MURMANTSA BAY /Novaya Zemlya/, July 7. /TASS/. Scientists during the Arctic Floating University’s voyage for the first time described a hunting camp in Murmantsa Bay, the Kara side of the Severny Island, the Novaya Zemlya Archipelago, a TASS correspondent onboard the Professor Molchanov RSV reported. According to the Russian Arctic National Park’s head of the historical department, Yevgeny Yermolov, scientists will make for that camp the passport of a cultural heritage object.
"We have registered it as a historical and cultural heritage object," he said. "The process now is much easier. With available satellite images we do not have to draw layouts."
"We make pictures: a general view, detailed images, and all the rest will be done on the mainland. <…> It is for the first time that the national park’s specialists examine Murmantsa Bay, for the first time the park’s specialists have gone ashore here, and for the first time they have registered this object," he added.
The national park’s experts have seen on satellite images a building in Murmantsa Bay not far from the coastline, but they could not understand its conditions. Finally, they have managed to go ashore this hard-to-reach territory. "It is a hunting camp of the Pomors," the historian said. "Here, they used to hunt various animals, mostly belugas." The experts have found at the camp nets with large cells, he added.
The Pomors' camp and a unique artefact
The buildings appeared in Murmantsa Bay in the 1930s. Nearby was a walrus rookery, and a large bird colony, and belugas used to come there. At some maps, the location is marked as Kolosov’s lodge - it was named after a hunter who worked there. His name was mentioned in the Arctic Issues magazine in March, 1953. The article was about an expedition there under the Polar Geo-Physical Year, marked in 1932-1933.
According to the historian, the described shield house was built in the 1930s. Most probably, there lived the hunter’s family, who helped him in hunting animals and other Arctic biological resources. This version is confirmed by remains of boats and other watercraft found in the bay. "There is such a mixture of technologies. We’ve found one keel, a stem, bow and stern ends, many fragments of the sides, even a so-called anchor beam - the side’s uppermost part. We’ve found many fragments of frames. <...> The frames are very archaic, while the cladding is modern, up-to-date. This suggests new emerging technologies, where it’s possible to make thin reliable boards in order to lighten the ship. And at the same time the ship’s frame, the main part of it, is still archaic, because they were afraid to experiment, probably because a watercraft is a responsible thing," he said.
The boats must have been built on the Novaya Zemlya in the 1930s or even earlier, the expert continued. The Floating University’s specialists have managed to take one boat from Murmantsa Bay. It is a very small craft, which has been made right there, on the archipelago. The dinghy - about two meters long - was used either to deliver people and small loads to the shore so that not to endanger the main vessel, or to transport the caught fish. "Probably, it’s the so-called ‘dinghy’ - a small boat. Let’s say you have a rather big boat that can’t get close to the shore. Therefore, they used a small dinghy, which one person, or two at most, could row to the shore not to endanger the big boat," the historian explained. "Or it was a boat that was towed behind the main boat and which was used to store the caught fish or animals."
Another unique artefact found in Murmantsa Bay was a spear with which the Pomors slaughtered belugas. "The spear is exactly like the one in the local history museum in Onega. <...> And a similar object has been found here, but it’s made of iron. It has a handle and a harpoon," he said. After the expedition, all the objects will be exhibited at the Museum of the Russian Arctic National Park.
Waste in open bay
A part of the objects on the Murmantsa Bay coast is historical objects, while the other part is the waste. It has been for the first time that scientists managed to analyze the waste there. "For the first time, we have registered the waste," Alexandra Yershova of the Russian State Hydrometeorology University told TASS. "This bay is absolutely open to all waves, winds and streams. Everything gets into it easily. Judging by the amount of waste, by the way it looks, how old it is, apparently it has been here <…> for more than one or even two years. This waste has accumulated here for years."
The scientists found waste from fishing vessels, as well as various packages and toys. "This proves the waste has arrived from far away," the expert added.
The Arctic Floating University is a joint project of the Northern Arctic Federal University (NAFU) and the Northern Department for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring (Sevhydromet). This year, the project is ten years old. The partners in 2022 are the Russian Geographical Society, the Ministry for Development of the Far East and Arctic, VTB, Novatek, Norilsk Nickel, Rosneft, and the Arkhangelsk Region’s government.