The Remains Of Scurvy-Ridden Whalers Were Uncovered In A 17th-Century Graveyard Close To The North Pole

In the 17th and 18th centuries, whalers experienced extensive physical labor and diseases such as scurvy due to the nature of their jobs. The effects of their work on their bodies can still be seen today.

Experts investigated the remains of 20 whalers buried in a 17th-century graveyard on Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago near the North Pole.

The burial site is called Likneset, also known as "Corpse Point." It contains hundreds of shallow graves marked with stone cairns. Due to climate change, the burial site is disappearing quickly, so archaeologists must study the area while they still can.

Whalers performed extremely physically demanding tasks. They hauled in live whales, rowed boats, towed carcasses, and processed whale blubber for oil while working in cold, wet conditions.

"Early modern Arctic whaling was among Europe's first large-scale extractive industries, and the labor was highly manual," said Lise Loktu, the first author of the study and an archaeologist at the Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research.

"What is striking in the skeletal material is that we can actually see this workload reflected in the body."

An analysis of the whalers' skeletons showed evidence of degenerative joint disease, trauma, and severe strain in the men's shoulders, upper chest, spine, hips, knees, and feet.

Their condition is normally associated with much later stages of life, suggesting that the men were overusing their bodies for a long period of time.

In addition, most of the whalers showed signs of scurvy, which is caused by a deficiency of vitamin C. Symptoms of scurvy include muscle weakness, tooth loss, bleeding gums, and anemia.

Mathias - stock.adobe.com - illustrative purposes only

Sign up for Chip Chick's newsletter and get stories like this delivered to your inbox.

Today, scurvy is rare in our society because of the availability of fresh fruits and vegetables, but it was a common problem among sailors on long-distance voyages in the 15th to mid-19th centuries.

Back then, the cause of scurvy was not understood, nor that it could be prevented by eating fruits, vegetables, and whale skin/blubber.

"Scurvy does not only affect bones; it also compromises the immune system, increases vulnerability to infection, weakens wound healing, and contributes to overall physical decline," said Loktu.

"We believe this likely played an important role in weakening the men physically."

Several of the men also had circular indentations in their tooth enamel, indicating that they smoked pipes regularly. Smoking is known to reduce vitamin C levels in the body, so it likely contributed to the men's poor health.

The study also explored how climate change is affecting Likneset. Like other sites across the Arctic, parts of Likneset have already been lost to coastal erosion and permafrost degradation.

The researchers of the study compared graves that were excavated three separate times: the late 1980s, 2016, and 2019. The skeletons were still in fair condition, but the textiles buried at the site had degraded over the years.

This may pose a problem for future studies.

The findings of the study were published in the journal PLOS One.