Why did Greenland’s Viking colonies disappear? It may have been because the trade in walrus ivory co

[Elderberry]

South China Morning Post 8/8/2019

Why did Greenland’s Viking colonies disappear? It may have been because the trade in walrus ivory collapsed

At one point, the Vikings’ descendants thrived on a lucrative trade in walrus tusks, which were sold to Europe’s elite and carved into luxury items

Clues to the mystery of why Viking colonies in Greenland thrived and then disappeared have been found in the DNA of medieval walrus bones housed in more than a dozen European museums.

For almost 500 years, the Norse descendants of Erik the Red built churches and manor homes and expanded their settlements on the icy fringes of European civilisation.

On Greenland, they had elaborate stone churches with bronze bells and stained glass, a monastery, and their own bishop. Their colonies at one time supported more than 2,000 people. And then they vanished. Scholars have long wondered why.

“Why did they flourish and why did they disappear?” asked Thomas McGovern, an anthropologist at Hunter College in New York. “And did their greatest success also contain the seeds of their demise?”

Researchers who visited museums across western Europe to assemble a rare pile of artefacts – fragments of medieval walrus skulls – reported in a study in Wednesday’s Proceedings of the Royal Society B that the fate of these medieval outposts may have been tied to the demand for walrus ivory among rich Europeans.

More: https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/2158799/why-did-greenlands-viking-colonies-disappear-it-may-have-been

[Joe Wooten]

That study completely ignored the true reason the Greenland colony collapsed - CLIMATE. When it was settled, the planet was in the medieval warm period (~1000 AD) with average temperatures higher than they are now. The ice sheets were much further back from the coastal areas which allowed a thriving farming culture to be established. As the little ice age came on about 1350 AD, farming became more problematical, and as it deepened over the next 150 years or so, farming became impossible and the colonies collapsed. By 1500 or so, they were gone.

I think one interesting fact the global warming climate change fanatics ignore is the old Viking farmsteads uncovered as the coastal ice sheets have receded in recent years. Another is the old Alpine mines uncovered as the glaciers in the Alps recede.

[Gefn]

@Sanguine
@musiclady

Viking Ping

[Gefn]

(I wanted to ping TWB so bad, dang!)

[Sanguine]

@Sanguine
@musiclady

Viking Ping

Thanks, @Gefn.  How are you feeling today?

[Bigun]

That study completely ignored the true reason the Greenland colony collapsed - CLIMATE. When it was settled, the planet was in the medieval warm period (~1000 AD) with average temperatures higher than they are now. The ice sheets were much further back from the coastal areas which allowed a thriving farming culture to be established. As the little ice age came on about 1350 AD, farming became more problematical, and as it deepened over the next 150 years or so, farming became impossible and the colonies collapsed. By 1500 or so, they were gone.

I think one interesting fact the global warming climate change fanatics ignore is the old Viking farmsteads uncovered as the coastal ice sheets have receded in recent years. Another is the old Alpine mines uncovered as the glaciers in the Alps recede.

Yep!  Climate change is the culprit!

[Gefn]

Thanks, @Gefn.  How are you feeling

Good

[PeteS in CA]

Rather than THE reason it's more like a Root Cause Analysis fishbone diagram. Livestock died, crops failed, fewer walruses ----> climate ----> Viking Sport Utility Longboats.