Research on the industrial heritage of Svalbard. The Swedish Programme for Social Science Research in the Polar Regions
Exploitation of renewable and non-renewable natural resources in the polar regions is among the most ancient of human motives for finding the means and taking the risk of entering or moving permanently in to these harsh environments of the Earth. The hunting of sea and land mammals for food, fur, blubber and various other raw materials from the skin, teeth and bones of these animals has resulted in the first archaeological evidence of human life in the Arctic. Interest in mineral resources also has a long history in the polar regions. It dates back to the Inuit search for meteoritic iron on the sea-ice and ice-caps of Arctic lands. In the early modern period various reports about the existence of remote deposits of precious metals were instrumental in propelling western expeditions in to the Arctic. However, they in variably turned out to be no more than rumours.
In the European sector of the Arctic, whaling played an important economic role as ear y as the 17th century. But over-harvesting of Greenland Whale stocks brought about a collapse in that species and the industry declined and moved west in to the Atlantic. The first published reports on the value of coal deposits at Spitsbergen originate from a British 17th century whaling captain, but the first scientific study and evaluation of their economic potential was published by the Swedish geologist Christian Blomstrand in 1865. It was not until the beginning of the 20th century that coal mining on Spitsbergen established itself as a full-scale Arctic industry.
Field-work
A team of mining historians and archaeologists from the Swedish Programme for Social Science Research in the Polar Regions undertook field-work in August in order to study remains and traces of early coal mining on Spitsbergen. In fact the northernmost Swedish industrial enterprise ever to have existed was the mining company, Aktiebolaget Spetsbergens Svenska Kolfält, that opened the Sveagruvan coal mine in van Mijenfjorden on western Svalbard in 1911. While prospecting and putting in claims for this and other mineral deposits on Spitsbergen this Swedish company depended heavily on the geological advice of then active Swedish polar researchers, such as Gerard De Geer; advice that was based on the accumulated experience of many scientific expeditions to Spitsbergen in preceding decades. This collaboration was organized by Jernkontoret, the industrial research and banking foundation, in Stockholm, a joint interest organization of the Swedish mining and metal refining industry established as early as 1747. This exemplifies, among many other things, the growing importance of geological science in the mining industry of the early 20th century.
Swedes ran the Sveagruvan coal mine from 1911-1934 and then sold it to the Norwegian company Store Norske Spitsbergen Kulkompani A/S which still operates it today. The SWEDARCTIC team is happy to acknowledge the generous practical and financial support provided by Store Norske Spitsbergen Kulkompani A/S during the archaeological survey at Sveagruvan. The team also evaluated ruins and remains of several old coal mines in the Longyearbyen valley and a study visit was made to the now closed Soviet coal mine and village of Pyramiden in Billefjorden, the north-easternmost branch of Isfjorden on Svalbard.
Preliminary results
The cultural heritage unit of the Governor of Svalbard oversees the cultural monument regulations of Svalbard and this has resulted in the systematic support and protection of the industrial monuments of early coal mining on Svalbard. General inventories and some special studies have been made, particularly by Norwegian scholars, but there is a need for further studies to systematically combine the archaeological evidence with the historical records of official and industrial archives and historical published works. Comparison of early mining firms operated by different national groups of entrepreneurs in the Arctic would be of great historical interest, and may provide new insights in to the nature of the special problems or benefits of mining in the polar regions.
The Sveagruvan mining plant was destroyed towards the end of World War II. However, it must be said that some of the ruins of buildings and the remains of mining equipment and transport systems have survived until today astonishingly well. This is mainly due to the fact that the site has been protected from outside interference by Store Norske Spitsbergen Kulkompani A/S since it is part of the company’s property. The volume of traces and remains from the oldest period of Swedish and Norwegian mining at Sveagruvan is comparable to that of the British Northern Exploration’ s old marble quarry at Blomstrand halvøya in King’ s Bay, also on western Spitsbergen. The latter site however has been visited regularly by tourists and other travellers to Spitsbergen for a long time.
The Russian mining village of Pyramiden is today almost a deserted ”ghost town”. It represents an unusual example of an entire village that is characteristic of the Soviet epoch and which may fall in to a unique state of slow natural decay. This situation in fact provides special opportunities for many different kinds of archaeological research projects. These include long-term studies of the speed of decay in buildings and equipment caused by natural processes (e.g. ground instability due to erosion, special effects of the polar climate, corrosion at low temperatures, protection from visitor interference). This is of course dependent on keeping a tight curb on tourists and other visitors to the site, something which today is, to a large extent, achieved by the Governor of Svalbard and the present owner, Trust Arcticugol. However, the cultural heritage regulations of Svalbard stipulate that the owner is to keep and maintain decaying buildings in a safe state for all conceivable visitors, human and animal alike. To meet the demands for such a high level of visitor protection, plans now exist for the demolition of many of the older abandoned buildings at Pyramiden since the present owner may lack the means to satisfy them. Applying the regulations in this way will however introduce a bias in the total volume of cultural remains left to posterity on Svalbard. It will be underrepresented in the future with traces from those past players who, irrespective of the renown they enjoyed in their day, do not today have wealthy successors or interested parties to financially support the maintenance of the buildings and works they left behind.
The future
The Swedish Programme for Social Science Research in the Polar Regions plans to participate in an international initiative now underway, to increase awareness of the unique historical and archaeological value of Pyramiden. From the Swedish point of view, the site is of special interest since the Pyramiden coal mine was first claimed and test-operated as part of the Swedish mining enterprise on Svalbard. It was sold to Trust Arcticugol in 1927. Further field-work aimed at locating and establishing remains of Swedish activities at Pyramiden is planned. Historical and archaeological evidence from the older period of mining that is still to be found on the premises of Sveagruvan deserve additional study, and the time and resources required for a full-scale inventory of the site. Plans are in place for further examination of some of the well-preserved mining structures at Longyearbyen, such as Gruve 2b, for comparative purposes.
Dates
10–31 August 1999
Participants
Principal investigator
Urban Wråkberg
Centre for History of Science, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
Stockholm, Sweden
Dag Avango
Industrial Heritage Research Unit, Department for the History of Science and Technology, Royal institute of Technology
Stockholm, Sweden
Kenneth Awebro
Department of Education and Teaching Methods for Natural and Social Sciences, Luleå University of Technology
Sweden
Marie Nisser
Industrial Heritage Research Unit, Department for the History of Science and Technology, Royal institute of Technology
Stockholm, Sweden
References
Avango, Dag. (1998). Sveagruvan och NyÅlesund: En jämförande studie av två kolgruveanläggningar på Svalbard. Unpublished essay. Dept. for the History of Science and Technology, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm.
Awebro, K. (1999). AB Isfjorden och fosforitbrytningen vid Kap Thordsen på Svalbard sommaren 1872. In: Arktisk gruvdrift: Teknik, vetenskap och historia i norr. Jernkontorets Bergshistoriska utskott, serie H, No. 69. Wråkberg U. (ed.), Stockholm, 53-65.
Awebro, K. (1999). Vetenskapen, storpolitiken och naturresurserna. In: The Centennial of Salomon August Andrée’s North Pole Expedition: Proceedings of a Conference on S.A. Andree and the Agenda for Social Science Research in the Polar Regions. Bidrag till Kungl. Svenska Vetenskapsakademiens Historia, No. 29. Wråkberg U. (ed.), Stockholm, 190-212.
Barr, S. (1999). Prospektering og gruvedrift i etterkrigstidens Svalbard. In: Arktisk gruvdrift: Teknik, vetenskap och historia i norr. Jernkontorets Bergshistoriska utskott, serie H, No. 69. Wråkberg U. (ed.), Stockholm, 67-80.
Mörtberg, J. (1999). På spaning efter svensk kolbrytning i arktis. Siftidningen 1999:16, 20-23.
Nisser, M. (1999). Svensk gruvdrift på Svalbard: En angelägen forskningsuppgift. In: Arktisk gruvdrift: Teknik, vetenskap och historia i norr. Jernkontorets Bergshistoriska utskott, serie H, No. 69. Wråkberg U. (ed.), Stockholm, 81-87.
Wråkberg, U. (1999). Politik och vetenskap i A.E. Nordenskiölds ockupationsförsök av Spetsbergen år 1871-1873. In: Arktisk gruvdrift: Teknik, vetenskap och historia i norr. Jernkontorets Bergshistoriska utskott, serie H, No. 69. Wråkberg U. (ed.), Stockholm, 39-52.
Wråkberg, U. (1999). Vetenskapens Vikingatåg: Perspektiv på svensk polarforskning 1860–1930, (1995) 2nd rev. ed. Bidrag till Kungl. Svenska Vetenskapsakademiens Historia, No. 30.