Greenland's viking settlers gorged on seals
UNSOLVED MYSTERY
Greenland's viking settlers, the Norse, disappeared suddenly and mysteriously from Greenland about 500 years ago. Natural disasters, climate change and the inability to adapt have all been proposed as theories to explain their disappearance. But now a Danish-Canadian research team has demonstrated the Norse society did not die out due to an inability to adapt to the Greenlandic diet: an isotopic analysis of their bones shows they ate plenty of seals.
Archaeologists dig up skeletons of Norse settlers in 2010 at the Norse farm Ø64, Igaliku Fjord, Østerbygden, Greenland. Photo: Jette Arneborg (Click to view and download full size)
“Our analysis shows that the Norse in Greenland ate lots of food from the sea, especially seals,” says Jan Heinemeier, Institute of Physics and Astronomy, Aarhus University.
“Even though the Norse are traditionally thought of as farmers, they adapted quickly to the Arctic environment and the unique hunting opportunities. During the period they were in Greenland, the Norse ate gradually more seals. By the 14th century, seals made up between 50 and 80 per cent of their diet.”
The Danish and Canadian researchers are studying the 80 Norse skeletons kept at the University of Copenhagen’s Laboratory of Biological Anthropology in order to determine their dietary habits. From studying the ratio of the isotopes carbon-13 and carbon-15, the researchers determined that a large proportion of the Greenlandic Norse diet came from the sea, particularly from seals. Heinemeier measured the levels of carbon isotopes in the skeletons, Erle Nelson of Simon Fraser University, in Vancouver, Canada, analysed the isotopes, while Niels Lynnerup of the University of Copenhagen, examined the skeletons.
“Nothing suggests that the Norse disappeared as a result of a natural disaster. If anything they might have become bored with eating seals out on the edge of the world. The skeletal evidence shows signs that they slowly left Greenland. For example, young women are underrepresented in the graves in the period toward the end of the Norse settlement. This indicates that the young in particular were leaving Greenland, and when the numbers of fertile women drops, the population cannot support itself,” Lynnerup explains.
Hunters and farmers
The Norse ruin at Igaliku Fjord was known to the Norse as Gardar. Photo: Jette Arneborg (Click to view and download full size)
The findings challenge the prevailing view of the Norse as farmers that would have stubbornly stuck to agriculture until they lost the battle with Greenland’s environment. These new results shake-up the traditional view of the Norse as farmers and have given archaeologists reason to rethink those theories.
“The Norse thought of themselves as farmers that cultivated the land and kept animals. But the archaeological evidence shows that they kept fewer and fewer animals, such as goats and sheep. So the farming identity was actually more a mental self-image, held in place by an over-class that maintained power through agriculture and land ownership, than it was a reality for ordinary people that were hardly picky eaters,” Jette Arneborg, archaeologist and curator at the National Museum of Denmark, says.
The first Norse settlers brought agriculture and livestock such as cattle, sheep, goats and pigs from Iceland. While they thought of themselves as farmers, they were not unfamiliar with hunting.
Professor Niels Lynnerup, University of Copenhagen
They quickly started to catch seals, as they were a necessary addition to their diet. Toward the end of their stay, they became as accustomed to catching seals as the Inuit, who had travelled to Greenland from Canada around the year 1200 and inhabited the island alongside the Norse. Seals became more important for Norse survival as the climate began to change over time and it became increasingly difficult to sustain themselves through farming.
“The Norse could adapt, but how much they could adapt without giving up their identity was limited. Even though their diet became closer to that of the Inuit, the difference between the two groups was too great for the Norse to become Inuit,” Arneborg says.
The isotopic analysis is an interdisciplinary collaboration between Aarhus University, the University of Copenhagen, the National Museum of Denmark and Simon Fraser from the University in Vancouver. The research is financed by the Carlsberg Foundation and the results will be presented in a series of articles in the Journal of the North Atlantic, Special Volume 3, 2012.
Read more in the articles (pdf):
An Isotopic Analysis of the Diet of the Greenlandic Norse
Human Diet and Subsistence Patterns in Norse Greenland
Isotopic Analyses of the Domestic Animals of Norse Greenland
Norse Greenland Dietary Economy
Contact:
Professor Niels Lynnerup, Laboratory of Biological Anthropology, University of Copenhagen; Tel: +45 35 32 72 39. Mobile: +45 28 75 72
Jan Heinemeier, lecturer and head of the Institute of Physics and Astronomy, Aarhus University; Tel: +45 87 15 52 59, Mobile: +45 23 38 23 18
Jette Arneborg, senior researcher and curator, National Museum of Denmark; Tel: +45 41 20 61 14
Related News
Contact
Professor Niels Lynnerup, Laboratory of Biological Anthropology, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen; Tel: +45 35 32 72 39, Mobile: +45 28 75 72 39
Jan Heinemeier, lecturer and head of the Institute of Physics and Astronomy, Aarhus University; Tel: +45 87 15 52 59, Mobile: +45 23 38 23 18
Jette Arneborg, senior researcher and curator, National Museum of Denmark; Tel: +45 41 20 61 14
News editor Anna Høxbro Bak
University of Copenhagen
Tel: +45 22 64 03 55
Mail: bak@adm.ku.dk
Press Photos
Jan Heinemeier in the control room of the accelerator that was used to analyse the skeletal remains from Greenland. Photo: Rasmus Rørbæk
(Click to view and download full size) 
Jette Arneborg removes samples of skeletons from Ø64 for analysis. Photo: Christian Koch Madsen
(Click to view and download full size)
The Norse
The Norse settled in Greenland around the year 1000 AD. Erik the Red arrived from Iceland as the first to settle in southern Greenland. At its height, the Norse population of Greenland reached between 2,000 and 3,000. They settled in western Greenland, near modern-day Nuuk, and in south-western Greenland, near modern-day Narsaq and Qaqartoq. They traded with Greenlandic Inuit and supplied Europe with Walrus tusks. They explored America and established a settlement there 500 years before Columbus arrived. The Norse populated Greenland until the beginning of the 15th century, when they disappeared without a trace. The Old Norse culture is the only example of a highly developed Western society that disappeared without any sources describing why.
Carbon 13
Carbon 13 is a stable carbon isotope that reveals how much fish or shellfish a person has eaten. Carbon 13 is absorbed by the bodies from food. There is a different amount of carbon 13 in the sea than on land, meaning that bodies of animals that exclusively eat food from the sea will have a different level of carbon 13 than animals that exclusively eat food from land. By measuring carbon 13 levels in human bones, it is possible to determine the makeup of a person’s diet.
Nitrogen 15
Nitrogen 15 is a stable isotope that reveals how much meat a person has eaten. Nitrogen 15 is carried up the food chain in animals. The higher an animal is in the food chain, the higher the level of nitrogen 15. By measuring nitrogen 15 in human bones, it is possible to determine how much meat from animals higher up in the food chain a person has eaten. Seals are found near the top of the food chain and that can be seen in the level of nitrogen 15 in Norse remains.