‘Exceedingly rare’ ancient tools found under melting ice in Norway, researcher says

High in the mountains of Norway lies a narrow pass that was frequented by Vikings 1,000 years ago.

Now, amid the hottest summer on record, ice in the pass has melted, revealing rare artifacts that may have once belonged to the Norse warriors.

“We just made an incredible discovery on the south side of the Lendbreen pass: An iron horse bit, with parts of the leather bridle preserved,” Secrets of the Ice Glacier Archaeology Program said in a Sept. 7 news release on Facebook.

“We have never found anything like it on our ice sites,” Lars Holger Pilø, co-director of the program, told McClatchy News in an e-mail.

In a video posted by the group, the weathered and rusted items — once used to control horses — can be seen wedged between boulders.

“Finding the leather parts on the bridle, that’s exceedingly rare,” an archaeologist said in the video.

The findings could date to the Viking Age, which spanned from 800 to 1050, according to the National Museum of Denmark. Radiocarbon dating will be conducted to know for certain.

The Lendbreen pass was a well-trodden Viking thoroughfare that would have enabled long distance travel through difficult terrain, according to a 2020 study published in the journal Antiquity.

Over 100 stacks of rocks, known as cairns, have been found demarcating the route. And about 800 other Viking artifacts, including a knife, a shoe and a mitten, have also been located there, according to the study.

Several horse-related artifacts have been found, including horseshoes and horse bones, the study said.

“The Vikings used horses for farm work and for transportation,” Holger Pilø said. “Horses were an important part of Old Norse mythology, and were sometimes sacrificed and buried along with the dead. They weren’t really used a cavalry – the Vikings fought on foot.”

Vikings may have introduced ambling horses — animals prized for their comfortable gaits — to the rest of Europe, according to a 2016 study published in the journal Current Biology.

This story was originally published September 8, 2023 at 5:57 PM with the headline "‘Exceedingly rare’ ancient tools found under melting ice in Norway, researcher says."