The Norwegian missionary Hans Egede reached Greenland in 1721. His aim was to convert the Norsemen, also known as Vikings, from Catholicism to Lutheranism. But instead of flourishing landscapes and potential new believers, he found only ruins. The two settlements which had been founded roughly 700 years earlier were deserted and the few people who were still to be found on the island were Inuits.
What had happened? Theories on why the Vikings disappeared from Greenland are abundant: they range from epidemics to shortages of supply, from homesickness to climate changes. For a long time, it was assumed that which today is known as the "Little Ice Age" (approx. 1300 – 1850) in Europe played a definitive role in the disappearance of the Vikings.
However, the latest research, which was published in December last year in the scientific magazine "Science Advances", revealed that the Little Ice Age was not a global phenomenon and that Greenland was not affected by this climate change. When the Vikings arrived in Greenland in 985 AD under Erik the Red it was cold, and when they left again 400 years later it was still just as cold – but not any colder.
The mysterious disappearance of the Vikings from Greenland
The Trick with the Moraines
The research findings regarding the probability of the disappearance of the Vikings not being caused by the climate originate from a group of scientists at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University in New York. They studied moraines to the north of the abandoned settlements: the rubble heaps which are left behind when glaciers retreat during warming. The trick here, Nicolás Young, geologist and paleoclimatologist, tells the Smithsonian Magazine, is figuring out exactly when the moraines were deposited.
As soon as glaciers retreat, the rubble is exposed to sunlight as well as cosmic radiation, Young goes on. The cosmic radiation particles bombard the rubble and create a build-up of isotopes on the surfaces, including Beryllium-10. The quantity of this isotope provides information regarding how long the stones have been exposed to the atmosphere.
The analysis of the Greenland moraines is surprising: The scientists dated them to the beginning of the Medieval Warm Period (approx. 1000 – 1300), right before the Little Ice Age. However, if the Little Ice Age had the same effects in Greenland as in Europe, the moraines should have been much younger since the glaciers would only have retreated much later – after the end of the Little Ice Age in fact. As a result, the conclusion that the Vikings left Greenland for climate reasons appears to have been disproved.
Back to the Beginnings
Roughly 5,000 Vikings lived in Greenland after Erik the Red first colonised and named it – it is said that he used the name "Greenland" for propaganda purposes so that more Icelandic Vikings would follow him. The new arrivals brought sheep and cattle with them and established farmsteads. 400 stone buildings were erected, including churches, a monastery and a cathedral. For generations, the Greenlanders traded in polar bear skins and walrus and narwhal tusks, and were consequently the most westerly European before Christopher Columbus discovered America.
So why did the Vikings disappear from Greenland if the climate only played a minor role? The latest studies are based on the interplay of a variety of different reasons: increased hostilities with the Inuit and reduced demand for walrus and polar bear products, and therefore economic isolation from Europe. The Washington Post cites Judith Jesch, who heads up the Centre for the Study of the Viking Age at the University of Nottingham: "The causes of the end of [Norse] Greenland may therefore…need to be sought in economic, cultural and demographic factors, and perhaps the breakdown of the social order that maintained the economy."
Not everyone is convinced by the results of the latest research. Archaeologist Thomas McGovern of Hunter College in New York City told the Smithsonian Magazine that the archaeological discoveries clearly indicate a climate change in 1250. For instance, seal bones found around the settlement come from a species more associated with sea ice. And the chemical composition of human bones indicates a diet of primarily seals and fish rather than a more agricultural diet. These are both evidence of a climate change or cooling.
This latest research therefore does not provide a definitive answer to the question of why the Vikings disappeared from Greenland.
More about the Vikings in the Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek:
Norbert Schürer: Grönland im Buch: Wikinger bis Inuit (1993)
Fridtjof Nansen: Die Entdeckung Amerikas durch die Nordmänner und die Sagas vom Vinland (1912)
Heiko Steuer: Der Handel der Wikingerzeit zwischen Nord- und Westeuropa aufgrund archäologischer Zeugnisse (1987)
All results for "Wikinger" in the Deutschen Digitalen Bibliothek