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Ancient Greenland Mystery Has A Simple Answer, It Seems
Christian Science Monitor ^ | 11-29-2007 | Colin Woodward

Posted on 11/29/2007 10:26:32 AM PST by blam

Ancient Greenland mystery has a simple answer, it seems

First: A reproduction of Tjodhilde's Church stands in Brattahlid, Greenland. It was the first Christian church in North America. Colin Woodard

Did the Norse colonists starve? Were they wiped out by the Inuit – or did they intermarry? No. Things got colder and they left.

By Colin Woodard | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
from the November 28, 2007 edition

Reporter Colin Woodard describes an ecumenical service at a Greenland church built by legendary Norseman "Erik the Red."QASSIARSUK, Greenland - A shipload of visitors arrived in the fjord overnight, so Ingibjorg Gisladottir dressed like a Viking and headed out to work in the ruins scattered along the northern edge of this tiny farming village.

Qassiarsuk is tiny (population: 56), remote, and short on amenities (no store, public restrooms, or roads to the outside world), but some 3,000 visitors come here each year to see the remains of Brattahlid, the medieval farming village founded here by Erik the Red around the year 985.

When they arrive, Ms. Gisladottir, an employee of the museum, is there to greet them in an authentic hooded smock and not-so-authentic rubber boots. "There were more visitors this year than last," she says. "People want to know what happened to the Norse."

The Greenland Norse colonized North America 500 years before Christopher Columbus "discovered" it, establishing farms in the sheltered fjords of southern Greenland, exploring Labrador and the Canadian Arctic, and setting up a short-lived outpost in Newfoundland.

But by 1450, they were gone, posing one of history's most intriguing mysteries: What happened to the Greenland Norse?

There are many theories: They were starved off by a cooling climate, wiped out by pirates or Inuit hunters, or perhaps

(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: colonists; godsgravesglyphs; greenland; norse; vikings
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To: muawiyah
"It was amazingly easy for them to leave, too. After all, they had boats."

Some accounts have them frozen in and unable to leave by boat/ship.

Also, I read a study a few years ago about DNA tests done among the Inuit to look for DNA traces of these people...none what-so-ever was found. They did not mate with the Inuit.

61 posted on 11/29/2007 1:37:40 PM PST by blam (Secure the border and enforce the law)
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To: Martins kid

They were beaten up by local indigenous natives and didn’t see the need to return until they had gunpowder.


62 posted on 11/29/2007 1:45:10 PM PST by x_plus_one (The entire Islamic moral universe devolves solely from the life and teachings of Muhammad.)
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To: MrB

Now I’ve seen it all. A “racist” map. OMG. Could these loony people complain about something else just for ONCE in their lives?


63 posted on 11/29/2007 1:52:49 PM PST by VeniVidiVici (No buy China!!)
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To: VeniVidiVici

Environmentalists, Vegans, Organics, save the Whales/Manatees/Kangaroo Rat types

are just too spoiled to have anything “real” to worry about.


64 posted on 11/29/2007 1:55:57 PM PST by MrB (You can't reason people out of a position that they didn't use reason to get into in the first place)
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To: bboop
Hey, maybe there were Muzzies up there.

you might be closer to the truth than one might think...

400 taken as slaves at Reykjavik Iceland: LINK

65 posted on 11/29/2007 2:34:46 PM PST by Fred Nerks (Fair dinkum!)
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To: ZULU
Not sure if she was in Rob Roy.
66 posted on 11/29/2007 3:00:35 PM PST by Ghengis (Of course freedom is free. If it wasn't, it would be called expensivedom. ~Cindy Sheehan 11/11/06)
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To: SunkenCiv
White Slaves, African Masters

Christian slaves of European ancestry were hardly an uncommon phenomenon in the Barbary States. The Barbary pirates were excellent seafarers and, from the Coasts of North Africa, sailed as far north as Iceland (where they went ashore and captured 800 slaves during one incident) and as far West as Newfoundland, Canada, where they pillaged more than 40 vessels at one time.

67 posted on 11/29/2007 3:07:27 PM PST by Fred Nerks (Fair dinkum!)
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To: SunkenCiv

http://www.spirasolaris.ca/1aintro.html

Did the Greenland Vikings simply fade away, or was there more to their story and more to the Viking Sagas in addition? It would seem that there was far more. In fact sufficient evidence exists to suggest that the last Vikings triumphed over the hardships of the Northwest Passage, and that the legendary lands of the Viking Sagas - Helluland, Markland and Vinland - are located on the West Coast of North America, not the East. Helluland extending from Etolin Island in Alaska south past the Bella Coola region of British Columbia; the Queen Charlotte Islands more than meeting the technical requirements for Markland, with British Columbia’s Duncan and the Cowichan Valley in the south-east corner of Vancouver Island providing the most logical technical fit for Vinland itself...

http://www.wineislands.ca/

... In 1516 the Norwegian archbishop Erik Valkendorf planned an expedition to Greenland, and for that purpose he took steps to collect information about conditions in that far-away land. In his notes we are told that there were black bear and marten in that country. A similar and quite independent piece of information appears in a work by Absalon Pedersen Beyers in 1567. He relates that in Greenland there were sable, marten, deer, and huge forests; but none of these are, in fact, found in Greenland, and the black bear is not even to be found in Norway...

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Aegean/9318/mandan.html
THE MYSTERY OF THE MANDANS
BY CHARLES W. MOORE


68 posted on 11/29/2007 4:21:13 PM PST by Fred Nerks (Fair dinkum!)
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To: ozzymandus

No timber to make boats.


69 posted on 11/29/2007 4:34:47 PM PST by mamelukesabre
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To: mamelukesabre
THE LAST VIKING (LINK)

60-Foot Nookta Canoe, Nitinat Lake, southwestern Vancouver Island

70 posted on 11/29/2007 6:46:14 PM PST by Fred Nerks (Fair dinkum!)
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To: Fred Nerks

Many thanks!


71 posted on 11/29/2007 9:57:12 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Profile updated Tuesday, November 27, 2007___________________https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: blam
Things got colder and they left.

Oh great. With Global Warming the Vikings just may return and Bush will blamed.

72 posted on 11/29/2007 9:59:37 PM PST by Gamecock (I AM SAVED BY WORKS!!! (Not my own, but those of Christ))
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To: MrB

haha, isn’t that just a crock? Greenland had to be larger than it was, the Vikings were tall and a larger-than-life presence. Hence the Mercator P.


73 posted on 11/30/2007 6:25:38 AM PST by bboop (Stealth Tutor)
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To: mamelukesabre

I’ve heard that. It’s part of the “they all died” theory. I don’t think it’s relevant as the Greenlanders weren’t isolated from other Norse societies. There aren’t any trees on Iceland, either, and they had boats.


74 posted on 11/30/2007 11:28:49 AM PST by ozzymandus
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To: wildbill

All air conditioners and cooling devices fail during late April, or first week of May, in Texas. It is a rule! Had it happen to my refrigerator, house air conditioner and all of the car air conditioners during the 10 years I lived there. It’s probably written in the Constitution in Austin! ;~)


75 posted on 11/30/2007 1:36:51 PM PST by afraidfortherepublic
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To: afraidfortherepublic

You forgot the corollary to the Failure of Your Air Conditioner Rule.

Not only do the air conditioners fail, they are legally bound to fail after 5:00 P.M. on a Friday. That way you have to do without all weekend or call a repairman at triple overtime weekend rates.


76 posted on 11/30/2007 1:51:00 PM PST by wildbill
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To: pabianice

Off to check out that link. Thanks for posting.


77 posted on 11/30/2007 2:59:30 PM PST by Ciexyz
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To: blam
Methinks this thread is one big "fish" story.
78 posted on 11/30/2007 3:00:43 PM PST by Ciexyz
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To: wildbill

LOLOLOLOL! Too, too true.

I remember when my AC failed a few weeks after the warranty expired and my husband sent a lengthy TELEX (before Faxes were invented) to the CEO of Carrier in New York. It ended with the words, “And now I have to spend Easter in Houston with no AC!”

To their credit, we had Carrier repairmen at our door on Monday morning after Easter and they replaced the air conditioner with a better model at a discounted price because we had complained prior to the warranty expiring and had been told that it was OK.

It was still a sweaty Easter dinner that year.


79 posted on 12/01/2007 8:00:05 AM PST by afraidfortherepublic
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80 posted on 05/30/2011 8:18:14 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Thanks Cincinna for this link -- http://www.friendsofitamar.org)
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