Some Zooarchaeology Connections:Seals, Ice, Climate Change, Adaptation,& Hazard

in Norse Greenland

• Multiple Archaeofauna (1892-2009)

• Large Sample Sizes• Improved

Comparability– Excavation– Identification– Data management &

Reporting

Norse N Atlantic Colonization c 800-1000 CEWestwards into the Arctic, Crossing Climate Gradients

Ice Riding Seal Populations

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Settlement Phase Domestic Mammals

Cattle Horse Dog Pig Caprine

10th c Iceland11th-12th c Iceland

11th - 12th c Greenland

Norw. Chieftain Farm

9th c Iceland

Faroe Faroe Faroe

Settlement Phase Wild & Domestic

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Total Domestic Birds Cetacea Seals Caribou Other Mammal Fish Mollusca

NorwayFaroes GreenlandFaroes FaroesIceland

Iceland

Norse Sealing in Greenland: Arctic species and migratory riches

• New Species Encountered: Migratory Harp and Hooded seals, non-migratory Ringed and Bearded Seal.

• Norse Greenlanders rapidly exploit seasonal Harp and Hooded seal migration (nets, clubs, boat drives: coordinated labor).

• No harpoons in Norse sites.

• Non-migratory (breathing hole) seals taken w/harpoons by Inuit are rarely hunted by Norse.

• Missing technology = missed opportunity???

• OR: different cultural orientation & different (communal) adaptation?

Successful Norse Sealing in GreenlandBy the 14th c. small farms show the highest % of seal bones

but ALL Norse Greenlandic Archaeofauna are very seal-rich

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V 48 late V 54 late V 51 lateCattle Caprines Caribou Seals

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Brattahlid N Farm Marine / Terrestrial Mammal

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All pre 1200 Contexts ca 1200-1250 ca 1250-1300 post-1300

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Even on Chieftain Farms in the richest parts of the Eastern Settlement, the proportion of marine (mainly seal) bones to all terrestrial mammal bones goes up: especially after ca. 1250-1300

Inland Icelandic

Pagan Burials

Faroese Whaling Traditional (at least to11th c)

Communal boat driveCultural Core Experience

Provides food (esp. during WW2)Connection to Heritage

Reaffirmation of Community SolidarityNot eco-tourist friendly

Greenland Field Projects 2005-09(CUNY, KNK, SILA, National Museum DK)

Norse Migratory Sealing Requires “Commuting” from inner fjord pastures that support farms to the outer fjord sealing areas in early spring. Small “six oared boats” mentioned in surviving documents are probably rare, valuable, and vulnerable. Travel costs, weather hazard, point-source-failure vulnerability?

Connecting Deep sea cores, Zooarchaeology & Climate

Thresholds in SW Greenland

Sea cores detect major change in summer sea ice distribution in SE and SW Greenland.

Increasing summer drift ice after 1250-1300 AD.

Jennings A. E and Nancy J WeinerEnvironmental change in eastern Greenland during the last 1300

years; evidence from foraminifera and lithofacies in Nansen Fjord, 68 degrees N. The Holocene, 8(3) 434-441

Jensen et al. 2004; Diatom evidence of hydrographic changes and ice conditions in Igaliku Fjord, South Greenland, during the past 1500 years. The Holocene 14,2, 152-164

Summer Ice, Growing Season, and Seal Populations

• Summer drift ice disrupts local travel in Norse Eastern Settlement area.

• Drift ice also cools sea level pastures, reducing growing season of the most productive plant communities.

• Summer drift ice adversely affects harbor seal colonies.

Harbor Seals & Sea Ice

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E17a AD1000

E 29 N 1200-1250

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E 17a L.Medieval

W51-11050-1150

W51 3/4 1150-1250

GUS 1000-1200

W51-5 1250-1350

GUS 1200-1300

GUS 1300-1400

W48-41250-1350

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l (N

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Ringed Harbor Bearded Hooded Harp

Ogilvie, A., Smiarowski K, et al Journal of the North Atlantic 2009

Harbor seals (brown) are commonly taken in Norse E Settlement before c 1250-1300, but become rare after 1300.

In the W Settlement (not affected by summer drift ice), there is no harbor seal crash post-1300

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12th Century AD

Fig. 1: Central Greenland derived palaeotemperatures (GISP2 180 )

E: Departures from mean (right hand scale)F: Cumulative departures from mean (left hand scale)

•Upper Curve shows changes in year-to-year predictability.

•Jagged areas (boxes) show periods of high inter-annual variability.

•Stress points for human planning?

Dugmore, Andy, Christian Keller & Thomas H. McGovern, 2007 Reflections on climate change, trade, and the contrasting fates of human settlements in the North Atlantic islands, Arctic Anthropology 44(1): 12-37.