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Norse Colonization Of North America
The exploration of North America by Norsemen began in the late 10th century. Voyages from Iceland reached Greenland and founded colonies along its western coast. Norse settlements on Greenland lasted almost 500 years, and the population peaked at around 2,000–3,000 people. The colonies consisted mostly of farms along Greenland's scattered coastal fjords. Colonists relied heavily on hunting, especially of walruses and the harp seal. For lumber, they harvested driftwood, imported wood from Europe, and sailed to modern-day Canada. Archaeological evidence indicates that the Greenland colonists used lumber and possibly iron ore imported from North America. Archaeologists found remains of one short-term settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows near the northern tip of Newfoundland. The remains of buildings excavated there in the 1960s dated to approximately 1,000 years ago. It was not a permanent settlement and lacked graves and livestock areas. The site was abandoned, seemingly deliberate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Exploration Of North America
European powers employed sailors and geographers to map and explore North America with the goal of economic, religious and military expansion. The combative and rapid nature of this exploration is the result of a series of countering actions by neighboring European nations to ensure no single country had garnered enough wealth and power from the Americas to militarily tip the scales over on the European continent. Pre-Columbian exploration According to the Sagas of Icelanders, Norsemen, Norse sailors (often called Vikings) from Iceland first settled Greenland in the 980s. L'Anse aux Meadows, an archaeological site on the northernmost tip of Newfoundland (island), Newfoundland, and a second site in southwestern Newfoundland, are the only known sites of a Norse village in North America outside of Greenland. These sites are notable for their possible connections with the attempted colony of Vinland established by Leif Erikson in 1003. There are also some claims that Polynesian ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Erik The Red
Erik Thorvaldsson (), known as Erik the Red, was a Norse explorer, described in medieval and Icelandic saga sources as having founded the first European settlement in Greenland. Erik most likely earned the epithet "the Red" due to the color of his hair and beard. According to Icelandic sagas, Erik was born in the Jæren district of Rogaland, Norway, as the son of Thorvald Asvaldsson; to which Thorvald would later be banished from Norway, and would sail west to Iceland with Erik and his family. During Erik's life in Iceland, he married Þjódhild Jorundsdottir and would have four children, with one of Erik's sons being the well-known Icelandic explorer Leif Erikson. Around the year of 982, Erik was exiled from Iceland for three years, during which time he explored Greenland, eventually culminating in his founding of the first successful European settlement on the island. Erik would later die there around 1003 CE during a winter epidemic. Personal life Early life Erik Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Medieval Warm Period
The Medieval Warm Period (MWP), also known as the Medieval Climate Optimum or the Medieval Climatic Anomaly, was a time of warm climate in the North Atlantic region that lasted from about to about . Climate proxy records show peak warmth occurred at different times for different regions, which indicate that the MWP was not a globally uniform event. Some refer to the MWP as the ''Medieval Climatic Anomaly'' to emphasize that climatic effects other than temperature were also important. The MWP was followed by a regionally cooler period in the North Atlantic and elsewhere, which is sometimes called the Little Ice Age (LIA). Possible causes of the MWP include increased solar activity, decreased volcanic activity, and changes in ocean circulation. Modelling evidence has shown that natural variability is insufficient on its own to explain the MWP and that an external forcing had to be one of the causes. Research The MWP is generally thought to have occurred from about to about , ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Skerry
A skerry ( ) is a small rocky island, or islet, usually too small for human habitation. It may simply be a rocky reef. A skerry can also be called a low stack (geology), sea stack. A skerry may have vegetative life such as moss and small, hardy grasses. They are often used as resting places by animals such as Pinniped, seals and seabird, birds. Etymology The term ''skerry'' is derived from the Old Norse ', which means a small rocky island in the sea (which in turn derives from the Proto-Indo-European root *''sker''-, "cut", in the sense of a rock cut off from the land). The Old Norse term ' was brought into the English language via the Scots language word spelled or . It is a cognate of the Scandinavian languages' words for ''skerry'' – Icelandic language, Icelandic, , , , , found also in , , , , and (). In Scottish Gaelic, it appears as ', e.g. Sula Sgeir, in Irish language, Irish as '','' in Welsh language, Welsh as '','' and in Manx language, Manx as ''.'' Formatio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ívar Bárðarson
Ívar Bárðarson (also known as Ivar Bardarson) was a fourteenth-century Norwegian clergyman. After the death of the Gardar bishop, he became the Catholic Church's official representative in Greenland. He is known primarily for his reports on the medieval Norse colonies. The reports covered the Eastern Settlement, church property, daily life, and perilous sailing routes. On an expedition to the more remote Western Settlement, Bárðarson found the colony abandoned, inhabited only by feral livestock. No original written reports have survived, but a sixteenth-century Danish translation has been preserved. Despite possible errors or interpolations, it remains valuable to historians. The translation is one of the few primary sources for life in medieval Greenland. During the 1360s, he returned to Norway and was appointed canon of Bergen Cathedral. Life Ívar Bárðarson was a Norwegian clergyman who was the Catholic Church's official representative in Greenland from 1341 to 1366 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Landnámabók
(, "Book of Settlements"), often shortened to , is a medieval Icelandic written work which describes in considerable detail the settlement () of Iceland by the Norse in the 9th and 10th centuries CE. is divided into five parts and over 100 chapters. The first part tells of how the island was found. The latter parts count settlers quarter by quarter, beginning with west and ending with south. It traces important events and family history into the 12th century. More than 3,000 people and 1,400 settlements are described. It tells where each settler settled and provides a brief genealogy of his or her descendants. Sometimes short anecdote-like stories are also included. lists 435 people (', which includes men and women) as the initial settlers, the majority of them settling in the northern and southwestern parts of the island. It remains an invaluable source on both the history and genealogy of the Icelandic people. Some have suggested a single author, while others have ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kulusuk
Kulusuk (old spelling: ''Qulusuk''),Eastgreenland.com.Kulusuk". formerly Kap Dan, is a settlement in the Sermersooq municipality in southeastern Greenland, located on an island of the same name. The settlement has a population of 241, including many Danes choosing to live there due to the airport. In the Kalaallisut language, the name of the village means "Chest of a Black Guillemot". Geography The urbanized area of the settlement is centered around the harbour in the northwestern part of the island, on the shores of the Torsuut Tunoq sound. Industrial utility buildings are also scattered in the vicinity of the airport, to the northwest of the runway. Kulusuk Island The island measures from north to south and from west to east. It is hilly throughout, with several distinct mountains dominating the eastern and southern coast. The southernmost point is Cape Naujaangivit, formerly Cape Dan (, a name previously extended to the settlement and island) under the Isikajia mount ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gunnbjörn's Skerries
Gunnbjörn's skerries (''Gunnbjarnarsker'') were a group of small rocky islands along or near the eastern coast of Greenland. They form the earliest mention of Greenland in the Sagas of Icelanders. In the early 10th century, Gunnbjörn Ulfsson reports finding a group of rocky islands in the Atlantic when his ship is blown off course from Iceland. Named after him, Gunnbjörn's skerries were likely near modern-day Kulusuk just off the eastern coast of Greenland, but their exact location is unknown. According to the ''Landnámabók'', Snæbjörn Galti led the earliest recorded intentional Norse voyage to Greenland and started a failed settlement on the eastern coast of Greenland at the skerries. The colony struggled, Snæbjörn Galti was murdered, the settlement was abandoned, and only 2 colonists survived the return to Iceland.A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gunnbjörn Ulfsson
Gunnbjörn Ulfsson (fl. c. 10th century), also Gunnbjörn Ulf-Krakuson, was a Norwegian settler of Iceland. He was reportedly the first European to sight Greenland. A number of modern place names in Greenland commemorate Gunnbjörn, most notably Gunnbjørn Fjeld. Sources The only reference to Gunnbjörn is from the ''Book of Settlement of Iceland'' ('' Landnámabók''). It is stated that his sons lived in Iceland's West fjords and a note is made that Gunnbjörnssker are named after him. Gunnbjörn was blown off course while sailing from Norway to Iceland. He and his crew sighted islands ( Gunnbjörn's skerries) west of Iceland, and reported this find but did not land. An exact date for this event is not recorded in the sagas. Various sources offer dates ranging from 876 to 932. The first records of purposeful visits to Gunnbjörn's skerries were made by Snæbjörn Galti around 978 and soon after by Erik the Red who also explored the main island of Greenland, and soon establishe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Journal Of The North Atlantic
The ''Journal of the North Atlantic'' is an annual, peer-reviewed, online-only, academic journal covering the archaeology and environmental history of the peoples of the North Atlantic. It was established in 2008 and is published by Eagle Hill Publications. The editor-in-chief is Keith Goldfarb. The journal is abstracted and indexed in Scopus Scopus is a scientific abstract and citation database, launched by the academic publisher Elsevier as a competitor to older Web of Science in 2004. The ensuing competition between the two databases has been characterized as "intense" and is c .... References External links * * Online: Annual journals Archaeology journals Area studies journals English-language journals Environmental history Academic journals established in 2008 {{Italic title ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
