New research into Greenland settlement failure

[Carol in Cal.]

This article is fascinating--and at odds with conventional wisdom.

 

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/why-greenland-vikings-vanished-180962119/

 

 

[Barb_]

I'm falling asleep and can't finish but I'm saving the rest until tomorrow. It's really good so far! Thanks for linking

[sbgrace]

That was interesting--thanks for sharing!

[SarahW]

Nice article.

 

But I don't understand the part where it says that the conventional wisdom is that the Norse in Greenland were dumb. In the Penguin edition of the Vinland sagas (which is not new) there's a whole discussion of the impact of the changes in Europe, and most especially the changing economic and trade policies of Denmark.

 

Maybe McGovern didn't agree with that, and now the archaeology is changing his view.

[mom2att]

I love Smithsonian Magazine! There's also a fascinating article in the same issue about a group assigned to work under the Nazis in Lithuania who escaped to freedom via a tunnel they dug through the earth.

[Minerva]

Great article!

[Selkie]

Thanks! Viking history is an interest of mine, so I'm looking forward to reading this.

[Carol in Cal.]

Nice article.

 

But I don't understand the part where it says that the conventional wisdom is that the Norse in Greenland were dumb. In the Penguin edition of the Vinland sagas (which is not new) there's a whole discussion of the impact of the changes in Europe, and most especially the changing economic and trade policies of Denmark.

 

Maybe McGovern didn't agree with that, and now the archaeology is changing his view.

What the argument is, as I understand it, is that in the past the Greenland experience was viewed as an attempt to pretty much exactly replicate the Norse cultural focus on farming in a location that turned out to be inappropriate for it, particularly once the general temperature got colder.  In that view, the Greenlanders were viewed as mostly a farming economy/community that did a little hunting on the side, and also as people who would not switch to a primarily hunting community.

 

Whereas now they are viewed as a community that did major and ecologically sensitive hunting from the very beginning, and primarily was engaged with walrus ivory and seal hunting (flexible compared with their home occupations) but used a little farming as a vehicle to make that more reasonable.  This means that they were more flexible in their response to the local conditions than had previously been believed.

[thessa516]

Thanks for the link to the article! We're on a Viking kick at our home. This month's National Geographic's feature story is on the Vikings. 

[jaredluvsjoanie]

This article was fascinating. Thank you!