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Norse Greenland Settlement: Reflections on Climate Change

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Norse Greenland Settlement: Reflections on Climate Change Norse Greenland Settlement: Refl ections on Climate Change, Trade, and The Contrasting Fates of Human Settlements in the North Atlantic Islands Andrew J. Dugmore, Christian Keller, and Thomas H. McGovern Abstract. Changing economies and patterns of trade, rather than climatic deterioration, could have critically marginalized the Norse Greenland settlements and effectively sealed their fate. Counter-intuitively, the end of Norse Greenland might not be symptomatic of a failure to adapt to environmental change, but a consequence of successful wider economic developments of Norse communities across North Atlantic. Data from Greenland, the Faroe Islands, and medieval Iceland is used to explore the interplay of Norse society with climate, environment, settlement, and other circumstances. Long term increases in vulnerability caused by economic change and cumulative climate changes sparked a cascading collapse of integrated interdependent settle- ment systems, bringing the end of Norse Greenland. Introduction parison to unrelated processes of social, political, and economic change (Diamond 2005). Further- At a time when the effects of global climate change more, even if climate change can be shown to have can be seen to be taking place, there is a pressing produced a direct impact (for instance crop fail- need to assess how these might affect human soci- ure or livestock mortality), perhaps the most im- ety.1 The extent to which climate changes exacer- portant question of all is why people d0 not (or bate environmental degradation, drive settlement cannot) adapt and either avoid or mitigate the bad collapse, cause famine, spur migrations, or trigger effects of the weather. As with so many other en- confl ict over resources has received widespread vironmentally related issues that cut across dis- attention (e.g., Diamond 2005; Fagan 2000, 2004; ciplinary boundaries, assessments of relative em- Linden 2006). It is clear that climate change, and phasis, sensitivity, thresholds, adaptation, and the weather it produces, can have a wide range of response are vital. This paper reconsiders the case impacts, many negative, some positive, but all with of Norse Greenland and the end of the settlements the potential to affect human security. Crucially, in the early part of the Little Ice Age (Grove 2001; however, opinions differ as to the importance to Jones 1986). For this iconic example of settlement human societies of climate on its own and in com- desertion widely associated with climate change Andrew J. Dugmore, Institute of Geography, School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh Drummond Street, Edinburgh EH8 9XP, Scotland, UK Christian Keller, University of Oslo, P.O. Box 1072 Blindern, Oslo, Norway 0316 Thomas H. McGovern, Hunter Bioarchaeology Laboratory, Department of Anthropology Hunter College, City University of New York, 695 Park Ave, NewYork City 10021 ARCTIC ANTHROPOLOGY, Vol. 44, No. 1, pp. 12–36, 2007 ISSN 0066-6939 © 2007 by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System WW4336.indb4336.indb 1122 44/20/07/20/07 110:15:290:15:29 AAMM Dugmore, Keller, and McGovern: Contrasting Fates of Human Settlements in the North Atlantic Islands 13 and an inability to adapt, the paper explores both tephrochronology, an environmental dating based the nature of climate change and unrelated eco- on layers of volcanic ash (e.g., Buckland et al. nomic factors that may have played crucial if not 1991; Dugmore, Larsen, and Newton 2004; Meeker dominant roles in determining the ultimate fate of and Mayewski 2002; Thórarinsson 1967, 1975, the Norse Greenlanders. 1981). Quite remarkable new perspectives have also been gained from faunal records based on hundreds of thousands of identifi ed bones from The Norse in The North Atlantic archaeological contexts that give unrivalled in- The Norse settlement of the Faroe Islands, Iceland, sights into the subsistence and economies of the and Greenland (Fig. 1) began between the early past (e.g., Church et al. 2005; McGovern 2000; Mc- ninth and late tenth centuries A.D. and, although Govern, Perdikaris, and Tinsley 2001; Perdikaris comparatively recent, it spans a suffi ciently long 1999; Perdikaris and McGovern in press a). period to include notably different climatic ep- The Norse colonies in Greenland were es- isodes and major cultural changes (Grove 1988; tablished shortly before the year 1000 A.D, the Jones 1986). When considered as a whole, the last documented outside contact was in 1409 A.D., North Atlantic islands permit the analysis of hu- and by the sixteenth century A.D. the Norse Green- man colonization, adaptation, and long-term set- landers had disappeared in circumstances that are tlement undertaken by similar groups of people unresolved, but are thought to have involved an (Viking Age settlers from northwestern Europe) in interplay between a range of factors including cli- contrasting island environments across signifi cant matic deterioration, environmental degradation, climatic gradients (Edwards et al. 2004). A pan- maladaptation, economic marginalization, and con- Atlantic view can consider key aspects of people’s fl ict with the Inuit (Arneborg 2002, 2003a, 2003b; experiences of, and responses to, different envi- Gulløv 2004:273–275, 277; McGovern 2000; Pe- ronmental and cultural challenges and, ultimately, tersen 2000; Seaver 1996). In addition, the “Great their very different experiences of success and fail- Plague” that devastated Iceland for the fi rst time ure (Barlow et al. 1997; Karlsson 2000; McGovern in 1402–1403 A.D. created a demographic defi cit and Perdikaris 2000). Importantly, historical con- in Iceland that could be fi lled from abroad (Karls- text and the culture of the Scandinavian settlers son 1996). Alternatively, this epidemic might have of North Atlantic islands are well known, due to a reached Greenland a decade later, with terminal unique host of medieval manuscripts (see Friðrik- consequences for the Norse. sson 1994; Karlsson 2000; Kristjánsson 1993; Óla- Coherent syntheses can be fashioned that sson 1998; Vasey 1996; Vésteinsson 2000). High combine all these and other explanations (such as quality regional environmental data are available raids by Barbary pirates). In the process of fi nd- from Greenland ice cores and accurate correlation ing consensus, however, it is possible that impor- of multiple data sources (historical, archaeologi- tant insights may be lost, including the distinction cal, and environmental data from landforms, soils, between factors that could have increased the fun- sediments, and peats) is possible to very high stan- damental vulnerability of the Norse settlements to dards through the use of both radiocarbon and extinction (and made their ultimate fate inevitable) Figure 1. The North Atlantic showing places referred to in the text. WW4336.indb4336.indb 1133 44/20/07/20/07 110:15:300:15:30 AAMM 14 Arctic Anthropology 44:1 and the fi nal trigger for extinction (an event, or events that under other circumstances might not have had such decisive effects). It is generally accepted that initial settlement was boosted by climatic conditions that were, on the whole, more favorable to the Norse than those of the fourteenth century A.D. onwards (Barlow et al 1997; Ogilvie and McGovern 2000). With the local onset of cooler conditions, the increasing ex- tent of pack ice could have seriously affected ship- ping and compromised hunts for marine mam- mals, in particular forays into the northern hunting grounds for walrus. Hand in hand with the devel- opment of more extensive pack ice, the shortened growing seasons, reduced fodder production, lon- ger over-wintering periods, environmental degra- dation, and more demanding conditions for raising domestic animals could have made the subsistence base of the Norse more precarious than it had been at the time of settlement (Buckland et al. 1996). In combination with an inability to adapt, these all- encompassing climatically driven changes could be all that really mattered, as they alone could have made the Norse Greenlanders’ way of life so marginal that it was simply a question of when the colonies failed rather than if. This inevitable de- scent to destruction might have been accelerated Figure 2. A conceptual model of Norse Greenland by cultural factors (McGovern 1994). An inability settlement highlighting the key roles of a pastoral focus, or unwillingness to adapt, to adopt an Inuit life- the impact of climate change, and an inability to adapt. style, or to embrace other radical change, may have critically reduced chances for survival, and ac- celerated the fi nal collapse. Maladaptation could wrong with the Norse approach to subsistence in have taken a variety of forms. There is no evidence Greenland and it could have been adequate for sur- that the Norse Greenlanders adopted Inuit Arctic- vival if other circumstances had been different; adapted technology, such as the toggle harpoon specifi cally, if the economic viability of the settle- and the kayak. This failure to acquire Inuit tech- ments had not been eroded and the Norse popula- nologies and related subsistence strategies that tion had not declined (Lynnerup 2003). might have saved the Norse could be explained by intense cultural conservatism and the oppressive control of an elite who did not wish to see change Motivations for the Norse that might have weakened their own position. In Colonization of Greenland— addition, violent confl ict with the Inuit could have Land Hunger or Hunting? further compromised any possibility of cultural transmissions
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