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The Viking farm under the sand in Greenland
Express News ^ | 2004 | Teresa Brasen

Posted on 03/05/2004 4:06:31 PM PST by Burkeman1

The Viking farm under the sand in Greenland By Terese Brasen

In 1991, two caribou hunters stumbled over a log on a snowy Greenland riverbank, an unusual event because Greenland is above the tree line. Closer investigation uncovered rock-hard sheep droppings. The hunters had stumbled on a 500-year-old Viking farm that lay hidden beneath the sand, gift-wrapped and preserved by nature for future archaeologists.

Gården under Sandet or GUS, Danish for 'the farm under the sand,' would become the first major Viking find in Greenland since the 1920s.

"GUS is beautifully preserved because, once it was buried, it was frozen," explained University of Alberta anthropologist Dr. Charles Schweger. "Things that are perishable and normally disappear are found at GUS."

A specialist in Arctic paleo-ecology and geo-archeology, Schweger joined the international archaeological team that would spend the next seven years sifting through sand at GUS.

The famous Viking, Eric the Red, probably didn't know where he was headed when, adrift on the North Atlantic in AD 981, he bumped into the southern coast of Greenland. Eric returned to Iceland three years later and enticed about 500 fellow Vikings to follow him and settle the new country.

"The Norse arrived in Greenland 1,000 years ago and became very well established," said Schweger, describing the Viking farms and settlements that crowded the southeast and southwest coasts of Greenland for almost 400 years.

"The Greenland settlements were the most distant of all European medieval sites in the world," said Schweger. "Then the Norse disappear, and the question has always been: what happened?"

Time was not on the archaeological team's side. Earlier digs had explored the southern tip of Greenland, the most settled area of the country where Eric the Red first landed. These early digs merely scratched the surface because the archaeologists were interested in the buildings and architecture, not what lay beneath. The GUS site was up the West Coast, deep inside a fjord. The river was advancing, swallowing the site, so it was important to act quickly.

The University of Alberta, Greenland and the Danish government combined resources and pushed ahead on the first Greenland excavation since the 1930s. The team would excavate the complete site, looking at the entire history and development of the farm, not just the surface buildings.

Schweger recalls vividly the day the team uncovered GUS. Smells frozen in permafrost for 500 years exploded into the air. "It stunk to high heavens," said Schweger. "There was no question about this being a farm."

The Viking ships that had brought Icelandic adventurers to Greenland may have been mini versions of Noah's Ark with sheep, goats, horses and Vikings sharing the crowded space. The Greenland Vikings raised sheep and fabricated woollen garments. The centre of the farm was a typical Viking longhouse, the communal building where Vikings gathered around the fire. The settlement flourished. In the North Atlantic, walrus, seal and whale were abundant and the Greenlanders made rope from walrus hide and controlled the European walrus tusk market.

Every summer, the team raced against the river. In 1998, when researchers finally abandoned GUS to the river, 90 per cent of the site had been excavated. Artifacts packaged and taken to the lab include pieces of cloth and sheep combs used to remove wool without shearing the animal. The site gave up metal hinges, locks, keys and wooden barrels. The Vikings appear to have traded their northern wares for metal and wooden products unavailable in Greenland. For them, a trip to Iceland or Norway was like a shopping spree at Home Hardware.

We know about Eric the Red and the Greenland settlement because years after the Vikings had given up their pagan ways, Snorri Sturluson collected Viking stories and penned the Icelandic sagas. "The Icelanders wrote everything down," said Schweger, puzzled that the literature says nothing about what happened to the Norse in Greenland.

What did happen? Theories abound. In his 1963 book, Early Voyages and Northern Approaches, Tryggvi Oleson proposed a theory that still has some credibility. He believed the Vikings and northern aboriginal people intermarried to produce the unique Thule people, ancestors of the modern Eskimo.

One reigning expert on Norse extinction in Greenland is Dr. Thomas McGovern from City University of New York. McGovern is also chair of the North Atlantic Biocultural Organization, an international research association interested in the relationship between changing climate and people in the North Atlantic. He believes the Norse did not adapt completely to Greenland because they never adopted Inuit ring-seal hunting techniques. The Inuit used buoys or floats and hunted ring seal from kayaks or through the ice. These techniques do not appear in Norse culture. McGovern and other paleo-ecologists also believe the Norse were poor farmers.

But Schweger says the evidence comes from the southern or eastern settlement where the excavations only looked at the surface. "There is a lot of sediment thrown around, and it suggests to these researchers that the Norse were poor farmers. The theory is poor agricultural practices caused the sod to break up, and the winds eroded this and blew sand all over the landscape."

While Danish and Greenland researchers look at GUS buildings and artifacts, the U of A's role is to study organic material. Cross-sections of the GUS soil contain evidence that challenge McGovern's theories and offer brand-new understanding of the Vikings in Greenland.

"The ring seal is only one species of seal. The Norse hunted everything else--walrus, whales, harbour seals," Schweger said, moving quickly to part two of his McGovern challenge. The argument that the Vikings were poor farmers doesn't make sense upon close examination of the GUS organic material. "There is no evidence that they were destroying their fields. Quite the opposite. They were improving upon them."

It is not surprising that the Greenland Vikings chose to farm at the mouth of a fjord. The Vikings who settled Iceland and later moved to Greenland were originally from Norway, where farming technology grew up around fjords. The centre of a fjord farm is a meadow where animals graze during winter months.

Cross-sections of the GUS soil show the Vikings began their settlement by burning off birch brush to form a meadow. Over the next 300 to 400 years, the meadow soil steadily improved its nutritional qualities, showing that the Greenland Vikings weren't poor farmers, as McGovern and others have suggested. "At GUS, the amount of organic matter and the quality of soil increased and sustained farming for 400 years," said Schweger. "If they were poor farmers, then virtually all the farming in North America is poor farming."

Schweger believes the sand that packaged and preserved GUS also ruined the site, polluting the river the Vikings relied on for fresh water. The soil was healthy and nutritious. Then, suddenly, farming stopped and the soil was encapsulated in sand.

A massive ice sheet covers about 85 per cent of Greenland, about 2,600,000 cubic kilometres of ice--enough to raise sea levels by 6.4 metres if it were to melt. Sheets of ice sliding down the mountain toward GUS may have pushed sand over the eastern coast of Greenland, burying the Viking settlements. The sand slide was probably a major catastrophic event, comparable to an earthquake.

The Danish Antiquity Society will publish the GUS findings once the international lab results have been tabulated and debated. The team that sifted through sand summer after summer may tell the world new stories about the Vikings who farmed and traded in the North Atlantic then suddenly, and inexplicably, disappeared.

Related story: Icelandic sagas sail into library collections (ExpressNews, April 10, 2001): http://www.ualberta.ca/ExpressNews/news/2001/041001b.htm Related link - internal The U of A Department of Anthropology Web site: http://www.arts.ualberta.ca/anthropology/index.html this article: www.expressnews.ualberta.ca/expressnews/articles/printer.cfm?p_ID=776

© 2004 University of Alberta


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: archaeology; ggg; godsgravesglyphs; greenland; history; iceland; leiferikson; navigation; qalunaat; skraelings; thevikings; vikings; vinland
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Fascinating story. I was unaware that the Vikings were actually the first Human presence in Greenland and that the Inuit came later.
1 posted on 03/05/2004 4:06:31 PM PST by Burkeman1
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To: Burkeman1
So that's where they grow Vikings? Amazing!

GO!! PACK!! GO!!
2 posted on 03/05/2004 4:12:27 PM PST by Howie66 ("America will never seek a permission slip to defend the security of our people.")
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To: Burkeman1
I betcha if they find some ancient Lutfisk it would still be edible.(As edible as Lutfisk gets, that is)
3 posted on 03/05/2004 4:13:08 PM PST by Spruce
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To: Burkeman1
There are some who say that a group of NorseScots discovered North America and what is now the New England Coast long before Columbus sailed the Ocean blue.
Grave sites have been found in Massachusetts with Celtic Markings.
4 posted on 03/05/2004 4:14:42 PM PST by Pompah (Funny how thangs work out.)
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To: Burkeman1
When I worked at the airlines, a few times I tried to plan a trip to Greenland, but a very small number of flights and weather/schedule problems meant I never got to go...bummer. Did Iceland a few times, a fantastic place to go, hightly recommend it.
5 posted on 03/05/2004 4:18:25 PM PST by Central Scrutiniser (Malim praedari!)
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To: Pompah
Some folk suppose the Vikings traveled even farther...

Kensington Runestone
The Kensington Runestone is a slab of Graywacke stone, grey in color, measuring 36 inches long, 16 inches wide, and 6 inches thick. It contains runic writing along the face of the stone and along one edge. The stone was found on the property of a Minnesota farmer named Olaf Ohman in November of 1898. Upon finding the stone, Mr. Ohman and his sons noted the runic letters, but could not decipher them. The stone was thereafter examined by many runic scholars, who discovered that the runes claimed to be an account of Norse explorers in the 14th Century. Many scholars who have since examined the stone have claimed it a childish forgery, some have testified to its authenticity. The stone currently resides in the Runestone Museum in Alexandria, Minnesota, the seat of the county in which the stone was found.
6 posted on 03/05/2004 4:19:13 PM PST by Spruce
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To: Pompah
They are disputed highly. There was a theory put forth by a rich Boston Yankee in the 19th century that the Vikings had settlements along the Charles River inland from Boston. He even had a statue commissioned of Eric the Red that still stands on Commonwealth Avenue to this day. The New Foundland settlement is the only verified Viking site in North America. The Minnisota stone is also highly suspect as it was dug up by a Swede on his farm.

It is verified that the Norse of Greenland visited North America often to fell much needed timber. And they may even have had extensive contact and trade with Inuit and Northern tribes like the Micmac. Some think they may have explored as far south as Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, and Cape Cod.
7 posted on 03/05/2004 4:23:40 PM PST by Burkeman1
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To: Burkeman1; *Gods, Graves, Glyphs; A.J.Armitage; abner; adam_az; AdmSmith; Alas Babylon!; ...
Gods, Graves, Glyphs
List for articles regarding early civilizations , life of all forms, - dinosaurs - etc.
Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from this ping list.
8 posted on 03/05/2004 4:26:34 PM PST by farmfriend ( Isaiah 55:10,11)
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To: Central Scrutiniser
I have heard Iceland is a great place to visit. They offer long weekend package deal flights to Iceland from Boston that are a steal. I plan on going one day.
9 posted on 03/05/2004 4:27:46 PM PST by Burkeman1
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To: farmfriend
Add me to the list please.
10 posted on 03/05/2004 4:28:22 PM PST by Burkeman1
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To: farmfriend
Please add me to this list.
11 posted on 03/05/2004 4:32:15 PM PST by Spruce
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To: Burkeman1
I don't think it is too far fetched to speculate Viking explorers made it to the great lakes, even further.
12 posted on 03/05/2004 4:35:40 PM PST by Spruce
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To: Spruce
Considering they established Kiev- no I don't think it far fetched either. I am just not convinced that the evidence exists to prove it.
13 posted on 03/05/2004 4:39:42 PM PST by Burkeman1
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To: Spruce
I think the Norse of Greenland did not have extensive contact with the "Skraelings" as they called the native peoples of Canada simply because they could have dominated trade by the simple fact that they had metal work technology the Inuit and Native Amercians did not have. The Indians and "eskimos" would have immediatley seen the advantage of Iron weapons and tools and traded almost anything for them. That metal working technology was not transferred to these peoples suggests they had limited if not almost totally hostile contact.
14 posted on 03/05/2004 4:51:16 PM PST by Burkeman1
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To: Burkeman1
Well, sorry to say, but any Norskie worth their salt has been taught, from toddler days, that Eric the Red discovered America WAY before Christopher Columbus. There is no evidence? That only means it was not yet discovered. Trust me in this.
15 posted on 03/05/2004 5:19:23 PM PST by bboop
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To: bboop
Erik did not discover America. His father, Leif Erikson did. And he named it Vineland.
16 posted on 03/05/2004 5:22:05 PM PST by Spruce
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To: bboop
Yes they did. But did they realize and exploit what they had discovered? No. Columbus and the Spanish did. Could they have? Even with superior Iron weapons most likely not.
17 posted on 03/05/2004 5:24:52 PM PST by Burkeman1
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To: Spruce
My bad. Your right.
18 posted on 03/05/2004 5:26:04 PM PST by Burkeman1
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To: Burkeman1
Well, YEH, but CC had the King and Queen behind him and 400 years to fine-tune things. And the Vikings didn't like the Left Coast 'cuz of all the liberals...
19 posted on 03/05/2004 5:32:26 PM PST by bboop
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To: Burkeman1; Spruce
Consider yourself added. If you ever change your mind, or I get you on the wrong list, just let me know.
20 posted on 03/05/2004 5:38:06 PM PST by farmfriend ( Isaiah 55:10,11)
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