The Utilisation of Native Woodland in Norse Greenland

ABSTRACT

Wood was a key raw material for past societies and no less so in the Arctic region where woodland is sparse. When Norse settlers came to Greenland in the late tenth century AD, the pristine environment had not been affected by other humans for centuries. It has been assumed that the Norse had a negative effect on the environment, with drastic woodland clearance resulting in a more or less treeless landscape, contributing to the eventual demise of the Norse Greenlandic society. Recent palynological studies indicate that the environmental impact was in fact more complex. Wood taxonomic analyses on artefacts and samples from five Norse Greenlandic sites (1000–1400 AD) show that 36% of the combined assemblages (total of 8552 pieces) derive from native woodland. Mostly, it was used to make small-sized objects, but it was also an important source of nutrients, fuel, fodder and insulation. The proportion of native woodland was significantly higher on medium-sized farms than at the one high-status farm studied, indicating that socioeconomic factors impacted wood acquisition. Although local woodlands could not sustain all the timber needs of the Norse Greenlanders, it made up a substantial component of their wood procurement strategies.

KEYWORDS:

• Greenland
• Norse
• native woodland
• wood anatomy
• twigs
• artefacts

Acknowledgements

This research is part of the project Sticks and stones. Raw material use in Norse Greenland. This paper is built on the author’s PhD project conducted at the University of Iceland and supervised by Dr. Orri Vésteinsson. The analysis of the wood assemblages took place at the Institute of Archaeology, Iceland; The National Museum of Greenland; and the National Museum of Denmark. I would like to thank Claudia Baittinger and Peter Rasmussen at the National Museum of Denmark, Christian Koch Madsen, Michael Nielsen and Kirstine Møller at the National Museum in Greenland and Guðrún Alda Gísladóttir for assistance with artefact analysis. Finally, I would like to thank Orri Vésteinsson, Jette Arneborg, Ólafur Eggertsson and Dawn Elise Mooney for helpful comments as well the two reviewers.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by The Icelandic Centre for Research (RANNÍS) [grant number 185055-053].

Notes on contributors

Lísabet Guðmundsdóttir

Lísabet Guðmundsdóttir is a PhD candidate at the University of Iceland, Department of Archaeology, with research experience in wood taxa analysis mainly to address wood utilisation patterns in the North Atlantic. She has extensive fieldwork experience with a focus on remains from the Viking Age and medieval period.