Climate Change Reveals Ancient Artifacts in Norway's Glacier Reading Answers

Nov 18, 2025

The answers for "Climate Change Reveals Ancient Artifacts in Norway's Glacier Reading Answers" include 13 questions and are part of the assessment framework for the IELTS General Reading test. Candidates are allotted 20 minutes to complete the reading responses concerning "Climate Change Reveals Ancient Artifacts in Norway's Glacier Reading Answers." This portion of the IELTS reading exam consists of different question formats, such as Choose two letters, write the correct number, and choose one word only.

The answers for "Climate Change Reveals Ancient Artifacts in Norway's Glacier Reading Answers" offer a comprehensive overview of the Ancient artifacts preserved in Norway’s melting ice fields, which are revealing insights into hunting, trade routes, and human activity from the Stone Age through the Viking Age, despite the challenges posed by rapid climate-driven thawing. Archaeologists are racing to recover these fragile items, which show that people used high-mountain passes even in harsh cold periods and that more discoveries may still lie frozen in the ice. For additional practice with similar reading assessments, candidates can refer to the IELTS Reading Practice Test section.

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Climate Change Reveals Ancient Artifacts in Norway's Glacier Reading Answers

A.Well above the treeline in Norway's highest mountains, ancient fields of ice are shrinking as Earth's climate warms. As the ice has vanished, it has been giving up the treasures it has preserved in cold storage for the last 6,000 years - items such as ancient arrows and skis from Viking Age 'raiders'. And those artefacts have provided archaeologists with some surprising insights into how ancient Norwegians made their things.

B.Organic materials like textiles and hides are relatively rare finds at archaeological sites. This is because unless they are waterlogged or dried, these materials decay rapidly. The only way to last long, Extreme cold is one reliable way to keep artefacts relatively fresh for a few thousand years, but once thawed out, these materials experience degradation relatively swiftly. With climate change shrinking ice cover around the world, glacial archaeologists need to race the clock to find newly revealed artefacts, preserve them, and study them. If something fragile dries and is windblown it might very soon be lost to science, or an arrow might be exposed and then covered again by the next snow and remain well-preserved. The unpredictability means that glacial archaeologists have to be systematic in their approach to fieldwork.

C.Over a nine-year period, a team of archaeologists, which included Lars Pilø of Oppland County Council, Norway, and James Barrett of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, surveyed patches of ice in Oppland, an area of Norway that is currently home to Europe's only colony of wild reindeer. These patches of ice are typically found in mountain passes in the late summer months to escape biting insects, and from the late Stone Age '** onwards, hunters in addition to trade routes threaded through the mountain passes of Oppland, linking settlements in Norway to the rest of Europe. The slow but steady movement of glaciers tends to destroy anything at their bases, so the team focused on stationary patches of ice, mostly above 1,400 metres. That ice is found amid fields of frost-weathered boulders, talus rocks, and exposed bedrock, that for nine months of the year is buried beneath snow. Fieldwork is hard work - hiking with all our equipment, often camping on permafrost - but very rewarding. You're rescuing the archaeology, bringing the melting ice to wider attention, reconnecting a unique environmental history and really connecting with the natural environment, says Barrett.

D.From some of the artefacts the team has examined, archaeologists can date the first occupation of the area as a trade route associated with hunting. Hunters would have easily misplaced arrows and they often discarded broken bows rather than take them all the way home. Other items could have been used by hunters traversing the high mountain passes of Oppland: all-purpose items like tools, skis, and horse tack.

E.Barrett's team radiocarbon-dated 153 of the artefacts and compared those dates to the timing of major environmental changes in the region - such as periods of cooling or warming - and major social and economic shifts - such as the growth of farming settlements and the spread of international trade networks leading up to the Viking Age. They found that some periods saw quite a lot of ice-related activity, but that others have been pretty inactive in the mountains during those years. But there were few or no signs of activity during other periods.

F.What was surprising, according to Barrett, was the timing of these periods. Oppland's mountains present daunting terrain and in periods of extreme cold, glaciers could block the higher mountain passes and make travel in the upper reaches of the mountains extremely difficult. Archaeologists assumed people would stick to lower elevations during a time like the Late Antique Little Ice Age, a short period of deeper-than-usual cold from about 500-600 CE. But it turned out that hunters kept regularly venturing into the mountains even when the climate turned cold, based on the amount of stuff they had apparently dropped there. Remarkably, though, the finds from the ice may have continued through this period, perhaps suggesting that the landscape and mounds of buried artefacts supported this high-altitude hunting in times of low temperatures, says Barrett. A colder turn in the Scandinavian climate would likely have meant widespread crop failures so many people would have depended on hunting to make up for those losses.

G.Many of the artefacts Barrett's team recovered date from the beginning of the Viking Age, the 700s through to the 900s CE. Trade networks connecting Scandinavia with Europe and the Middle East were expanding around this time. Although we usually think of ships when we think of Scandinavian expansion, these were recent discoveries with plenty of goods travelled overland on routes, like the mountain passes of Oppland. And growing Norwegian towns, along with export markets, would have created a booming demand for hides to fight off the cold, as well as reindeer patches.

H.Norway's mountains are probably still hiding a lot of history - and prehistory - in remote ice patches. When Barrett's team looked at the dates for their sample of 153 artefacts, they noticed a gap with almost no artefacts from about 3,800 to 2,200 BCE. In fact, archaeological finds from that period are rare all over Norway. The researchers say that could be because many of those artefacts have already disintegrated or are still frozen in the íce. That means archaeologists could be extracting some of those artefacts from retreating ice in years to come.

Questions 14 - 19

Which section contains the following information?

Write the correct number, A-H, in boxes 14-19 on your answer sheet.

14. an explanation for weapons being left behind in the mountains

Answer: D

Supporting statement: “Hunters would have easily misplaced arrows and they often discarded broken bows rather than take them all the way home.”

Keywords: misplaced arrows, discarded bows

Keyword Location: Paragraph D, Lines 1–2

Explanation: The text explains why weapons (arrows, bows) were left behind — hunters lost or discarded them.

15. a reference to the physical difficulties involved in an archaeological expedition

Answer: C

Supporting statement: “Fieldwork is hard work – hiking with all our equipment, often camping on permafrost…”

Keywords: hard work, hiking with equipment, camping on permafrost

Keyword Location: Paragraph C, Lines 9–10

Explanation: This clearly describes the physical challenges the archaeologists faced.

16. an explanation of why less food may have been available

Answer: F

Supporting statement: “A colder turn… would likely have meant widespread crop failures so many people depended on hunting…”

Keywords: colder turn, crop failures

Keyword Location: Paragraph F, Lines 6–7

Explanation: The statement explains that colder climate caused crop failures, causing food shortages.

17. a reference to the possibility of future archaeological discoveries

Answer: H

Supporting statement: “This could be because many artefacts… are still frozen in the ice… archaeologists could be extracting some… in years to come.”

Keywords: still frozen, years to come

Keyword Location: Paragraph H, Lines 5–7

Explanation: The text mentions that future discoveries are possible as ice continues to melt.

18. examples of items that would have been traded

Answer: G

Supporting statement: “Trade networks… expanding… demand for hides, reindeer patches, and goods travelled overland…”

Keywords: hides, reindeer patches, goods

Keyword Location: Paragraph G, Lines 4–7

Explanation: These items are examples of what was traded during the Viking Age.

19. a reference to the pressure archaeologists are under to work quickly

Answer: B

Supporting statement: “Glacial archaeologists need to race the clock to find newly revealed artefacts… before they degrade.”

Keyword Location:Keywords: race the clock, degrade

Paragraph B, Lines 3–5

Explanation: Archaeologists must work quickly due to rapid degradation of artefacts.

Questions 20 - 22

Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 20-22 on your answer sheet.

Interesting finds at an archaeological site

Organic materials such as animal skins and textiles are not discovered very often at archaeological sites. They have little protection against 20 ................. ,

Answer: decay

Supporting statement: “Organic materials… are relatively rare… they decay rapidly unless waterlogged or dried.”

Keywords: decay rapidly

Keyword Location: Paragraph B, Lines 1–3

Explanation: The missing word describes what they have little protection against.

which means that they decay relatively quickly. But this is not always the case. If temperatures are low enough, fragile artefacts can be preserved for thousands of years.

A team of archaeologists have been working in the mountains in Oppland in Norway to recover artefacts revealed by shrinking ice cover. In the past, there were trade routes through these mountains and 21 .................

Answer: reindeer

Supporting statement: “Europe’s only colony of wild reindeer… gathered there in late summer…”

Keywords: wild reindeer

Keyword Location: Paragraph C, Lines 2–5

Explanation: Reindeer gathered in the mountains to escape lower-ground dangers.

gathered there in the summer months to avoid being attacked by 22 .................

Answer: insects

Supporting statement: “...mountain passes… to escape biting insects.”

Keywords: biting insects

Keyword Location: Paragraph C, Lines 3–4

Explanation: Reindeer moved to higher ground to avoid insect attacks.

on lower ground. The people who used these mountains left things behind and it is those objects that are of interest to archaeologists.

Questions 23 and 24

Choose TWO letters, A-E.

Which TWO of the following statements does the writer make about the discoveries of Barrett's team?

A. Artefacts found in the higher mountain passes were limited to skiing equipment.

B. Hunters went into the mountains even during periods of extreme cold.

C. The number of artefacts from certain time periods was relatively low.

D. Radiocarbon dating of artefacts produced some unreliable results.

E. More artefacts were found in Oppland than at any other mountain site.

23. Answer: B

Supporting statement: “Hunters kept regularly venturing into the mountains even when the climate turned cold.”

Keywords: climate turned cold, hunters continued

Keyword Location: Paragraph F, Lines 2–4

Explanation: The text states hunters still used the mountains during extreme cold.

24. Answer: C

Supporting statement: “Some periods saw a lot of activity… others pretty inactive… few or no signs of activity.”

Keywords: few signs, inactive periods

Keyword Location: Paragraph E, Lines 4–6

Explanation: Activity varied across periods, showing low artefact numbers in some eras.

Questions 25 and 26

Choose TWO letters, A-E.

Which TWO of the following statements does the writer make about the Viking Age?

A. Hunters at this time benefited from an increased demand for goods.

B. The beginning of the period saw the greatest growth in the wealth of Vikings.

C. Vikings did not rely on ships alone to transport goods.

D. Norwegian towns at this time attracted traders from around the world.

E. Vikings were primarily interested in their trading links with the Middle East.

25. Answer: A

Supporting statement: “Growing towns… created booming demand for hides… hunters benefited.”

Keywords: booming demand, hides

Keyword Location: Paragraph G, Lines 6–8

Explanation: Increased demand provided more economic opportunities for hunters.

26. Answer: C

Supporting statement: “Goods travelled overland on routes like the mountain passes of Oppland.”

Keywords: travelled overland

Keyword Location: Paragraph G, Lines 3–5

Explanation: This shows that Vikings used land routes, not only ships, for transport.

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