The Fate of Greenland's Vikings by Dale Mackenzie Brown.
In 1721, Hans Egede, a Norwegian missionary discovered that the Norse were no longer inhabiting the two settlements that they had established around 1000 A.D. Since then there has been many debates on the cause of their disappearance and decline. For long, the theories about their disappearance centered around the oral traditions of the Inuits. The Inuit tradition held that the demise of the Norse was due to the contact between the Inuit and the Norse which was often aggressive (Seaver 1996, 119). In recent years however, owing to expanding archaeological findings and other limited documentary evidence there have been more diverse theories put forward. The Vikings had arrived in Greenland in 980 A.D from Iceland and by 1000 A.D, there were about 5000 of them, subsisting on small farms. Although isolated, the Vikings maintained contact with the Europeans through trade. However 450 after they had landed in the region, the civilization collapsed and the last contact they had with the Europeans was in 1406. Archaeological evidence from that era suggests that by 1435, there were no vikings in Greenland. Archaeologists and historians were left with the question of how a civilization that had thrived for over four centuries could disappear without a trace.
In his 2000 article for ‘Archaeology’, the publication by the Archaeological Institute of America, Dale Mackenzie Brown writes about the archaeological dig and find of danish and Greenland archaeologists about the disappearance of the Vikings/Norse of Greenland. Archaeologists, Arneborg from the Danish National Museum, Berglund from Greenland National Museum and Andreasen from the Greenland University conducted a dig in Greenland’s Southwestern Coast in the early 1990’s to find out the answers (Brown, 2000). The archaeologists hoped to find out why and how the Norse had completely disappeared from Greenland and what had happened to them.
The archaeological dig and the findings are important for various reasons. A history of human life in the planet and how the ancestors lived is important as it gives a perspective to the present conditions. Answers from the past not only place humans as a species and their position in the ecosystem but also give pointers as to what had gone wrong in the past and what could be done to prevent the same mistakes in the future. In times of global warming and the melting of icecaps an archaeological dig in one of the remotest parts of the planet can give answers to not only how people survived the changing climatic conditions but also give report on the effect it had on the land as well as the people who inhabited the land. Many theories abound on how the Norse people in Greenland vanished. While some argue that it was a result of the climatic changes and while others argue that it was because of the Inuit’s, there has been no clear explanation of why a group of people completely vanished from a land. Archaeological digs and expeditions such as the Greenland Norse project are important to find out the history of the people who had inhabited the land and also find out the exact reasons they disappeared. Answering this question would help future generations on how to handle the natural habitat they are in, adapt to changing climates and also give clues on how to protect the existing land. In the present day where climate change and unbridled development is wreaking havoc on the planet and straining its resources, these studies help in understanding the importance of leading a sustainable life.
The Vikings/Norse of Greenland
In 986 A.D, Erik the Red, along with a few Norwegians set sail from Iceland to the Arctic landmass which was to the west of Scandinavia and called it Greenland. Finding the region largely uninhabited, they settled there. Erik the Red named it Greenland as an effective marketing ploy as he needed more people to come there and settle. Two books, The Book of Icelanders and the Saga of Eric the Red, written about Medieval Iceland and Eric the Red’s life state that, “He named the land Greenland, saying that people would be eager to go there if it had a good name (Jonath, 2009)." Although the Landmass was largely forbidding, the southwestern coast was conducive for human settlement with grassy slopes, flowers and forests. The original settlers and the people who came after them raised cattle, sheep and goats. At their peak, the Norse numbered around 5000 and were a law abiding community who traded with the Europeans and followed the Roman Catholic Church. Although Eric worshipped the Nordic gods, his wife converted to Christianity and recent Archaeological evidence shows the presence of churches. The Norse settlement in Greenland was modelled after the northern-European society at that time which was structured, religious and orderly. Written records from the community suggest the weddings in the land happened according to the customs found in the European mainland (Gladwell, 2005). The Norse settlers established themselves in three different locations in Greenland. There was the large Eastern Settlement, the smaller Western Settlement and the middle settlement which was mostly considered to be a part of the Eastern Settlement. The settlers traded with the mainland and exported walrus tusks, seals, wool and animal hides and imported wine, timber, nuts Iron and other essentials. Around the 13th century they came under the rule of the Norwegians and traded with them. Wood and wooden artifacts were also a treasured possession among the Norse. When the Greenlanders started to thrive and built churches, they also desired to have a religious authority from the mainland and convinced the king of Norway to send them a bishop. Thus the church became well established.
This is said to be one of the reasons that brought about their downfall. Towards the end , the church owned most of the pasture lands and tithes were high. The Greenlanders were forced to pay for the crusades as well as fighting the heretics in Italy. Other major reasons for their demise include the decrease in the number of Norwegian merchant vessels anchoring in Greenland. With lesser ships the Greenlanders could not get the requisite material to cultivate their land and maintain their boats. Walrus Ivory which was predominant earlier lost out to elephant ivory which could be got from Africa. The German dominance of the seas also saw less Norwegian ships in Greenland. Also the Norse had overworked the land. Mass cultivation of the land led to decreased fertility as well as erosion. The cutting down of forests for timber and fuel also took away the anchor that the roots provided for the soil. The changing weather with long winters and short summers also messed with their largely pastoral form of life. Finally the arrival of Inuits in Greenland saw the Norse unable to survive long with them and increased the competition for resources. Unlike the Inuits whom they disliked, they could not adapt to the land and insisted on following the lifestyle of the mainland. McGovern in , “The Demise of Norse Greenland” uses a cross-cultural comparison of the Inuit and the Norse to explain the demise of the Norse. He stresses the impact of the mainland practices of eating, cultivating and living on the Norse and attributes their failure to their inability to adapt to the effect survival techniques of the Inuit (McGovern 2000, 334). Thus owing to a host of reasons such as economics, outside influence (inuit), mass migration to the mainland as well as the inability to adapt to the changing weather led to the downfall and the eventual demise of the Norse from Greenland.
Methodology
The Archaeologists used methods such as excavation, radiocarbon dating, forensic testing and pollen analysis to figure out what exactly led to the demise of the Norse people in Greenland. The initial excavation was the ruins of a stone and turf house with five rooms, The excavation of the house in the 1990’s brought out cloth, Iron knife, a comb as well as soapstone vessels which showed them that the Greenlanders had a normal, comfortable existence. Previous excavations that were carried in 1932 by Danish Archaeologists revealed the presence of a church with turf walls and different areas for people and animals. There were also partitions between the church walls that kept the animals, especially cows out of the church. The presence of a whale shoulder blade in the remains also suggests that the Norse had to improvise owing to the lack of trees.
An excavation in 1960, of Thjodhilde's chapel (Eric the Red’s wife) by Danish Archaeologists brought out 144 skeletons. The skeletal remains were of tall, strong individuals which were similar to the modern Scandinavians. Forensic evidence on the skeletal remains uncovered the fact that these remains were that of males ranging from teens to middle age and the scars on the bones revealed that they might have sustained them in battles. One particular skeleton was found with a knife in its midsection suggesting that there was violence in the frontier region.
Excavation in 1976 and 1977 on the farms of the Norse people stands testament to the desperate times they had to face during the long winters. The remains of the hoofs of a newborn calf and sheep suggest that food was scarce and that the people resorted to eating their livestock to stay alive. The evidence of knicks on some of the animal skeletons suggest that the animals used to farm and hunt were eventually killed for their meat. Researchers also drilled an ice core in 1993 that showed a cold period around the mid-fourteenth century. Other archaeological finds were clothing found on the beaches of Greenland. The clothes and other ornaments that were found washed ashore from the graves were found to be fashioned after the European fashion of that time, especially that of the Basques. This archaeological find added credence to the theory that the Greenlanders could have been decimated in a battle with the Basques. However since there has been no evidence of mass killings in battles, this still remains a theory. Further excavations in the region also failed to uncover any mass graves. During the time the norse disappeared of Greenland, Iceland and Norway was besieged by the black plague which decimated the population in the mainland. Although some historians suggest that this plague could have wiped out the Norse in Greenland, the lack of mass graves show that this was not the case. Also there has been no evidence of the plague afflicting the people in Greenland. Lack of armaments and other evidence during the excavation was also used to decry the theory that the Vikings could have been killed during battle with the europeans. Apart from the clothes fashioned after the Icelandic, Basque and Norwegian mainland, no other evidence has been unearthed so far to suggest that the outsiders spent enough time in Greenland to kill the entire population.
Radiocarbon dating was another method used by the archaeologists for their study. Radiocarbon dating done on the flies found in the settlements of the norse people suggest that these flies too died suddenly in mid-fourteenth century. This is possibly due to the extreme cold in the region. The flies died due to lack of warm conditions as the lack of human inhabitation provided them with no warmth to survive and procreate. Excrement found in the living quarters also suggested that the people who lived their used their rooms as latrines possibly because they did not want to venture out in the extreme cold.
Testing of the clothes, especially their styles also reveals that the Norse wanted to have more in common with their European brethren and failed to follow the dressing of the inuits. The style of clothing suggests that they were more fashionable than functional. Further studies by the archaeologists on animal remains also revealed that the Norse ate more beef than seafood. Eating beef was an indication of higher class and the seafood eating Inuits were looked down on. Raising cows not only took away the pasture from the already treeless land but the hooves of many animals also ensured that whatever scrubs could grow were eventually worn out.Pollen analysis has found that many indigenous fauna were not found during the final years of the Norse. This was mainly due to deforestation (timber was needed for houses as well as fuel and ornaments) as well as damage caused to the scrubland by the cattle, sheep and goats. The researchers thus used excavation, radiocarbon dating, pollen analysis and forensic testing to find out the lifestyle of the norse as well as find out reasons for their sudden disappearance from Greenland.
Project results
The archaeological study of the Norse in Greenland was aimed to reveal the cause of their sudden disappearance in the mid-fourteenth century. Based on the excavations (houses, clothes, church, graves, animal remains, insects and fauna), the archaeologists could fuse together some reasons for the disappearance. However lack of written documents and other evidence has led to a state where no concrete reasons could be found for their disappearance. From the evidence found, it could be however said that there were a combination of reasons for the decline of the Norse such as bad agricultural practices, climate change, incursion of the inuits and competition for resources, migration to Iceland and Norway after the plague decimated the mainland population, as well as failure to adapt to the land. The Norse of the greenland were found to be following the lifestyle and traditions of the mainland with their hierarchical society as well as pastoral habits without following the Inuits who were well tuned to their environment.
The study was successful to a large extent as possible answers were found for the disappearance of the Norse from Greenland. Although there was no one single answer, the methods used by the archaeologists were successful in coming out with plausible reasons. Climate change, failure to adapt, conflict over resources and reversal in trade with the mainland are thus some of the findings of the archaeologists to explain why the Norse disappeared off Greenland.
Works Cited
Grove, Jonath. "The place of Greenland in medieval Icelandic saga narrative", in Norse Greenland: Selected Papers of the Hvalsey Conference 2008, Journal of the North Atlantic Special. 2 (2009), 30–51.
Brown, Mackenzie Dale. The Fate of Greenland's Vikings. Archaeology. 28 Feb 2000. Web. 19 July 2016.
McGovern, T. “The Demise of Norse Greenland”. in W. Fitzhugh and E. Ward(eds.), Vikings: The North Atlantic Saga. London: Smithsonian Institution Press. 2000. 327-339.
Seaver, K. The Frozen Echo. Stanford: Stanford University Press. 1996.
Gladwell, Malcolm.The Vanishing. New Yorker. 3 Jan 2005. Web. 19 July 2016.
