert: 08.06.2010