(Arneborg 2003 : 117 ff.), and today hostilities between the Thule culture people and
the Norse do not play a dominant role in the discussions.
The basis for settlement in the first place was the natural resources of Greenland and
the maintenance of contact with the homelands – and both conditions were vital for the
survival of the colonies. Contacts with the homeland declined and the official sailings
from Norway terminated at the beginning of the fifteenth century threatening the
position of the elite farmers. But the archaeological record does not seem to reflect any
changes in the social relations of the society. Simultaneously climate changes most
certainly influenced the Norse subsistence economy. Landnám took place at the end of
the Medieval Warm Period (c. 885 – 1235 ); with the beginning of the Little Ice Age
around 1200 the climate got colder and drier. In the period up to the beginning of the
Little Ice Age the wind increased ( Jensen et al. 2004 : 161 ; Lassen et al. 2004 ), and either
because of the wind, overexploitation of the vegetation resources, or a combination of
both, erosion became a serious threat to the Norse farmers ( Jakobsen 1991 ; Mainland
2000 ). At the same time the sea level rose with the loss of valuable grassland as the
result (Kuijpers et al. 1999 ). Isotope^13 C of the human bones and the animal bones
indicates a growing dependence on marine resources (Arneborg et al. 1999 ), but the
isotope studies also show that the farmers maintained the pasture economy they intro-
duced at landnám. For instance, ‘hunger feeding’ of the domesticates with fish refuse did
not take place.
Certainly conditions for the Greenlanders deteriorated and with an eye to the sup-
posed number of inhabitants the yearly emigration of a few discontented individuals – as
argued by Lynnerup ( 1998 : 115 ff.) – unavoidably would result in the depopulation of
the Norse Greenland settlements.
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——( 2003 ) ‘Norse Greenland archaeology: the dialogue between the written and the archaeo-
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——( 2004 ) ‘Nordboernes rejser i Grønland og på det nordamerikanske kontinent’, Grønland,
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–– chapter 43 : The Norse settlements in Greenland––