Archaeologists discover 1,500-year-old reindeer trap and other artifacts ‘melting out of the ice’ in Norway’s mountains– www.livescience.com

High up in the icy mountains of Norway, archaeologists have discovered a unique 1,500-year-old reindeer trap, alongside several mysterious wooden objects, including a decorated boat oar that seems out of place 4,600 feet (1,400 meters) above sea level.

“These are items we would never find in ordinary excavations, including a pine oar and a clothing pin made of antler,” Leif Inge Åstveit, an archaeologist at the University Museum of Bergen, said in a statement from the Vestland County Municipality. “The pin is shaped like a miniature axe — truly exceptional finds.”

Archaeologists have been excavating in the mountainous Aurlandsfjellet area of western Norway since August. They discovered hundreds of tree branches piled into two wooden barriers that likely functioned as a kind of hunting blind or trap.