Norce Farmers In Greenland Essay Research Paper

Norce Farmers In Greenland Essay, Research Paper

Norce Farmers in GreenlandReviewBuckland, P.C., Amorosi, T., Barlow, L.K., Dugmore, A.J., Mayewski, P.A., McGovern, T.H.,Ogilvie, A.E.J., Sadler, J.P., Skidmore, P. Bioarchaeological and Climatological Evidencefor the Fate of Norse Farmers in Medieval Greenland. Antiquity 70.267 (1996): 88-96. Norse colonization of Greenland, which began in c. AD 985, disappeared within five hundred years. The authors of this study focus on one of the two Norse colonies in Greenland; the Western Settlement. This settlement is interesting because it has been thought that the adverse climatic conditions in which a group of people must have endured to survive within a agrarian society. The authors point to previous studies that link the demise of the Norse colony with climatological data that indicate the Little Ice Age had been a principal contributor the destiny of these farmers. Buckland, et. al, argue that, while it is clear that their were periods of unusually cool temperatures during the second part of this millennium, they did not happen within the time frame of the Norse colonization of Greenland. The article provides some insight as to the background and history of the work related to the Norse farmers in the Western Settlement of Greenland. Shown are studies, primarily archaeological, historical and anthropological, that subsistence was based on milk and meat cattle, sheep and goats. The archaeological record reveals that fossil beetle faunas from recent excavation on the farms are dominated by elements introduced by humans, which lived, primarily, in stored hay. These emphasize the need to store hay crop indoors so that domesticated animals could survive during the winter season. Intensive, largely land-based hunting of seals, sea birds, and caribou were conducted to fill in the shortfall of subsistence. Buckland, et. al indicate that there is no evidence of any wide spread farming. It s because of this core subsistence, that a tightly coordinated organization existed. In order to survive, these farmers would have had to coordinate their resources which produced a community that had a complex political organization. Evidence of this can been seen in archaeological sites that produced monasteries and parish churches, as well as a cathedral at Igaliko that had bronze church bells and stained glass. This would indicate that significant pressures would have had to exist to motivate a mass , and relatively quick, exodus out of the region. This study of the Norse farmers in Greenland utilizes a multidisciplinary investigation which includes history, climatology, entomology, archaeology, anthropology, geology, biology, and others. As evidence for the climatic conditions of Greenland, the authors point to ice core drilling previously (between 1992 and 1993) conducted on the region as well as new technological advances that have resulted in unexplored insights into the climate history of the North Atlantic. The motive behind the climatic analysis related to this article is to directly substantiate the hypothesis that the Norse farmers did not endure an ice age of any caliber. The evidence within the ice core samples seem have difficulty corroborating with the hypothesis. They indicate that several environmental indicators, including calcium and sea-salt sodium, demonstrate the most abrupt and largest change for the last 8000 year between AD 1400 and 1420. While this information may be clear, the authors do not make a distinct relation between the data and their thesis. In fact, with further information on the climatic conditions, it seems that they contradict their hypothesis by showing more proof that cooler temperatures did exist during the span of the Norse farmers. They allude to calcium concentration in the ice core samples that suggest more easily erodes soils, a response to cooler climates and reduced vegetation cover. Furthermore, isotopic signals of deuterim and oxygen from the ice cores show that the temperature was lower in the 14th century than the 15th. It isn t until the last paragraph of the article that the authors imply that the extinction of the Western Settlement predated the most profound changes in atmospheric circulation. The authors go on to delineate the sudden and final end to the Western Settlement. Using entomology, they write that the remains of beetles and other insects of both people and sheep have also contributed to their theory. Studies of approximately 7,000 flies have been examined from the farms and compared with the flies from the pre-contact palaeo-Eskimo Saqqaq site north of the farms. The conclusions of these studies denotes that domesticated animals became extinct along with the farmers. They emphasize that the sanitary conditions of the farms were not unlike those of Dublin or York. The entomologists can deduce from the flies and fly larva that one particular type were bred indoors, in the warmer parts of the buildings. By examining the flies and fly larva, these scientists can discern what constituted the types of diets the inhabitants had. The authors compare and contrast those of the palaeo-Eskimo site and of the Norse farm sites. They write that the flies that breed outdoors (which are characteristic of fat and bone marrow accumulation), are almost non-existent on the Norse farms. That at the palaeo-Eskimo site indicate that meat and fat were routinely left unused there. Apparently, the Eskimos had a surplus