Change of Diet of the Greenland Vikings Determined from Stable Carbon Isotope Analysis and 14 C Dating of Their Bones
Bone samples from the Greenland Viking colony provide us with a unique opportunity to test and use 14 C dating of remains of humans who depended upon food of mixed marine and terrestrial origin. We investigated the skeletons of 27 Greenland Norse people excavated from churchyard burials from the lat...
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Language: | English |
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Cambridge University Press (CUP)
1999
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0033822200019512 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0033822200019512 |
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crcambridgeupr:10.1017/s0033822200019512 2024-06-23T07:53:13+00:00 Change of Diet of the Greenland Vikings Determined from Stable Carbon Isotope Analysis and 14 C Dating of Their Bones Arneborg, Jette Heinemeier, Jan Lynnerup, Niels Nielsen, Henrik L Rud, Niels Sveinbjörnsdóttir, Árný E 1999 http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0033822200019512 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0033822200019512 en eng Cambridge University Press (CUP) https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms Radiocarbon volume 41, issue 2, page 157-168 ISSN 0033-8222 1945-5755 journal-article 1999 crcambridgeupr https://doi.org/10.1017/s0033822200019512 2024-05-29T08:08:02Z Bone samples from the Greenland Viking colony provide us with a unique opportunity to test and use 14 C dating of remains of humans who depended upon food of mixed marine and terrestrial origin. We investigated the skeletons of 27 Greenland Norse people excavated from churchyard burials from the late 10th to the middle 15th century. The stable carbon isotopic composition (δ 13 C) of the bone collagen reveals that the diet of the Greenland Norse changed dramatically from predominantly terrestrial food at the time of Eric the Red around AD 1000 to predominantly marine food toward the end of the settlement period around AD 1450. We find that it is possible to 14 C-date these bones of mixed marine and terrestrial origin precisely when proper correction for the marine reservoir effect (the 14 C age difference between terrestrial and marine organisms) is taken into account. From the dietary information obtained via the δ 13 C values of the bones We have calculated individual reservoir age corrections for the measured 14 C ages of each skeleton. The reservoir age corrections were calibrated by comparing the 14 C dates of 3 highly marine skeletons with the 14 C dates of their terrestrial grave clothes. The calibrated ages of all 27 skeletons from different parts of the Norse settlement obtained by this method are found to be consistent with available historical and archaeological chronology. The evidence for a change in subsistence from terrestrial to marine food is an important clue to the old puzzle of the disappearance of the Greenland Norse, obtained here for the first time by measurements on the remains of the people themselves instead of by more indirect methods like kitchen-midden analysis. Article in Journal/Newspaper Greenland Cambridge University Press Greenland Radiocarbon 41 2 157 168 |
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Open Polar |
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Cambridge University Press |
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crcambridgeupr |
language |
English |
description |
Bone samples from the Greenland Viking colony provide us with a unique opportunity to test and use 14 C dating of remains of humans who depended upon food of mixed marine and terrestrial origin. We investigated the skeletons of 27 Greenland Norse people excavated from churchyard burials from the late 10th to the middle 15th century. The stable carbon isotopic composition (δ 13 C) of the bone collagen reveals that the diet of the Greenland Norse changed dramatically from predominantly terrestrial food at the time of Eric the Red around AD 1000 to predominantly marine food toward the end of the settlement period around AD 1450. We find that it is possible to 14 C-date these bones of mixed marine and terrestrial origin precisely when proper correction for the marine reservoir effect (the 14 C age difference between terrestrial and marine organisms) is taken into account. From the dietary information obtained via the δ 13 C values of the bones We have calculated individual reservoir age corrections for the measured 14 C ages of each skeleton. The reservoir age corrections were calibrated by comparing the 14 C dates of 3 highly marine skeletons with the 14 C dates of their terrestrial grave clothes. The calibrated ages of all 27 skeletons from different parts of the Norse settlement obtained by this method are found to be consistent with available historical and archaeological chronology. The evidence for a change in subsistence from terrestrial to marine food is an important clue to the old puzzle of the disappearance of the Greenland Norse, obtained here for the first time by measurements on the remains of the people themselves instead of by more indirect methods like kitchen-midden analysis. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Arneborg, Jette Heinemeier, Jan Lynnerup, Niels Nielsen, Henrik L Rud, Niels Sveinbjörnsdóttir, Árný E |
spellingShingle |
Arneborg, Jette Heinemeier, Jan Lynnerup, Niels Nielsen, Henrik L Rud, Niels Sveinbjörnsdóttir, Árný E Change of Diet of the Greenland Vikings Determined from Stable Carbon Isotope Analysis and 14 C Dating of Their Bones |
author_facet |
Arneborg, Jette Heinemeier, Jan Lynnerup, Niels Nielsen, Henrik L Rud, Niels Sveinbjörnsdóttir, Árný E |
author_sort |
Arneborg, Jette |
title |
Change of Diet of the Greenland Vikings Determined from Stable Carbon Isotope Analysis and 14 C Dating of Their Bones |
title_short |
Change of Diet of the Greenland Vikings Determined from Stable Carbon Isotope Analysis and 14 C Dating of Their Bones |
title_full |
Change of Diet of the Greenland Vikings Determined from Stable Carbon Isotope Analysis and 14 C Dating of Their Bones |
title_fullStr |
Change of Diet of the Greenland Vikings Determined from Stable Carbon Isotope Analysis and 14 C Dating of Their Bones |
title_full_unstemmed |
Change of Diet of the Greenland Vikings Determined from Stable Carbon Isotope Analysis and 14 C Dating of Their Bones |
title_sort |
change of diet of the greenland vikings determined from stable carbon isotope analysis and 14 c dating of their bones |
publisher |
Cambridge University Press (CUP) |
publishDate |
1999 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0033822200019512 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0033822200019512 |
geographic |
Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Greenland |
genre |
Greenland |
genre_facet |
Greenland |
op_source |
Radiocarbon volume 41, issue 2, page 157-168 ISSN 0033-8222 1945-5755 |
op_rights |
https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1017/s0033822200019512 |
container_title |
Radiocarbon |
container_volume |
41 |
container_issue |
2 |
container_start_page |
157 |
op_container_end_page |
168 |
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1802644766967463936 |