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What happened in the 15th century, when the Vikings disappeared after living in Greenland for more than 400 years?

author:The heart of fragrant

For centuries, Viking settlers barely made ends meet in Greenland, grazing pastures, hunting walruses and building stone structures that still stand today. Sometime in the 15th century, however, their civilization collapsed and all the Vikings either died or fled.

Although researchers have pieced together many clues about their disappearance — including rising sea levels, drought, climate change, disease, environmental degradation, conflict with Inuit, and economic disruption — no one knows exactly what happened.

What happened in the 15th century, when the Vikings disappeared after living in Greenland for more than 400 years?

The image of Vikings in film and television

The continued presence of Vikings in Greenland dates back to around 985 AD, when, according to medieval Icelandic legend, Eric the Red landed on Greenland with a large fleet (temporarily expelled from Iceland for killing two people in a good-neighborly dispute).

Greenland is covered in huge ice sheets and most of Greenland is uninhabitable. Eric probably named Greenland to attract more immigrants.

However, in dense meadows, mostly in hidden fjords, the Vikings (also known as the Nordics) established two outposts: an eastern settlement at the southern end of the island and a smaller western settlement about 240 miles away. In addition to raising goats, sheep and some cows, Norwegians hunt seals, reindeer, walruses and other prey, and build houses and churches out of turf and stone.

Eventually, the eastern settlement grew to include about 500 farms, clustered around 12 major churches, Marsa Borreggine, a graduate student in Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University. She is the lead author of a paper on the collapse of the Vikings published in April 2023. "For a while, it was a fairly prosperous settlement," Borekin said.

Even so, the population of these settlements is not very large. Researchers used to think that at its peak, about 5,000 Norwegians lived in Greenland, but recent estimates have reduced that number by nearly half.

In any case, by the late 14th century, when the western colonies apparently disappeared, civilization began to decline. The eastern settlement was slightly older, as recorded by a wedding held there in 1408. But by around 1450, archaeological evidence showed that all died or left by boat.

It was not until 1721 that missionaries arriving in Greenland did not discover the Vikings, only their ruins, their fate was known. Since then, scholars have pondered their mysterious demise, similar to the collapse of Maya or Anassazi, which gave rise to countless theories.

The climate shifts to Xiaoice river period

First, climate may have played a role. At first, the Norwegians occupied Greenland during the so-called medieval warm period, when pastures were relatively abundant.

However, around 1250, it is said that the beginning of the Xiaoice period reduced hay production, causing damage to Viking livestock. Colder temperatures can also clog the surrounding ocean with ice, exacerbate the storm and make it harder to transport walrus tusks, which are walruses' main exports, and also make it harder to import iron tools and weapons, not to mention food.

What happened in the 15th century, when the Vikings disappeared after living in Greenland for more than 400 years?

Earth during the Ice Age

Reduced demand for walrus ivory

Around the same time, the European walrus ivory market collapsed, partially replaced by high-quality ivory from Africa. Suddenly, the Norwegians lost value in trade with continental Europe, which was a particular blow because the search for more walruses after the extinction of the Icelandic walrus population may have been the reason they came to Greenland in the first place.

Thomas H. McGovern, a professor of anthropology at Hunter College in New York City who has studied Greenland's Norwegian language for nearly half a century, said: "In the past, we used to think that it was the stuff of some Arctic farmers dabbling in walrus. But this is almost a regressive phenomenon. These people are commercial walrus hunters who make a living from some agriculture. ”

McGovern noted that they braved weeks-long voyages across hundreds of miles of treacherous waters to reach walrus' hunting grounds, even at the peak of their farms.

What happened in the 15th century, when the Vikings disappeared after living in Greenland for more than 400 years?

walrus

The Black Death isolated the Nordics

Efforts were already being made to maintain contact with the European continent, which was cut off from the Black Death in the mid-14th century. It's not clear whether the plague reached Greenland, but it did destroy the Norwegians' benefactors, which, as McGovern noted, "basically collapsed as a nation."

"Norway is their main hub," McGovern said, "and the port of Bergen is where Greenlandic ships come and go." ”

As a result of economic isolation and climate degradation, Norwegians may have suffered further self-harm from environmental degradation. Some researchers believe that overgrazing has led to soil erosion, and the felling of Greenland's scarce trees has hindered their ability to repair, build boats or burn firewood.

What happened in the 15th century, when the Vikings disappeared after living in Greenland for more than 400 years?

Works of art depicting the Black Death

Conflict with the Inuit?

At the same time, the arrival of the Inuit from Canada around 1200 AD brought another challenge. Old Norse texts mention several skirmishes between the Inuit and Vikings, and Norwegian artifacts have been found on Inuit sites. Nevertheless, the extent to which the Inuit contributed to the demise of the Vikings is completely uncertain.

"I think there might be a series of interactions, but what we've actually documented is hostile," McGovern said.

Whether in battle or not, the Inuit eventually replaced the Norwegians and the Dorsets, a separate indigenous group believed to have first arrived in Greenland around 800 BC

What happened in the 15th century, when the Vikings disappeared after living in Greenland for more than 400 years?

Inuit also living in Greenland

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