Archaeologists have found a remote mountain shelter used by travelers during the Viking Age.
The team identified the rock cabin along an ancient transport route across the Hardanger Plateau, a mountain plateau in central southern Norway, ScienceNorway reported.
The historic transport route, known as the Nordmannslepa, was long used to move goods and animals between eastern and western Norway.
In this mountainous landscape, weather conditions are harsh, making it difficult for ancient travelers to find shelter. As a result, people in ancient times constructed stone huts at suitable distances so that travelers could seek shelter and rest after a long day's journey.
In the early 19th century, scientist Christopher Hansteen came across such a stone cabin while traversing a part of the Nordmannslepa, as described in a travelogue, noting that the roof of the deserted shelter had fallen.
This summer, a small group of archaeologists with the Museum of Cultural History in Oslo, Norway, visited the site where Hansteen had documented the shelter in an attempt to locate it.
After a difficult search, they managed to find it on a slope. The team also discovered an even older hut that appears to have been used during the Viking Age.
This suggests the artifacts date to the Viking Age, a period in medieval history between roughly the late 8th and 11th centuries when the Vikings—a Scandinavian seafaring people—raided, colonized and traded widely across Europe and beyond.
The archaeologists decided to excavate the cabin and made several finds. The cabin features two rooms—a small one by the entrance where objects might have been stored and a slightly larger main room with a large fireplace in the middle, ScienceNorway reported.
Inside, the team found various burned wood remains, which were used to fuel the fire. The team also found the remains of animal bones, including those of birds, fish and reindeer, providing evidence of what the travelers were eating.
A thick layer of soot and animal bones indicates that people repeatedly threw their food leftovers directly onto the fire.
Among the other finds was an object known as a fire steel, which was used to light the fire by striking it with a piece of flint. Another intriguing find was a pair of arrowheads, which possibly belonged to a hunter.
Do you have a tip on a science story that Newsweek should be covering? Do you have a question about archaeology? Let us know via science@newsweek.com.
Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.
