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 ...
Some accounts have them frozen in and unable to leave by boat/ship.
Also, I read a study a few years ago about DNA tests done among the Inuit to look for DNA traces of these people...none what-so-ever was found. They did not mate with the Inuit.
They were beaten up by local indigenous natives and didn’t see the need to return until they had gunpowder.
Now I’ve seen it all. A “racist” map. OMG. Could these loony people complain about something else just for ONCE in their lives?
Environmentalists, Vegans, Organics, save the Whales/Manatees/Kangaroo Rat types
are just too spoiled to have anything “real” to worry about.
you might be closer to the truth than one might think...
Christian slaves of European ancestry were hardly an uncommon phenomenon in the Barbary States. The Barbary pirates were excellent seafarers and, from the Coasts of North Africa, sailed as far north as Iceland (where they went ashore and captured 800 slaves during one incident) and as far West as Newfoundland, Canada, where they pillaged more than 40 vessels at one time.
http://www.spirasolaris.ca/1aintro.html
Did the Greenland Vikings simply fade away, or was there more to their story and more to the Viking Sagas in addition? It would seem that there was far more. In fact sufficient evidence exists to suggest that the last Vikings triumphed over the hardships of the Northwest Passage, and that the legendary lands of the Viking Sagas - Helluland, Markland and Vinland - are located on the West Coast of North America, not the East. Helluland extending from Etolin Island in Alaska south past the Bella Coola region of British Columbia; the Queen Charlotte Islands more than meeting the technical requirements for Markland, with British Columbia’s Duncan and the Cowichan Valley in the south-east corner of Vancouver Island providing the most logical technical fit for Vinland itself...
... In 1516 the Norwegian archbishop Erik Valkendorf planned an expedition to Greenland, and for that purpose he took steps to collect information about conditions in that far-away land. In his notes we are told that there were black bear and marten in that country. A similar and quite independent piece of information appears in a work by Absalon Pedersen Beyers in 1567. He relates that in Greenland there were sable, marten, deer, and huge forests; but none of these are, in fact, found in Greenland, and the black bear is not even to be found in Norway...
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Aegean/9318/mandan.html
THE MYSTERY OF THE MANDANS
BY CHARLES W. MOORE
No timber to make boats.
Many thanks!
Oh great. With Global Warming the Vikings just may return and Bush will blamed.
haha, isn’t that just a crock? Greenland had to be larger than it was, the Vikings were tall and a larger-than-life presence. Hence the Mercator P.
I’ve heard that. It’s part of the “they all died” theory. I don’t think it’s relevant as the Greenlanders weren’t isolated from other Norse societies. There aren’t any trees on Iceland, either, and they had boats.
All air conditioners and cooling devices fail during late April, or first week of May, in Texas. It is a rule! Had it happen to my refrigerator, house air conditioner and all of the car air conditioners during the 10 years I lived there. It’s probably written in the Constitution in Austin! ;~)
You forgot the corollary to the Failure of Your Air Conditioner Rule.
Not only do the air conditioners fail, they are legally bound to fail after 5:00 P.M. on a Friday. That way you have to do without all weekend or call a repairman at triple overtime weekend rates.
Off to check out that link. Thanks for posting.
LOLOLOLOL! Too, too true.
I remember when my AC failed a few weeks after the warranty expired and my husband sent a lengthy TELEX (before Faxes were invented) to the CEO of Carrier in New York. It ended with the words, “And now I have to spend Easter in Houston with no AC!”
To their credit, we had Carrier repairmen at our door on Monday morning after Easter and they replaced the air conditioner with a better model at a discounted price because we had complained prior to the warranty expiring and had been told that it was OK.
It was still a sweaty Easter dinner that year.
|
· join list or digest · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post a topic · subscribe · |
|||
Antiquity Journal & archive Archaeologica Archaeology Archaeology Channel BAR Bronze Age Forum Discover Dogpile Eurekalert LiveScience Mirabilis.ca Nat Geographic PhysOrg Science Daily Science News Texas AM Yahoo Excerpt, or Link only? |
|
||
|
· Science topic · science keyword · Books/Literature topic · pages keyword · |
|||
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
