Why are Norwegians fast skiing and shooting straight? Who is he like Ole Einar Bjoerndalen – multiple biathlon world champion? In their ancient ancestors.
The fact that skis appeared in Norway in ancient times is demonstrated by finds, namely skis that were found under the ice on Mount Digervarden, located in the south of the northern country. The ice melted there in the process of global warming and revealed artifacts – lost by someone.
One ski was unearthed by Norwegian archaeologists involved in a project called the Secrets of Ice program back in 2014. 7 years later, when the ice melted even more, they returned to the same place, hoping to find a second ski. And they found it – September 26, 2021. Now they have a couple.
The skis are not exactly the same – one is 187 centimeters long and 17 centimeters wide, the other is 17 centimeters shorter and 2 centimeters narrower. But archaeologists, led by Lars Holger Pilo, believe that they belonged to the same person – a deer hunter – in a sense, a biathlete. He skied and fired, though not with a rifle, but with a bow.
Skis – one model, so to speak. And their size is not so important – how it turned out. Manual work.
The ski mounts are preserved – leather straps. One is torn. Scientists have determined the age of the find at 1300 years. This is the Iron Age, the Viking Age.
In those days, skis cost a lot. They didn't just throw them away. What happened then? Lars Pilo and his colleagues asked this question. But they did not come to a consensus. Like, anything could happen. I could break my leg. Could have been hit by an avalanche. And freeze. Archaeologists do not exclude that the body of the ancient “biathlete” is located somewhere not far from the place where the skis were found. They are going to look for it next year, when the ice cover on the mountain will melt even more, global warming continues. In any case, the likelihood that one of the ancient ancestors of Björndalin or another Norwegian biathlete was skiing on those skis is very high.
