Arctic pantry of 120 years ago: unique discovery presented at the RUSSIA EXPO

A treasure trove found in 1973 - a storehouse of absolutely usable products that had been lying in the permafrost for almost 100 years - gave a start to a unique experiment that continues to this day. It became a message from the outstanding Arctic explorer Baron Eduard Toll, who disappeared in the ice in 1902, to future generations.

On the Day of the Far East and the Arctic at the RUSSIA EXPO, Rosrezerv gathered ambassadors of the North, explorers and renowned polar explorers. Writer Dmitry Shparo, Director of NIIKP Sergey Beletsky, senior researcher of NIIPH Valery Looze, researcher of Rosrezerv's NIIPH, leader of the Taymyr 2022 expedition Natalia Khaba - spoke about the sensational Taymyr expedition.

"Nowadays, the Taymyr experiment that we started has already entered the phase of investment in the Arctic. There comes an understanding of the prospects of creating in permafrost natural storage facilities for products and not only for them. The great time of Russia's return to the territory of the Northern Sea Route is coming - in earnest, with modern technologies and opportunities. They are given by the permafrost itself. Eduard Toll left us, without knowing it himself, a brilliant message. He did not find the mythical land of Sannikov, but he opened our eyes to the viable possibilities of the northern lands," says Dmitry Shparo, a writer and Arctic explorer.

Photo: Alexey Nikolsky/RIA News

In 1900, Baron Eduard Toll set out on an expedition in search of Sannikov Land on the schooner Zarya. He wintered off the coast of Taymyr and laid several food stores in the permafrost to be used in future sledge expeditions. Toll and his companions went missing and their place of death was never found.

The storehouse was found in 1973 during Dmitry Shparo's expedition to the Taymyr Peninsula. In two airtight boxes weighing 16 and six kilograms there were rye rusks, oat cereal of Hercules type, canned food "Shchi with meat and porridge. Canned food for troops", chocolate, tea, sugar and matches.

The discovered unique food storage is of great scientific and practical interest from the point of view of research into the quality of products under conditions of long-term storage. The laboratories of research institutions analyzed the quality indicators of the products brought from the Taymyr Peninsula. After processing the results, a decision was made to put modern food products into long-term storage with their subsequent "take-out" for analytical studies.