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Bioarchaeological and climatological evidence for the fate of Norse farmers in medieval Greenland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

P. C. Buckland ,
T. Amorosi ,
L. K. Barlow ,
A. J. Dugmore ,
P. A. Mayewski ,
T. H. McGovern ,
A. E. J. Ogilvie ,
J. P. Sadler  and
P. Skidmore
P. C. Buckland
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology & Prehistory, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN, England
T. Amorosi
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Hunter College, City University of New York, New York NY 10021, USA
L. K. Barlow
Affiliation:
Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado, Boulder CO 80309-0410, USA
A. J. Dugmore
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH8 9XB, Scotland
P. A. Mayewski
Affiliation:
Glacier Research Group, Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans and Space, University of New Hampshire, Durham NH 03824, USA
T. H. McGovern
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Hunter College, City University of New York, New York NY 10021, USA
A. E. J. Ogilvie
Affiliation:
Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado, Boulder CO 80309-0410, USA
J. P. Sadler
Affiliation:
School of Geography, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, England
P. Skidmore
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology & Prehistory, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN, England
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Abstract

Greenland, far north land of the Atlantic, has often been beyond the limit of European farming settlement. One of its Norse settlements, colonized just before AD 1000, is — astonishingly — not even at the southern tip, but a way up the west coast, the ‘Western Settlement’. Environmental studies show why its occupation came to an end within five centuries, leaving Greenland once more a place of Arctic-adapted hunters.

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Papers
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Antiquity , Volume 70 , Issue 267 , March 1996 , pp. 88 - 96
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 1996

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