Rescuing the Dead: The Frozen Coffins of Svalbard

Many have died on the Arctic islands of Svalbard, and climate change has started to thaw their bodies. Source: Auguste Étienne François Mayer / Public Domain.

Lonely, wild, frozen and isolated, Svalbard is, no doubt, one of the most remote places on Earth to visit. One of the more dangerous, too, with Norwegian authority over the islands being at most notional.

In truth, its isolation made it always so. In fact, for the early whalers from Europe, death was a common guest for them. There you will find hundreds of burial grounds that can prove that the slightest mistake can be fatal, and the place has a climate where bad luck or minor ignorance can lead to death.

That’s why Willem Barentsz, the person who discovered the islands in 1596, didn’t survive the challenge. Defeated by the harsh environment, he died after the ship on which he was returning home got trapped in Novaya Zemlya, in archipelago in Russia’s far north that is still well to the south of Svalbard.

The entire crew was forced to spend the whole winter in Novaya Zemlya, and many of them including Barentsz. However, the tragic ending of the crew didn’t stop news of the discovery of Svalbard from spreading like wildfire across Europe.

Harsh and remote settings on Svalbard have made survival a challenge ever since, but recent discoveries have proved that Mother Nature can sometimes take good care of the dead once they are buried.