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Alt. Hist. request, Vikings make a go of the "New World"?
#33
RE: Alt. Hist. request, Vikings make a go of the "New World"?
(May 1, 2018 at 2:08 pm)Khemikal Wrote: The greenland settlement became a marine hunting colony (in truth, that may have been the initial impetus for a greenland outpost).  I'm not sure what you're referring to when you say that they didn't adapt their food production to the climate.  

There was only so much they could do...and only so much interest in greenland.  What superior inuit technology?

Marine animal harvest was  probably the initial economic underpinning of the Greenland Viking settlement, but pretty sure agriculture and Cattle raising was always how the settlers subsisted.   Later as the weather turned colder, the settlers first lost the ability continuing taking in the annual marine harvest and dropped out of the European trading network.  

During the last century of the settlememt’s existence, it was not really in contact with Europe, but was a self sustaining agricultural settlement until worsening weather made argricukture and animal husbandry increasingly unproductive as well.  Archeology shows eventually animal husbandary became so difficult in winter that in spring the cows had to be carried by hand to their pasture lands.

During this period, the settlement could have benefited tremendously from trading with the Inuit, or from adopting Inuit hunting techniques to provide the protein and calories that traditional Viking agriculture proved increasingly unequal to providing under the climate condition.
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RE: Alt. Hist. request, Vikings make a go of the "New World"? - by Anomalocaris - May 1, 2018 at 4:01 pm



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