Remains of Iron Age Horse Recovered From Glacier

OPPLAND, NORWAY—Melting glacier ice in Norway’s high mountains has revealed the remains of a horse dating to the Iron Age. “It shows that they were using horses for transport in the high alpine zone, in areas where we were quite surprised to find them” said Lars Pilø, head of snow archaeology at Oppland Council. He thinks the horse may have been used by hunters to carry reindeer carcasses off the mountains. “When it gets hot in the summer, the reindeer will get pestered by horseflies, and when they get horseflies they move up to the ice, which made the ice excellent hunting grounds,” he added. Archaeologists have also found horse shoes and manure in the ice.