The second detachment of the Northern Fleet and the Russian Geographical Society integrated expedition on the Ilya Muromets icebreaker entered the Sims bay in the Laptev sea and surveyed the coast, the official portal of the Russian Geographical Society informs.
There, researchers found important historical artefacts. In particular, they found nine 17th century coins and a turquoise glass bead on the headland of the southern coast of the bay. According to historians working as part of the expeditionary detachment, those findings testify to the early development of the Northern Sea Route by the Pomors. The last time research on the Thaddeus islands and on the shores of Sims bay was carried out in the 1940s by a special archaeological expedition. At that time, the artefacts of the 17th century were also discovered in that area of the Arctic.
“Based on the results of processing the materials collected by the expeditionary team, the question of organizing and planning a separate archaeological expedition to the area will be raised”, colonel Sergey Churkin, scientific director of the complex expedition, commented on the modern find.
Earlier, in the area of the Taimyr peninsula, the researchers found the traces of the Vladimir Rusanov’s expedition, clarified the coordinates of the artillery batteries on the coast of the Kara sea, and during underwater research identified the location of several ships that died in the Kara sea in the 20th century. Presumably, one of them might be the Vaigach icebreaking steamer.
The This is Taimyr also reported that the detachment of the Russian Geographical Society and the Northern Fleet found a grocery warehouse of one of the first research Arctic expeditions of 1872-1874 under the leadership of Karl Weiprecht and Julius Payer on the Novaya Zemlya archipelago. Nine barrels for bread and seven boxes of sausage were kept in the crevice between the rocks under the stones.
The expedition worked in the Byrranga mountains which are called the land of evil spirits by the indigenous people. The mountains are just over a kilometer high, but according to experts, they continue growing, by about 1-2-3 millimeters per year. Traces of rock formations are very visible. Up to the point that the river flowing there has changed its course and goes in the opposite direction than it did 500 or 1000 years ago. Very active geological processes are taking place there, which is an interesting discovery by itself. The scientists will tell about it in more detail when they return from the expedition.
The Ilya Muromets icebreaker continues exploring the Arctic, following the Northern Sea Route to the east as part of the joint complex expedition of the Russian Geographical Society and the Northern Fleet to the Arctic archipelagos. Since the beginning of the expedition the Ilya Muromets has covered more than two thousand miles in the Barents and Kara seas. Now the group of scientists and sailors is heading to Tiksi.
Text: Victor Tsaryov, Photo: rgo.ru