Stones in the snow: a Norse fur traders' road into Sami country

High in the mountains between Norway and Sweden, archaeological survey has brought to light a trail marked by standing stones at regular intervals and tall enough to show above the winter snows. In the absence of any cultural material, the erection of the stones was dated by the diameter of the lichen spreads upon them, and corroborated by a study of the documents and radiocarbon dates. The authors argue that this was not an indigenous trail but one constructed by a Norse chieftain probably around the ninth century AD to gain safe access to the fur-trading Sami.