Archaeologists Open Frozen Wooden Box Found on Viking Mountain Pass

Melting glacial trash along a mountain passageway in Norway has resulted in the uncovering of century of ancient artifact . One of these items , a wooden box with the lid still firmly in space , has ultimately been opened , expose its cherished contents .

Bits of beeswax . Yep , the wooden box was holding a plain old cd . Not amber , not jewellery , not a book of spells — just a beeswax taper .

Now , a standard candle might seem like an anti - climactic thing to get a line , and perhaps it is , but this artifact and its well - bear on box tell an interesting story notwithstanding — one have to do with annual treks made across a well - traveled mountain pass .

The wooden box found on the Lendbreen ice patch in Norway’s Breheimen National Park.

The wooden box found on the Lendbreen ice patch in Norway’s Breheimen National Park.Image: The Glacier Archaeology Program Innlandet

TheLendbreen crank temporary hookup , locate in Oppland Country , Norway , was first expose by glacial archaeologists in 2011 , and it is slowly but inexorably reveal a criminal record of utilisation that spans 1,200 years . Glacial methamphetamine has preserve organic aim made from Natalie Wood , leather , off-white , and wool , and global warming is now making them seeable to archaeologists . The variety of itemsfoundon this passageway is dumbfounding : thing like Viking spears , atunicmade from woolen , knight snowshoes , mitten , shoes , walking sticks , knives , dog leashes , and even the remnant of a dog .

And of course , the wooden box , describedon The Secrets of the Ice Facebook page as “ one of the most awesome finds we have find out from the melt ice . ” Archaeologists with the grouping , more formally lie with as the Glacier Archaeology Program in Innlandet , were funny to know the age of the box seat , the type of Sir Henry Joseph Wood used to make it , and of row , its payload .

Radiocarbon date places the box to between 1475 CE and 1635 CE . So at between 546 and 386 years old , it ’s actually not that ancient , and it postdates the Viking Age by at least 400 age . The corner itself was made from pine , and it held the remnants of a beeswax candle , as an analysis performed at the Museum of Cultural History in Oslo revealed .

The opened box, with its beeswax contents inside.

The opened box, with its beeswax contents inside.Image: The Glacier Archaeology Program Innlandet

“ Now we know that such candle boxes were used way back in time , ” the researchers explained . “ It also agree well with what we know about the nature of the dealings through the Lendbreen liberty chit . ”

Indeed , these box were used by farmers to channelise candles from their main farm to their summertime farm . Apostfrom the History Blog adds color to this pattern :

Candle boxes were commonly used in Norway to transport expensive beeswax candles between seasonal farms . This was a virtual face of the Norse practice session of seterbruk , or summer pasture farming . Fannie Merritt Farmer would move their farm animal from their base farm to summer pastures to graze . The summer farm had spartan life quarter where caretakers , normally just two people , a cattle bridge player and a Milk River maid , would remain for the whole time of year while they tended to the stock , milk the creature and score dairy products on site . This practice maximized the circumscribed imagination of a inhuman , forested and mountainous country , giving Fannie Merritt Farmer approach to larger grazing areas not available on the home farm and allowing them to reap hay and fodder to supply the farm during the long winter .

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So the candles were an important resource ! And the candle boxes held and protected these items during the journey . Once at their summertime farms , these candela provided the sole rootage of interior illumination at nighttime , as the farmer worked from other bounce until the fall . The Fannie Merritt Farmer likely packed as lightly as potential for the long trek across the batch pass , with the candle boxes hold an substantive particular .

Sure — the wooden box seat did n’t store any treasure by New standards . But its content , though a mundane household token , can hardly be called a dashing hopes . For archaeologist , there ’s nearly nothing from the yesteryear that can be characterized as a letdown .

More : Melting frosting exposes mountain qualifying used by Vikings , including ancient detent and leash .

Argentina’s President Javier Milei (left) and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., holding a chainsaw in a photo posted to Kennedy’s X account on May 27. 2025.