Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2004, Page 13

Approaches to the Greenlanders
Interestingly, bronze from broken
church-bells has not been found on
church sites in the Westem Settlement,
which, accordingly, ought to have been
ceded in a planned, or at least regulated
operation. This would have involved the
removal of valuables such as the church
bells by the Westem or even by Eastem
settlers, the latter being only a few hun-
dred kilometres away, a rather modest
distance for sailing vessels. By contrast,
fragments of bronze bells occur on
church sites in the Eastem Settlement,
which therefore ought to have seen the
churches intact and functioning until the
very end.
WRITTEN EVIDENCE
Explanations of the demise of the
Greenlanders range from a plague (cf. the
Black Death of around 1350, which
broadly corresponds in time to the ceding
of the Westem Settlement), to a failed
abandonment in the hope of retuming,
and a long and gradual decline (Ameborg
1993, 27f.). Thus, it has been suggested
that the Norse Greenlanders went to
Iceland where land became plentiful after
the plagues of 1402-04, although there
are no records of such a migration in the
rich Icelandic sources, or even that they
went to America, which is quite unlikely
(cf. Seaver 1996).
Previously, the hypothesis of attacks
on the Norsemen by the Inuit/Eskimos -
common among the tales of the latter -
was highly popular as an explanation for
the demise of the Norse. However, the
latter-day Inuit/Eskimos seem to have
held little precise historical knowledge,
and their tales of attacks and clashes may
well have been constmcted during the
contact period by European questioning
(e.g., Ameborg 1993,29f.). In reality, the
Inuit/Eskimos were probably quite
dependent on the Norse, as no doubt the
Norse were upon the Inuit, e.g. for trad-
ing.
It should not be forgotten that contact
with Scandinavia, and even with Iceland,
was severed from the fífteenth century
onwards, no doubt the ultimate factor in
the disappearance of Norse culture in
Greenland. Thus, the Greenlanders were
starved of contact with their own towards
the end of the settlement, and would no
doubt have welcomed other European
contact, although the latter may not
always have been a peaceful one. Raids
by English/British whalers and fishermen
are certainly possible. Equally likely are
departures of young and able males from
the Eastern Settlement on English ships
as forced or paid labour. Supposing a
Late Medieval decline in population, a
critical threshold could easily have been
reached with the young men leaving (or
partly succumbing in fighting against
foreign raiders).
A remarkable mid-fourteenth century
report on the Westem Settlement states
(quoted after Seaver 1996, 104, using
modem English; cf. Krogh 1967, 117).
"... Now the Skrælings have destroyed all
the Westem Settlement; there are left some
horses, goats, cattle, and sheep, all feral,
and no people either Christian or Heathen.
All the foregoing was told us by Ivar
Bárðarson Greenlander, who was the
superintendent of the Bishop’s establish-
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