Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Disequilibrium, Adaptation, And The Norse Settlement Of Greenland, Rowan Jackson, Jette Arneborg, Andrew Dugmore, Christian Madsen, Tom Mcgovern, Konrad Smiarowski, Richard Streeter

Publications and Research

There is increasing evidence to suggest that arctic cultures and ecosystems have followed non-linear responses to climate change. Norse Scandinavian farmers introduced agriculture to sub-arctic Greenland in the late tenth century, creating synanthropic landscapes and utilising seasonally abundant marine and terrestrial resources. Using a niche-construction framework and data from recent survey work, studies of diet, and regional-scale climate proxies we examine the potential mismatch between this imported agricultural niche and the constraints of the environment from the tenth to the fifteenth centuries. We argue that landscape modification conformed the Norse to a Scandinavian style of agriculture throughout settlement, structuring and …