Soils and palaeo-climate based evidence for irrigation requirements in Norse Greenland
Establishing and sustaining agricultural production was a key factor in the success of Norse settlements during the landnám colonisation across the North Atlantic. In light of the occurrence of channel features in several abandoned home-field areas of the Norse Eastern Settlement of Greenland, and t...
| Published in: | Journal of Archaeological Science |
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| Main Authors: | , |
| Other Authors: | , , |
| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Elsevier
2006
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1893/624 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2006.02.014 http://dspace.stir.ac.uk/bitstream/1893/624/1/simpson-greenland_irrig.pdf |
| Summary: | Establishing and sustaining agricultural production was a key factor in the success of Norse settlements during the landnám colonisation across the North Atlantic. In light of the occurrence of channel features in several abandoned home-field areas of the Norse Eastern Settlement of Greenland, and the irrigation requirements of present-day Greenlandic sheep-farmers questions are raised: was irrigation used by the Norse settlers of Greenland on their home-field areas? and, if so, how frequently? Modelling of soil chemical, physical and soil-water hydraulic properties integrated with contemporary high-resolution climatic data demonstrate a frequent requirement for irrigation. Soil moisture deficits are related to the duration and intensity of winter temperature. Using the winter Dye 3 ice core δ18O record as a climatic proxy, the frequency of moisture deficits, based on comparing mean winter temperatures, indicates that there was a frequent irrigation requirement to maintain home-field productivity, increasing throughout the period of settlement until the 14th Century. |
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