Posted on 11/29/2007 10:26:32 AM PST by blam
Ancient Greenland mystery has a simple answer, it seems
First: A reproduction of Tjodhilde's Church stands in Brattahlid, Greenland. It was the first Christian church in North America. Colin Woodard
Did the Norse colonists starve? Were they wiped out by the Inuit – or did they intermarry? No. Things got colder and they left.
By Colin Woodard | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
from the November 28, 2007 edition
Reporter Colin Woodard describes an ecumenical service at a Greenland church built by legendary Norseman "Erik the Red."QASSIARSUK, Greenland - A shipload of visitors arrived in the fjord overnight, so Ingibjorg Gisladottir dressed like a Viking and headed out to work in the ruins scattered along the northern edge of this tiny farming village.
Qassiarsuk is tiny (population: 56), remote, and short on amenities (no store, public restrooms, or roads to the outside world), but some 3,000 visitors come here each year to see the remains of Brattahlid, the medieval farming village founded here by Erik the Red around the year 985.
When they arrive, Ms. Gisladottir, an employee of the museum, is there to greet them in an authentic hooded smock and not-so-authentic rubber boots. "There were more visitors this year than last," she says. "People want to know what happened to the Norse."
The Greenland Norse colonized North America 500 years before Christopher Columbus "discovered" it, establishing farms in the sheltered fjords of southern Greenland, exploring Labrador and the Canadian Arctic, and setting up a short-lived outpost in Newfoundland.
But by 1450, they were gone, posing one of history's most intriguing mysteries: What happened to the Greenland Norse?
There are many theories: They were starved off by a cooling climate, wiped out by pirates or Inuit hunters, or perhaps
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
“Things got colder and they left.”
Yep.
Any explanation is acceptable to the Al Gore Crowd, except
noting THE REAL HEADLINE!
“Global Warming AND Global Cooling Happen All The Time”
“Things got colder and they left.”
Yep.
Any explanation is acceptable to the Al Gore Crowd, except
noting THE REAL HEADLINE!
“Global Warming AND Global Cooling Happen All The Time”
Less møøselimb?
Bush's fault.
Probably. But Scandinavian women are HOT!
This has been going on for thousands of years.
“I think it was said on that program that they refused to eat fish too.”
LOL - this from the guys that invented Lutefisk! (Although I’m not sure I would call it fish!?) Makes me think though - why wouldn’t the Norse eat fish??? That was and is a huge part of their diet? Perhaps the folks on Greenland haS become such landlubbers because of the good soil they forgot how to fish. And perhaps they refused fish from the Inuit for religious reasons?
Somewhere long ago I read about some explorers who visited Greenland in the 1500s and found dead Greenland settlers. Spanish explorers, I think. I always wondered whether these explorers had killed and robbed the last Greenland Viking inhabitants. The only thing I found when searching today concerned a Dutchman named strangely enough, Jon Greenlander, who visited Greenland in 1540.
"Dutch whaling captain Jon Greenlander lands in Greenland and finds the last Norse colonist lying dead outside his hut with an iron dagger in his hand" [Source]
You’ve been watching the hysteria channel again, haven’t you?
AGLOOLIK
Good spirit that lived under the ice and helped with hunting and fishing.
And Garrison Keillor is cited as evidence that they intermarried....
with each other.
I’ve been studying climate change for over 60 years and have come to some startling conclusions:
1. Climate change first came to my attention as a young boy when I noticed that the days in S. Texas became hotter and hotter in the months from May to Sept. In the days before air-conditioning this was all but unberable. But we had to grin and bear it.
2. Then there would be a couple of months of tolerable temperatures during Sept to Oct, sometimes lasting through November. Some nasty cold rains though.
3. Usually by December the climate would reverse, becoming progressively colder through Feb. My personality frequently changed during this period for no reason at all.
4.Although March and April had some revisionist leanings, they usually provided a liveable climate that should have been a model for the rest of the year. Except for the thunderstorms with golf-ball sized hail and tornados. Of course, I was a poor boy and didn’t know what a golf ball was so I just called them ‘big as horse turds.”
5. But no...Mr Climate wouldn’t have that. May started the same ugly cycle all over again. I have seen this happen all the years without any significant variation and believe climate change to be all too real.
‘Occam’s Razor’ comes to mind.
Thanks for the link! Lack of trade due to ice-bound oceans and political changes - VERY interesting.
Hey, what’s that big round hot thing? There, in the sky? ;’)
I didn’t know that Greenland was considered part of North America.
The Anthropologists are missing the most glaring cause here — they left BECAUSE of the lutefisk. Anyone would. We did. That would be a compelling reason to emigrate if any would.
The academics — they always miss the common-sense hypotheses.
So, this article mentions the Skraelings. Wasn’t that the name used by the settlers in North America? “The Skraelings came and killed most of us” or something?? I think so. Must mean ‘barbarians.’
Hey, maybe there were Muzzies up there.
My understanding is that the Inuit diet is lethal to most other humans.
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