The archaeological expedition that became the Pomor Museum.
Forty Years Beneath the Tundra
Reading Time: 7 min
Institution: Pomor Museum / Art Arctic Gallery
Contributor: Tatiana Betcher
The archaeological department of the Pomor Museum in Barentsburg now holds one of the largest collections of finds connected with the history of Russian activity on Svalbard. Yet the exhibition did not take shape overnight. Almost every object behind the glass is the result of a long-running scientific expedition that returned to the archipelago for decades.
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The short version is here. The long version is a field trip.
The Questions
02/07
— When did Russian Pomor activity on Svalbard begin?
— Was there archaeological evidence of a Viking presence?
— AUSTFONNA the eastern ice cap; a fonn is an ice cap or ice field
— Were there settlements on the archipelago before Willem Barentsz's voyage?
— Who first reached Svalbard?
Written sources alone could not provide definitive answers. Archaeological evidence was essential.
The expedition set out to answer fundamental questions.
Thirty-Eight Expeditions
03/07
From 1978 to 2015, Vadim Fyodorovich Starkov led thirty-eight annual archaeological expeditions to Svalbard. Over time, the project developed into one of the longest-running research programmes on the archipelago. From its earliest seasons, the team drew on dendrochronology, archaeometallurgy, geology, glaciology and other natural-science methods, allowing archaeological sites to be studied within their wider environmental context.
Research Areas
Source:Author’s reconstruction based on published archaeological surveys by the Institute of Archaeology RAS
Source:Author’s reconstruction based on published archaeological surveys by the Institute of Archaeology RAS
The Beginning
01/07
In 1978, the Institute of Archaeology of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR organised the first Soviet archaeological expedition to Svalbard. By then, the archipelago had already been studied by Norwegian and Swedish researchers, yet much of its archaeological record remained unexplored. The expedition was led by Vadim Fyodorovich Starkov, who would later become one of the founding figures of Russian Arctic archaeology.
Vadim Starkov
Source:The Russian Herald of Spitsbergen
Source:The Russian Herald of Spitsbergen
Archaeological Gallery, Pomor Museum, Barentsburg
Source:Pomor Museum / Art Arctic Gallery
Source:Pomor Museum / Art Arctic Gallery
Quiet interior view of the Pomor Museum.
Source:Pomor Museum
Source:Pomor Museum
Continuing the Story
06/07
The work continues. The expedition of the Institute of Archaeology RAS still surveys archaeological sites across Svalbard, refines the recorded locations of historic hunting stations and expands scholarly understanding of Arctic exploration. By 2025, researchers had identified seventy-one Pomor sites. The Pomor Museum remains the place where almost half a century of fieldwork can be encountered by every visitor.
The archaeological exhibition at the Pomor Museum, Barentsburg.
Source:Pomor Museum.
Source:Pomor Museum.
From Excavation to Exhibition
05/07
The discoveries did not remain confined to academic reports. In 1982, the Pomor Museum opened in Barentsburg, with an exhibition built around material recovered by the Spitsbergen Archaeological Expedition of the Institute of Archaeology. During the 1990s, Vadim Starkov played an active role in the museum's development, helping to make the results of decades of research accessible not only to scholars, but also to residents of the archipelago and its visitors.
Reading the Arctic
04/07
The expedition investigated dozens of sites across the archipelago. Archaeologists uncovered the remains of Pomor hunting stations, dwellings and service buildings, as well as devotional crosses, burial grounds, ship components, hunting equipment and numerous everyday objects. Together, these finds made it possible to reconstruct the daily lives of Russian seafarers in the Arctic. For the first time, Pomor culture on Svalbard could be studied not only through archival records, but through material evidence.
Archaeological artefacts from the collection of the Pomor Museum, Barentsburg.
Source:Pomor Museum
Source:Pomor Museum
Archaeological artefacts from the collection of the Pomor Museum, Barentsburg.
Source:Pomor Museum
Source:Pomor Museum
Archaeological artefacts from the collection of the Pomor Museum, Barentsburg.
Source:Pomor Museum
Source:Pomor Museum
