The Nordic Museum has an exhibition titled “Arctis – while the ice is melting”. It’s a mixture of climate science and facts about the Arctic regions and its people.

The climate part, which is what visitors meet first, was designed to be shocking and worrying, but I’m quite aware of all the shocking and worrying facts and statistics already, thank you very much, so I only skimmed it.

The interesting parts were the ones about the people and cultures. I especially enjoyed seeing all the hand-crafted clothes and tools. I like beautiful things made with care and attention. I also really liked the way the items were organized: mostly by type and function, rather than by origin, so sealskin trousers from the Russian far north stood next to similar clothes from Greenland, for example.

A new thing I learned about: glacial archaeology. Archaeologists are now prowling the edges of receding ice patches, finding things that have been hidden and protected by the ice for hundreds of years. When the ice thaws, the objects quickly deteriorate, so scientists try to find them as soon as possible.

The photo is from an ice-themed photo/light installation on the ceiling of the great hall of the museum.