Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2002, Page 96

Ole Guldager
information regarding the development
of the settlement in the nearly 500 years
it existed. Due to this lack of informa-
tion, I believe that the theory on the
social structure of Norse Greenland pre-
sented here is as far as we can hope to
venture at the present time. The theory
may (and probably will) stand more or
less corrected as research progresses into
the next century, but it is my hope that
this theoretical framework can serve as a
foundation, from which new insights and
new results can be obtained.
And how do we get a deeper insight
into the development of the Norse settle-
ments in Greenland? The answer to this
is simple: By doing more research. But
this is not as easy a task as it would
appear to be.
The history of research into the Norse
settlements in Greenland has til recent
years been very much influenced (and
controlled) by political motives. The
activity has been high only in periods of
political stress, like in the classical exca-
vation years (1921-32), when the sover-
eignty of Greenland was not yet com-
pletely settled. The sad conflict between
Denmark and Norway also resulted in a
gap between Norwegian and Greenlandic
Norse archaeology, which set research
back for decades.
Even today, the Norse archaeology in
Greenland is in certain ways an orphan,
the culture having no living descendants
in the country (the closest of kin today
would be the Icelandic people). The
responsibility of doing research today
officially rests in the hands of the only
twenty years old Greenlandic home rule.
Still, the research is to a large extent
being conducted solely by Danish
researchers, continuing the more than
200 years old research traditions.
What is needed, not only for the Norse
Greenlandic archeology, but for the
North Atlantic archaeology in general, is
the achievement of more openness across
the national and political borders of the
modern age. Originally, the North
Atlantic was one cultural sphere, with
people moving freely between the differ-
ent regions, living in similar dwellings
and speaking the same language. Norse
research could be conducted in a similar
way, not as a national matter, but as a cul-
tural matter, giving research the opportu-
nity to work and collaborate independ-
ently in the entire North Atlantic, above
the limitations of national boundaries and
political interests.
With more openness, I am convinced
that we will be able to fmd the answers to
those questions still unsolved.
A cknowledgements:
I wish to express my thanks to Steffen
Stummann Hansen, Simon Gleie, Soren
Albek, Katja Kafling Lindberg, Jon
Wichmann Hansen and Anya Guldager
for their assistance during the work with
this article.
I would also like to thank Georg
Nyegaard, Rie Oldenburg, Jens
Hagemann, Joel Berglund, Svend Erik
Albrethsen, Jette Arneborg, Hans Kapel,
Christian Keller, Greenland Travel,
Fjeldstationen in Narsarsuaq,
Frederiksberg Sparekasse, Fornleifa-
stofnun íslands and the always helpful
and openhearted sheep farmers of south
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