In an Exciting but ‘Brutal’ Find, a 5,000-Year-Old Arrow Emerges From Norway’s Rapidly Melting Mountain Ice

Archaeologists discovered 48 prehistoric arrows during a recent three-week expedition in the mountains of Jotunheimen

Sarah Kuta | Daily Correspondent

October 1, 2026 10:39 a.m.

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Archaeologists have recovered 48 prehistoric arrows from melting ice in Norway, including one that’s estimated to be 5,000 to 6,000 years old. 

Researchers made the discoveries during a recent three-week expedition in Jotunheimen, a mountainous region in southern Norway about 200 miles from Oslo. 

For the past 20 years, they’ve been conducting excavations in the region as part of Secrets of the Ice, the largest glacial archaeology program in the world. 

So far, the team has recovered more than 5,000 artifacts from 73 archaeological sites, from reindeer-hunting equipment and the remains of packhorses to clothing and other objects from everyday life. The project, which is a collaboration between the Innlandet County Council and Oslo’s Museum of Cultural History, has also uncovered a 3,400-year-old leather shoe and the world’s oldest intact pair of wooden skis. 

Left exposed to the elements, organic materials typically break down. However, “ice pauses the process of decay,” Anna Fiorentino wrote in May for Smithsonian magazine. “By keeping organic material, such as wood and textiles, at a consistent, low temperature without oxygen, it slows microbial activity that could otherwise decompose the items in months.” 

When Secrets of the Ice archaeologists first started excavating back in 2006, they unearthed relatively recent artifacts, most of which dated back less than 2,000 years. 

Now, however, the “picture has changed dramatically,” the researchers write in a recent update. As more of the glaciers and adjacent ice patches melt because of human-caused climate change, much older objects are starting to emerge.

“The melting has been extensive,” they write. “In many places, ice that has survived for thousands of years is now beginning to disappear completely. And this is where we see the connection: The oldest ice contains the oldest finds.” 

This summer, researchers focused on ice patches next to the Langfonne, Storfonne and Handklefonne glaciers in the Kvitingskjølen mountain area. The oldest find is an arrowhead made of fine slate, along with two parts of its shaft, that archaeologists think is 5,000 to 6,000 years old. They also found a 3,600-year-old complete arrow with a wooden shaft and an arrowhead made from a freshwater mussel shell. Several other discovered arrowheads are made of bone, while one is made of iron. 

The revelations are exciting. But they’re also a painful reminder of how much the world is changing.

“We have always acknowledged this contradiction and the reality behind our work,” Espen Finstad, a glacial archaeologist who leads the Secrets of the Ice project, tells Science Norway’s Ida Irene Bergstrøm. “But this is the first time it has truly affected us on an emotional level. This year, there was a much deeper sense of seriousness and sadness ... It’s brutal. And this year, that reality struck us more forcefully than ever before.” 

The researchers hope to continue their excavations before winter fully sets in. But, in the meantime, they’re securing, documenting and preparing their latest finds. 

For now, the artifacts are being housed at the Norwegian Mountain Center, in Lom, where some are being exhibited in a special refrigerated display case. In December, they’ll be taken to the Museum of Cultural History for further processing and conservation. 

Longer-term, researchers are feeling pessimistic about the future of Jotunheimen’s glaciers. Based on what they have witnessed over the past two decades, they suspect that the ice at many of the archaeological sites will completely disappear within the next 20 years. 

“There has been ice here for 6,000-7,000 years,” Finstad tells Science Norway. “Nature has been warning us and sending signals for many years. But now it’s giving up. Now it is simply going to melt.” 

Sarah Kuta is a writer and editor based in Longmont, Colorado. She covers history, science, travel, food and beverage, sustainability, economics and other topics.