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

Antiquity

Volumn 70, Issue 267, 1996, Pages 88-96

  Buckland, P C ^a   Amorosi, T ^b   Barlow, L K ^c   Dugmore, A J ^d   Mayewski, P A ^e   McGovern, T H ^b   Ogilvie, A E J ^c   Sadler, J P ^f   Skidmore, P ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD   (United Kingdom)

^b CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK   (United States)

^c UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO   (United States)

^d UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH   (United Kingdom)

^e UNIVERSITY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE   (United States)

^f UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

AGRICULTURAL HISTORY; ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE; CLIMATOLOGICAL EVIDENCE; HISTORICAL STUDY; ICE CORE; MEDIEVAL; SETTLEMENT ABANDONMENT;

GREENLAND;

EID: 0029849403     PISSN: 0003598X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0003598X00082910     Document Type: Article

References (50)

1. ABEL, W. 1980. Agricultural fluctuations in Europe from the 13th to the 20th century. London: Methuen.
2. ALLEY, R.B., D. MEESE, C.A. SHUMAN, A.J. GOW, K. TAYLOR, M. RAM, E.D. WADDINGTON & P.A. MAYEWSKI. 1993. Abrupt accumulation increase at the Younger Dryas termination in the GISP2 ice core, Nature 362: 527-9.
3. AMOROSI, T. 1992. Climate impact and human response in Northeast Iceland: archaeological investigations at Svalbaro 1986-1988, in C.D. Morris & D.J. Rackham (ed.), Norse and later settlement and subsistence in the North Atlantic: 103-38. Glasgow: University of Glasgow.
4. ANDREASEN, C. 1982. Nipaitsoq og Vesterbygden på Groønland, Tidsskriftet Groønland 5-6-7: 177-88.
5. ANDREASEN, C. & J. ARNEBORG. 1992a. Gården under Sandet - undersøgelserne 1991, Forskning i Grønland/tusaat 1/ 92: 10-18.
6. 1992b. Gården under sandet - nye nordboundersøgelser I Vesterbygden, Grønlandsk Kultur- og Samfunds Forskning 92: 11-50.
7. ARNEBORG, J. & J. BERGLUND. 1993. Gården under Sandet, Forskning i Grønland/tusaat 4/93: 7-19.
8. BARLOW, L.K. 1994. Evaluation of seasonal to decadal scale deuterium and deuterium excess signals, GISP2 ice core, Summit, Greenland, AD 1270-1985. Unpublished Ph.D dissertation, University of Colorado.
9. 18O in the GISP2 and GRIP deep ice cores, EOS, Transactions of the American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting Supplement (1993): 118.
10. BERGLUND, J. 1986. The decline of the Norse settlements in Greenland, Arctic Anthropology 23: 109-37.
11. 1991. Displacements in the building-over of the Eastern Settlement, Greenland, Acta Archaeologia 61: 151-7.
12. BÖCHER, J. & B. FREDSKILD. 1993. Plant and arthropod remains from the palaeo-Eskimo site on Qeqertasussuk, West Greenland, Meddelelser om Groønland, Geoscience 30.
13. BUCKLAND, P.C. & J.P. SADLER. 1989. A biogeography of the human flea Pulex irritans L. (Siphonaptera: Pulicidae), Journal of Biogeography 16: 115-20.
14. BUCKLAND, P.C., J.P. SADLER & D. SMITH. 1993. An insect's eyeview of the Norse farm, in C.E. Batey et al. (ed.), The Viking Age in Caithness, Orkney and the North Atlantic: 518-28. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
15. BUCKLAND, P.C., T.H. MCGOVERN, J.P. SADLER & P. SKIDMORE. 1994. Twig layers, floors and middens: recent palaeoecological research in the Western Settlement, Greenland, in B. Ambrosiani & H. Clarke (ed.), Proceedings of the XII Viking Congress, Stockholm: 132-43. Stockholm: Birka Project. Birka Studies 3.
16. CARUS-WILSON, E.M. 1933. The Iceland Trade, in E. Power & M.M. Postan (ed.), Studies in English trade in the 15th century: 155-82. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
17. COOPE, G.R. 1981. Report on the Coleoptera from an 11th-century house at Christ Church Place, Dublin, in H. Bekker-Nielson et al. (ed.), Proceedings of the Eighth Viking Congress (1977): 51-6. Odense: Odense University Press.
18. DANSGAARD, W., S.J. JOHNSEN, N. REEH, N. GUNDESTRUP, H.B. CLAUSEN & C.U. HAMMER. 1975. Climatic changes, Norsemen, and modern man, Nature 255: 24-8.
19. DEGERBØL, M. 1936. The animal bone, in Roussell (1936).
20. FREDSKILD, B. 1988. Agriculture in a marginal area: South Greenland AD 985-1985, in H.H. Birks et al. (ed.), The cultural landscape past, present, and future: 381-93. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
21. 1992. Erosion and vegetation changes in south Greenland caused by agriculture, Geografisk Tidsskrift 92: 14-21.
22. FRIcrossed D signRIKSSON, S. 1969. The effects of sea ice on flora, fauna and agriculture, Jökull 19: 146-57.
23. GROVE, J.M. 1988. The Little Ice Age. London: Methuen.
24. HALL, A.R., H.K. KENWARD, D. WILLIAMS & J.R.A. GREIG. 1983. Environment and living conditions at two Anglo-Scandinavian sites. London: Council for British Archaeology. Archaeology of York 14/4.
25. INGSTAD, H. 1966. Land under the Pole Star. London: Jonathan Cape.
26. JACOBSEN, B.H. 1991. Soil resources and soil erosion in the Norse settlement area of Østerbygden in southern Greenland, Acta Borealia 1: 56-68.
27. JONES, G. 1986. The Norse Atlantic saga. 2nd edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
28. KELLER, C. 1991. Vikings in the West Atlantic: a model of Norse Greenlandic medieval society, Acta Archaeologia 61: 126-41.
29. KERSHAW, I. 1973. The great famine and agrarian crisis in England, 1315-1322, Past & Present 59: 1-50.
30. LAMB, H.H. 1977. Climate: present, past and future 2. Climatic history and the future. London: Methuen.
31. MCGOVERN, T.H. 1980. Cows, harp seals, and churchbells: adaptation and extinction in Norse Greenland, Human Ecology 8: 245-75.
32. 1985a. Contributions to the palaeoeconomy of Norse Greenland, Acta Archaeologia 54: 73-141.
33. 1985b. The Arctic frontier of Norse Greenland, in S. Green & S. Pearlman (ed.), The archaeology of frontiers and boundaries: 275-323. New York (NY): Academic Press.
34. 1989. Bones, buildings, and boundaries: patterns in Greenlandic palaeoeconomy, Acta Archaeologia 59: 71-122.
35. MCGOVERN, T.H., G.F. BIGELOW, T. AMOROSI & D. RUSSELL. 1988. Northern islands, human error, and environmental degradation: a view of social and ecological change in the medieval North Atlantic, Human Ecology 16(3): 225-70.
36. MCGOVERN, T.H., P.C. BUCKLAND, D. SAVORY, G. SVEINBJARNARDÓTTIR, C. ANDREASEN & P. SKIDMORE. 1983. A study of the faunal and floral remains from two Norse farms in the Western Settlement, Greenland, Arctic Anthropology 20: 93-120.
37. MAYEWSKI, P.A., L.D. MEEKER, S. WHITLOW, M.S. TWICKLER, M.C. MORRISON, R.B. ALLEY, P. BLOOMFIELD & K. TAYLOR. 1993a. The atmosphere during the Younger Dryas, Science 261: 195-7.
38. MAYEWSKI, P.A., L.D. MEEKER, M.C. MORRISON, M.S. TWICKLER, S. WHITLOW, D.A. FERLAND, D. MEESE, M.R. LEGRAND & J.P. STEFFENSON. 1993b. Greenland ice core 'signal' characteristics: an expanded view of climate change, Journal of Geophysical Research 98 (D7): 12839-47.
39. MAYEWSKI, P.A., L.D. MEEKER, S. WHITLOW, M.S. TWICKLER, M.C. MORRISON, P.M. GROOTES, G.C. BOND, R.B. ALLEY, D.A. MEESE, A.J. COW, K.C. TAYLOR, M. RAM & M. WUMKES. 1994. Changes in atmospheric circulation and ocean ice cover over the North Atlantic during the last 41,000 years, Science 263: 1747-51.
40. OGILVIE, A.E.J. 1982. Climate and society in Iceland from the medieval period to the late 18th century. Unpublished Ph.D dissertation, University of East Anglia.
41. 1984. The impact of climate on grass growth and hay yield in Iceland: AD 1601 to 1780, in N.A. Mörner & W. Karlén (ed.), Climatic changes on a yearly to millennial basis: 343-52. Dordrecht: Reidel.
42. 1991. Climatic changes in Iceland AD c. 865 to 1598, Acta Archaeologia 61: 233-51.
43. 1995. 'The country's ancient enemy': sea-ice variations in Iceland in historical times and their social impact, in P. Heikinheimo (ed.), Proceedings of the SILMO Conference, International conference on past, present and future climate, Helsinki, Finland, 22-25 August, 1995: 176-8. Helsinki: Academy of Finland 6/95.
44. 1996. Historical accounts of weather events and other related matters in Iceland and Greenland, AD c. 1250-1430, in B. Frenzel (ed.), Documentary climate information for 1750-1850 and the 14th century. Stuttgart: European Science Foundation & Academy of Science and Literature, Mainz. Palaeoclimate Research - Paläokilaforschungen 9.
45. RAMSEY, C.B. 1994. Oxcal. v. 2.14: radiocarbon calibration and statistical analysis program. Oxford: Research Laboratory for Archaeology.
46. ROUSSELL, A. 1936. Sandnes and the neighbouring farms, Meddelelser om Grønland 88(3).
47. SADLER, J. 1991. Beetles, boats and biogeography. Insect invaders of the North Atlantic, Acta Archaeologia 61: 199-211.
48. SPETH, J. 1991. Protein selection and avoidance strategies of contemporary and ancestral foragers: unresolved issues, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B 334: 265-70.
49. SVEINBJARNARDÓTTIR, G. & P.C. BUCKLAND. 1983. An uninvited guest, Antiquity 48: 127-30.
50. ZIELINSKI, G.A., P.A. MAYEWSKI, L.D. MEEKER, S.I. WHITLOW, M.S. TWICKLER, M.C. MORRISON, D. MEESE, R. ALLEY & A.J. GOW. 1994. Record of volcanism since 7000 BC from the GISP2 Greenland ice core and implications for the volcano-climate system. Science 26: 948-52.