Pushing the limits: palynological investigations at the margin of the Greenland Ice Sheet in the Norse Western Settlement
This paper presents two high-resolution pollen records dating to ~AD 1000-1400 that reveal the impacts of Norse colonists on vegetation and landscape around a remote farmstead in the Western Settlement of Greenland. The study is centred upon a ‘centralised farm’ (ruin group V53d) in Austmannadalen,...
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Taylor & Francis (Routledge)
2022
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ftmanchuniv:oai:e-space.mmu.ac.uk:624013 2024-05-19T07:35:42+00:00 Pushing the limits: palynological investigations at the margin of the Greenland Ice Sheet in the Norse Western Settlement Schofield, Edward Pearce, Danni Mair, Douglas Rea, Brice Lea, James Kamenos, Nicholas Schoenrock, Kathryn Barr, Iestyn Edwards, Kevin 2022-03-04 text https://e-space.mmu.ac.uk/624013/10/Schofield%20et%20al%20%28accepted%29-1.pdf https://e-space.mmu.ac.uk/624013/3/Schofield%20et%20al_Figs.%20%28accepted%29.pdf en eng Taylor & Francis (Routledge) https://e-space.mmu.ac.uk/624013/ https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14614103.2019.1677075 10.1080/14614103.2019.1677075 https://e-space.mmu.ac.uk/624013/10/Schofield%20et%20al%20%28accepted%29-1.pdf https://e-space.mmu.ac.uk/624013/3/Schofield%20et%20al_Figs.%20%28accepted%29.pdf Schofield, Edward </view/creators/Schofield=3AEdward=3A=3A.html>, Pearce, Danni </view/creators/Pearce=3ADanni=3A=3A.html>, Mair, Douglas </view/creators/Mair=3ADouglas=3A=3A.html>, Rea, Brice </view/creators/Rea=3ABrice=3A=3A.html>, Lea, James </view/creators/Lea=3AJames=3A=3A.html>, Kamenos, Nicholas </view/creators/Kamenos=3ANicholas=3A=3A.html>, Schoenrock, Kathryn </view/creators/Schoenrock=3AKathryn=3A=3A.html>, Barr, Iestyn </view/creators/Barr=3AIestyn=3A=3A.html> ORCID logoorcid:0000-0002-9066-8738 and Edwards, Kevin </view/creators/Edwards=3AKevin=3A=3A.html> (2022) Pushing the limits: palynological investigations at the margin of the Greenland Ice Sheet in the Norse Western Settlement. Environmental Archaeology, 27 (2). pp. 228-242. ISSN 1461-4103 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Article PeerReviewed 2022 ftmanchuniv 2024-04-30T23:54:03Z This paper presents two high-resolution pollen records dating to ~AD 1000-1400 that reveal the impacts of Norse colonists on vegetation and landscape around a remote farmstead in the Western Settlement of Greenland. The study is centred upon a ‘centralised farm’ (ruin group V53d) in Austmannadalen, near the margin of the Greenland Ice Sheet (64º13’ N, 49º49’W). The climate is low arctic and considered marginal in terms of its suitability for the type of pastoral agriculture that the Norse settlers introduced. The data reveal that at a short distance (~500 m) from the farm buildings, the palynological ‘footprint’ for settlement becomes extremely indistinct, the only clear palaeoenvironmental evidence for a human presence being elevated levels of microscopic charcoal. This contrasts with the Eastern Settlement, where a strong palynological signature for Norse landnám is evident, from the local (individual farm) through to the regional (landscape) scale. The palynological data from Austmannadalen, and the Western Settlement more generally, imply that farming occurred at very low intensity. This aligns with ideas that promote the importance of hunting, and trade in valuable Arctic commodities (e.g. walrus ivory), ahead of a search for new pasture as the dominant motivation driving the Norse settlement of this region. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Greenland Ice Sheet walrus* eSpace - Manchester Metropolitan University's Research Repository |
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Open Polar |
collection |
eSpace - Manchester Metropolitan University's Research Repository |
op_collection_id |
ftmanchuniv |
language |
English |
description |
This paper presents two high-resolution pollen records dating to ~AD 1000-1400 that reveal the impacts of Norse colonists on vegetation and landscape around a remote farmstead in the Western Settlement of Greenland. The study is centred upon a ‘centralised farm’ (ruin group V53d) in Austmannadalen, near the margin of the Greenland Ice Sheet (64º13’ N, 49º49’W). The climate is low arctic and considered marginal in terms of its suitability for the type of pastoral agriculture that the Norse settlers introduced. The data reveal that at a short distance (~500 m) from the farm buildings, the palynological ‘footprint’ for settlement becomes extremely indistinct, the only clear palaeoenvironmental evidence for a human presence being elevated levels of microscopic charcoal. This contrasts with the Eastern Settlement, where a strong palynological signature for Norse landnám is evident, from the local (individual farm) through to the regional (landscape) scale. The palynological data from Austmannadalen, and the Western Settlement more generally, imply that farming occurred at very low intensity. This aligns with ideas that promote the importance of hunting, and trade in valuable Arctic commodities (e.g. walrus ivory), ahead of a search for new pasture as the dominant motivation driving the Norse settlement of this region. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Schofield, Edward Pearce, Danni Mair, Douglas Rea, Brice Lea, James Kamenos, Nicholas Schoenrock, Kathryn Barr, Iestyn Edwards, Kevin |
spellingShingle |
Schofield, Edward Pearce, Danni Mair, Douglas Rea, Brice Lea, James Kamenos, Nicholas Schoenrock, Kathryn Barr, Iestyn Edwards, Kevin Pushing the limits: palynological investigations at the margin of the Greenland Ice Sheet in the Norse Western Settlement |
author_facet |
Schofield, Edward Pearce, Danni Mair, Douglas Rea, Brice Lea, James Kamenos, Nicholas Schoenrock, Kathryn Barr, Iestyn Edwards, Kevin |
author_sort |
Schofield, Edward |
title |
Pushing the limits: palynological investigations at the margin of the Greenland Ice Sheet in the Norse Western Settlement |
title_short |
Pushing the limits: palynological investigations at the margin of the Greenland Ice Sheet in the Norse Western Settlement |
title_full |
Pushing the limits: palynological investigations at the margin of the Greenland Ice Sheet in the Norse Western Settlement |
title_fullStr |
Pushing the limits: palynological investigations at the margin of the Greenland Ice Sheet in the Norse Western Settlement |
title_full_unstemmed |
Pushing the limits: palynological investigations at the margin of the Greenland Ice Sheet in the Norse Western Settlement |
title_sort |
pushing the limits: palynological investigations at the margin of the greenland ice sheet in the norse western settlement |
publisher |
Taylor & Francis (Routledge) |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
https://e-space.mmu.ac.uk/624013/10/Schofield%20et%20al%20%28accepted%29-1.pdf https://e-space.mmu.ac.uk/624013/3/Schofield%20et%20al_Figs.%20%28accepted%29.pdf |
genre |
Arctic Greenland Ice Sheet walrus* |
genre_facet |
Arctic Greenland Ice Sheet walrus* |
op_relation |
https://e-space.mmu.ac.uk/624013/ https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14614103.2019.1677075 10.1080/14614103.2019.1677075 https://e-space.mmu.ac.uk/624013/10/Schofield%20et%20al%20%28accepted%29-1.pdf https://e-space.mmu.ac.uk/624013/3/Schofield%20et%20al_Figs.%20%28accepted%29.pdf Schofield, Edward </view/creators/Schofield=3AEdward=3A=3A.html>, Pearce, Danni </view/creators/Pearce=3ADanni=3A=3A.html>, Mair, Douglas </view/creators/Mair=3ADouglas=3A=3A.html>, Rea, Brice </view/creators/Rea=3ABrice=3A=3A.html>, Lea, James </view/creators/Lea=3AJames=3A=3A.html>, Kamenos, Nicholas </view/creators/Kamenos=3ANicholas=3A=3A.html>, Schoenrock, Kathryn </view/creators/Schoenrock=3AKathryn=3A=3A.html>, Barr, Iestyn </view/creators/Barr=3AIestyn=3A=3A.html> ORCID logoorcid:0000-0002-9066-8738 and Edwards, Kevin </view/creators/Edwards=3AKevin=3A=3A.html> (2022) Pushing the limits: palynological investigations at the margin of the Greenland Ice Sheet in the Norse Western Settlement. Environmental Archaeology, 27 (2). pp. 228-242. ISSN 1461-4103 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
_version_ |
1799474507120902144 |