Mountain passes were of great importance thousands of years ago as trade and travel routes across mountains. Archaeologists have now used rich finds to identify a passport in Norway, which was an important link, particularly in the Viking Age, for raising livestock and transporting agricultural goods. It is the first site to prove the existence of such a pass route in Northern Europe.
At least since the discovery of the Ötzi glacier mummy, it has been clear which archaeological treasures can be hidden in the ice fields and glaciers of the mountains. Surrounded by ice, even fragile relics can survive the millennia without decay. In recent years, archeologists have also been helped by climate change: the receding glaciers are uncovering new areas and often historical relics.
Horseshoes, sled remains and a Roman tunic
This is exactly the case with the Lendbreen, a mountain glacier in Central Norway. Because of the warming climate, a larger ice surface is only preserved on a slope north of the summit. It has lost considerable size in the past decades. “The melt has exposed fresh, lichen-free areas of rubble and rock, where numerous artifacts have been discovered, most of which are exposed,” says Lars Pilø from the Norwegian Ministry of Heritage and his colleagues. “These incredibly well-preserved finds from organic materials have great historical value.”
Specifically, the receding ice has so far revealed around 800 archaeological artifacts, around 150 bones and antlers, more than 100 piles of stones stacked up and the foundations of a stone shelter, the researchers report. Among the finds are typical travel utensils such as horseshoes, remains of sleds and a walking stick with rune inscription. The archaeologists also found everyday objects on the Lendbreen, among them a Roman tunic, a glove and shoes from the Viking Age and a knife with a wooden handle. According to the dates, the oldest finds from the Roman Iron Age date from the turn of the year to 400, the most recent artifacts were deposited in the late Middle Ages.
A mountain pass for the Vikings
But the archaeological finds are not only valuable in themselves, they also provide valuable information about who hiked over this mountain pass and when. “It is now clear that the Lendbreen has been a key point for regional hikes and possibly long-distance travel since Roman times,” stated Pilø and his team. Because, as you explain, the route over this mountain pass was a shortcut if you wanted to get from the fertile valley of the Otta river to higher pastures. It is known from historical records and finds that farmers in the Otta Valley drove their herds of cattle on high pastures beyond this mountain ridge in summer, as the archaeologists explain.
Conversely, this route offered the opportunity to transport meat, cheese, skins, antlers and other animal products from the high pastures to the river and then further downstream to ports. From the dating and type of the finds, Pilø and his colleagues conclude that this use of the mountain pass peaked, especially in the Viking Age. “The start of the pass crossings around 300 AD marks the time when local settlement increased,” reports co-author James Barrett from the University of Cambridge. Around AD 1000 then the traffic on the mountain pass increased significantly. “This is certainly not a coincidence, because this was a time of increased mobility, political centralization, increasing trade and urbanization in Northern Europe,” says Barrett.
With the flourishing of trade in the Viking Age, the demand for agricultural products in the metropolitan areas and trade centers also increased – and these had to be brought in from the remote rural areas. “Mountain passes like this were the arteries of this transport and connected the mountain regions to the larger trade networks,” said Barrett. In this regard, the function of the Lendbreen Pass is comparable to that of many mountain passes in the Alps. However, the Norwegian passport is the first one for which archaeological finds clearly demonstrate early use. The Lendbreen mountain pass was only forgotten in the 16th century. “The decline of the Lendbreen Pass was probably caused by a combination of economic change, climate change and the population decimated by the epidemics of the late Middle Ages,” says Pilø.
Source: University of Cambridge; Specialist article: Antiquity, doi: 10.15184 / aqy.2020.2