融化的冰揭示了失落的维京公路的秘密

融化的冰揭示了失落的维京公路的秘密

Vikings may have captured our imagination with their larger-than-life exploits, but it's easy to forget they were also a practical people. They built sensible settlements, engaged in trade and only occasionally indulged in psychoactive drugs before battle.

维京人的传奇壮举也许曾抓住了我们的想象力，但人们很容易忘记他们也是务实的人。他们建立了合理的定居点，从事贸易，在战争前只是偶尔沉迷于精神药物。

They also traveled, sometimes in iconic langskips, sometimes by road.

他们也旅行，有时在标志性的朗斯基普，有时走公路。

Researchers survey the edge of the melting ice in the pass area at Lendbreen. (Photo: Johan Wildhagen, Palookaville.)

Back in 2011, archaeologists first discovered a lost highway littered with Viking artifacts — sleds, horseshoes, walking sticks, a 1,700-year old sweater and heap after heap of fossilized horse dung.

早在2011年，考古学家首次发现了一条遗失的公路，路上散落着维京人的手工艺品——雪橇、马蹄铁、手杖、一件有1700年历史的毛衣，还有一堆又一堆的马粪化石。

But now archaeologists have discovered so much more. They've published new research describing hundreds of items that have since been found along the mountain pass: mittens, shoes, parts of sleds, bones from packhorses.

但现在考古学家发现了更多。他们发表了一项新的研究，描述了数百件在山口发现的物品:手套、鞋子、雪橇的部分、驮马的骨头。

This mitten made from different pieces of woven fabric was found in the pass area at Lendbreen. It's radiocarbon-dated to the 9th century. (Photo: Johan Wildhagen, Palookaville)

It likely would have remained hidden forever had the ice not rapidly begun melting, revealing all that roadside Viking litter.

如果不是冰开始迅速融化，它可能会永远隐藏起来，露出路边维京人的垃圾。

It paints a picture of a well-trodden highway that skirted the Lomseggen mountain ridge, connecting travelers to trading hubs at higher altitudes — and those all-important summer pastures.

它描绘了一幅沿着隆塞根山脊的人迹斑斑的高速公路的画面，这条公路将旅客与海拔较高的贸易中心以及那些至关重要的夏季牧场连接起来。

The highway wends its way over the Lendbreen ice patch in Norway's Jotunheim Mountains, about 200 miles north of Oslo.

这条高速公路穿过挪威约坦海姆山脉的伦德布林冰原，距离奥斯陆大约200英里。

A small iron knife with a birchwood handle was found just below the pass area at Lendbreen. It has been radiocarbon-dated to the 11th century. (Photo: Espen Finstad/secretsoftheice.com)

"The pass was at its busiest during the Viking Age around 1000 A.D., a time of high mobility and growing trade across Scandinavia and Europe," study co-author James Barrett, an archaeologist at the University of Cambridge, tells Smithsonian magazine. "This remarkable peak in use shows just how connected even a very remote location was to wider economic and demographic happenings."

在公元1000年左右的维京时代，这条通道最繁忙研究报告的合著者、剑桥大学的考古学家詹姆斯·巴雷特在接受《史密森尼杂志》采访时表示:“这是一个横跨斯堪的纳维亚半岛和欧洲的高度流动性和贸易增长的时代。这一惊人的使用高峰表明，即使是一个非常偏远的地方，也与更广泛的经济和人口事件有多么紧密的联系。”

Researcher Elling Utvik Wammer holds a skull from an unlucky packhorse that did not make it across the ice. The skull was radiocarbon-dated to c.1700, making it the earliest-dated find from the pass. (Photo: Espen Finstad/secretsoftheice.com)

Today, it's essentially a highway to nowhere. The Lendbreen ice patch towers over the tree line, only accessible by helicopter. But that too may be changing, as a warming climate melts away the once impenetrable shield.

今天，它基本上是一条通向任何地方的高速公路。伦德布林冰原高耸在林木线之上，只有直升机才能到达。但随着气候变暖，这个曾经坚不可摧的屏障逐渐融化，情况也可能发生变化。

A road 'lost to memory'

迷失在记忆中的路

Using radiocarbon dating, researchers peg the highway's origins to about the year 300. At the time, heavy snow cover would have padded the sharp rocks underfoot, they note. Trading posts likely sprang up along the nearby Otta River. The road likely thrived for many more centuries.

利用放射性碳年代测定法，研究人员将这条公路的起源确定为大约300年。他们注意到，当时，厚厚的积雪覆盖着脚下尖锐的岩石。附近的奥塔河沿岸可能出现了许多贸易站。这条路可能繁荣了许多世纪。

"The decline of the Lendbreen pass was probably caused by a combination of economic changes, climate change and late medieval pandemics, including the Black Death," study co-author Lars Pilø explains in a press statement. "When the local area recovered, things had changed, and the Lendbreen pass was lost to memory."

伦德布林山口的衰落可能是由经济变化、气候变化和中世纪晚期包括黑死病在内的流行病共同造成的。研究的合著者Lars Pilø在一份媒体声明中解释说。“当该地恢复后，一切都变了，伦布林山口也消失在记忆中了。”

A beautifully preserved horseshoe that melted out of the ice in the lower part of Lendbreen in 2018. The shape dates it to the 11th to the mid-13th century. A small part of the hoof was still attached to the other side of the shoe. (Photo: Espen Finstad/secretsoftheice.com)

At some point, the highway may have been consumed by ice and snow, an event that was likely pivotal in preserving those artifacts.

在某一时刻，高速公路可能已经被冰雪吞噬，这一事件可能是保护这些文物的关键。

"The preservation of the objects emerging from the ice is just stunning," study co-author Espen Finstad of the Glacier Archaeology program, tells Heritage Daily. "It is like they were lost a short time ago, not centuries or millennia ago."

“冰川考古项目的研究合著者埃斯彭·芬斯塔德在接受《遗产日报》采访时表示:“冰川出土文物的保存令人震惊。这就好像它们是在很短的时间前丢失的，而不是几百年前或几千年前。”

The upper part of the Lendbreen ice patch after the big melt in 2019. The surface of the ice is covered with horse dung. (Photo: Espen Finstad/secretsoftheice.com)

For archaeologists, the Lendbreen ice patch seems like a gift from the ancient past. But it's alarming that it's unwrapping itself so rapidly.

对考古学家来说，伦德布林冰原似乎是来自远古时代的礼物。但令人担忧的是，它正在如此迅速地展开。

"Global warming is leading to the melting of mountain ice worldwide, and the finds melting out of the ice are a result of this," Pilø tells Gizmodo. "Trying to save the remains of a melting world is a very exciting job — the finds are just an archaeologist's dream — but at the same time, it is also a job you cannot do without a deep sense of foreboding."

“全球变暖导致全球山地冰川的融化,和发现融化的冰是一个结果,“Pilø告诉Gizmodo。“试图拯救一个正在融化的世界的遗迹是一项非常令人兴奋的工作——这些发现只是考古学家的梦想——但与此同时，这也是一项如果没有深刻的预感就无法完成的工作。”