Abstract
Just over a thousand years ago, Scandinavian voyagers crossed the grey waters of the North Atlantic to briefly explore the coast of North America. These now well - publicized transatlantic trips were part of larger economic, environmental, and social developments of the Viking Age, and were the product of an Iron Age chiefly society with a complex economy incorporating both classic “prestige goods” and “staple goods” components. The Viking Age expansion was the result of linked factors of economic intensification, military and technological advances, climate change, and intense competition among chiefly elites and between elites and commoners. The period saw escalating Nordic impact upon North-West Europe and a dramatic expansion of European settlement into the offshore islands of the North Atlantic. This paper will focus upon the economic development of two of the most western of the Norse Atlantic settlements, Iceland and Greenland, and seeks to bring fresh data to bear on the knotty problem of pre-state economics. In both examples, complex political and economic structures were supported through intensification in both domestic consumption and export to European markets. The particular resources, terrestrial and marine, domestic and wild, that were the subject of intensified economic effort differed in Iceland and Greenland. We examine the production and utilization of these resources and effects that changing demand for these products entailed for the fortunes of the Norse settlements of Iceland and Greenland, and for their would-be magnates.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Amundsen, Colin, 1999, Early Medieval Iceland and Paleofisheries Research: a preliminary report;, paper presented at Historical Dimensions of Human Adaptability and Environmental Change in the North Atlantic Regions workshop hosted by NABO and the Stefansson Arctic Inst. Akureyri Iceland July 16–21, 1999.
Amundsen, Colin P., 2004, Farming and Maritime resources at Midbaer on Flatey in Breiðfjörd, NorthWest Iceland. In: R. A Housely & G Coles (eds) Atlantic Connections and Adaptations; economies, environments and subsistence in lands bordering the North Atlantic, AEA/NABO Environmental Archaeology Monographs 21, Oxbow Books. In press.
Amundsen Colin, Sophia Perdikaris, Thomas H. McGovern, Yekaterina Krivogorskaya, Matthew Brown, Konrad Smiarowski, Shaye Storm, Salena Modugno, Malgorzata Frik, Monica Koczela, 2004, Thirteenth and Fifteenth Century Archaeofauna from the Seasonal Fishing Site of Akurvík, North-West Iceland, Environmental Archaeology, in press.
Amorosi T., Woollett J.W, Perdikaris S., & McGovern T.H., 1996, Regional Zooarchaeology & Global Change Research: Problems and Potentials, World Archaeology, 28(1):126–157.
Appelt, Martin & H.C. Gullov, 1999, Late Dorset in High Arctic Greenland, Dansk Polar Centre & Nationalmuseet, Copenhagen.
Arneborg Jette, Jan Heinemeier, Niels Lynnerup, Henrik L. Nielsen, Niels Rud and Arny E. Sveinbjornsdottir. Change of diet of the Greenland Vikings determined from stable carbon isotope analysis and C14 dating of their bones. Radiocarbon 41: 157–168.
Barlow L. Amorosi T., Buckland P.C., Dugmore A., Ingimundarsson J.H., McGovern T.H., Ogilvie A., Skidmore P., 1997, Interdisciplinary Investigations of the end of the Norse Western Settlement in Greenland, The Holocene 7(4):489–499.
Barrett, J., 1995, “Few know Earl Fishing-clothes” Fish mddens and he Economy of the Viking Age and Late Norse Earldoms of Orkney and Caithness, Northern Scotland, PhD thesis University of Glasgow.
Barrett, J, R. Nicholson, & R. Cerron-Carrasco, 1997, “Fish trade in Norse Orkney and Caithness: a Zooarchaeological Approach”, Antiquity 71:616–638.
Barrett, J., Beukens, R., Simpson, I.A., Ashmore, P., Poaps, S. and Huntley, J., 2000, What was the Viking Age and when did it happen? A view from Orkney. Norwegian Archaeological Review 33: 1–39.
Bigelow, G., 1984, Subsistence in Late Norse Shetland: an investigation into a Northern Island Economy of the Middle Ages, PhD University of Cambridge.
Buckland, P.C., T. Amorosi, L.K. Barlow, A.J. Dugmore, P.A. Mayewski, T.H. McGovern, A.E.J. Ogilvie, J.P. Sadler & P. Skidmore, 1996, Bioarchaeological and climatological evidence for the fate of the Norse farmers in medieval Greenland, Antiquity 70(1):88–96.
Carneiro, R., 1981, The chiefdom: precursor of the state, in G.D. Jones & R.R. Krantz (eds) Transition to Statehood in the New World, Cambridge U P pp. 37–79.
Christensen, Arne Emil, 2000, Ships and Navigation, in Fitzhugh W.W. & E. Ward (eds) Vikings, the North Atlantic Saga, Smithsonian Inst. Press pp. 86–99.
Degerbøl M., 1929, Animal Bones from the Norse ruins at Gardar, Meddelelser om Grønland 76(1).
Durrenberger Paul, 1992, The Dynamics of Medieval Iceland. Political Economy & Literature, Iowa UP Iowa City.
Durrenberger Paul, 1989, Anthropological perspective on the Commonwealth period, in Durrenberger E. Paul & G Palsson (eds) The Anthropology of Iceland, U Iowa Press, Iowa City 228–246).
Durrenberger Paul, 1991, the Icelandic family sagas as totemic artifacts, in R Samson (ed) Social Approaches to Viking Studies, Cruithne Press, Glasgow 11–20.
Earle T., 1987, Chiefdoms in archaeological and ethnohistorical perspective, Annual Review of Anthropology 16: 279–308.
Earle T., 1991, Chiefdoms: Power, Economy & Society, (Ed.) Cambridge U.P.
Edgren, Torsten, 2000, The eastern route: Finland in the Viking Age in Fitzhugh W.W. & E. Ward (eds) Vikings, the North Atlantic Saga, Smithsonian Inst. Press pp. 103–115.
Edvardsson, R., 1996, Fornleifaskráning í Bolungarvík, fyrsti hluti, Kaupstaðurinn og jarðirnar nœstar honum. Fornleifastofnun Íslands.
Edvardsson, Ragnar, Sophia Perdikaris, T.H. McGovern, N Zagor and M Waxman, 2004, Coping with hard times in North-West Iceland: Zooarchaeology, History, and Landscape Archaeology at Finnbogastaðir in the 18th century, Archaeologica Islandica 3: 20–48.
Enghoff, I. B., 2003, Hunting, fishing, and animal husbandry at the Farm Beneath the Sand, Western Greenland: an archaeozoological analysis of a Norse farm in the Western Settlement, Meddelelser om Grønland Man & Society 28. Copenhagen.
Feinman G. & J. Neitzel, 1984, Too many types: an overview of sedentary prestate societies in the Americas, Advances in Archaeological Method and Theory 7:39–102.
Gad, Finn, 1970, A History of Greenland Vol. 1, David Hurst, London.
Gulløv, H.C., 1999, The Eskimo cultures of Greenland and the medieval Norsemen: a contribution to history and ethnohistory, in I. Sigurdsson (ed) Proceedings of the International Congress on the History of the Arctic and Sub-Arctic Regions, U Iceland, Reykjavik, pp. 54–71.
Gulløv, H.C., 2000, Natives and Norse in Greenland, in Fitzhugh W.W. & E. Ward (eds) Vikings, the North Atlantic Saga, Smithsonian Inst. Press pp. 318–327.
Hedeager, Lotte, 2000, From Warrior to Trade Economy, in Fitzhugh W.W. & E. Ward (eds) Vikings, the North Atlantic Saga, Smithsonian Inst. Press pp. 84–86.
Hughes M.K. & H.F. Diaz, 1994, Was there a “medieval warm period” and if so, where and when? Climate Change 26:109–142.
Jennings Anne E & N. J. Weiner, 1996, Environmental change in eastern Greenland during the last 1300 years: evidence from foraminifera and lithofacies in Nansen Fjord 68N The Holocene 6/2:179–191.
Jennings, A. E., S. Hagen, J. Hareardóttir, R. Stein, A. E. J. Ogilvie, and I. Jónsdóttir, 2001, “Oceanographic Change and Terrestrial Human Impacts in a Post A.D. 1400 Sediment Record from the Southwest Iceland Shelf.,” in The Iceberg in the Mist: Northern Research in Pursuit of a “Little Ice Age”. Edited by A. E. J. Ogilvie and T. Jónsson. London: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Jones, Gwyn, 1987, The Norse Atlantic Saga, 2nd edition, Oxford U.P.
Larsen, L.M. (translator), 1917, The King’s Mirror, American Scandinavian Foundation NY.
Lund Niels (ed), 1984, Two Voyagers at the Court of King Alfred, William Sessions Inc., York.
Lynnerup, Niels, 1998, The Greenland Norse: A Biological-Anthropological study. Meddelelser om Grønland Man & Society 24 Copenhagen.
Lynnerup, Niels, 2000, Life and death in Norse Greenland, in Fitzhugh W.W. & Ward, Ed (eds) Vikings, the North Atlantic Saga, Smithsonian Inst. Press pp. 285–294.
Mann, Vivian B., 1977, Romanesque Ivory Tablemen, PhD thesis, New York Univ. University Microfilms, Anne Arbor 78–8544.
MacGregor, Arthur, 1985, Bone, Antler, Ivory, and Horn: the technology of skeletal materials since the Roman period. Academic, London.
Mathiassen, T., 1958, The Sermermiut excavations 1958 Meddelelser om Grønland 161(3).
McCullough, Karen M., 1989, The ruin Islanders-early Thule culture pioneers in the Eastern High Arctic, Archaeological Survey of Canada Mercury series 141.
McGhee, Robert, 1984, Contact between Native North Americans and the medieval Norse: a review of the evidence, American Antiquity 49(1): 45–62.
McGovern, T.H., 1981, The economics of extinction in Norse Greenland, in: T.M.L. Wigley et al. (ed.s) Climate and History, Cambridge Univ. Press, pp. 404–434.
McGovern, T.H., 1985a, The arctic frontier of Norse Greenland, in: S. Green & S. Perlman (eds.) The Archaeology of Frontiers and Boundaries, Academic Press, New York, pp. 275–323.
McGovern, T.H., 1985b, Contributions to the Paleoeconomy of Norse Greenland, Acta Archaeologica, Vol. 54: 73–122.
McGovern, T.H., 1991, Climate, Correlation, & Causation in Norse Greenland, Arctic Anthropology 28(2):77–100.
McGovern, T.H., 1992, Bones, Buildings, and Boundaries: Paleoeconomic approaches to Norse Greenland, in: C.D. Morris & James Rackham (ed.s), Norse & later Settlement & Subsistence in the North Atlantic Glasgow U. Press pp.157–186.
McGovern, T.H., 2000, The Demise of Norse Greenland, in W.W. Fitzhugh & E. Ward (eds). Viking Voyagers, Smithsonian Inst Press. pp. 327–340.
McGovern, T.H., P.C. Buckland, Gudrun Sveinbjarnardottir, Diana Savory, Peter Skidmore, & Claus Andreasen, 1983, A study of the faunal and floral remains from two Norse farms in the Western Settlement, Greenland, Arctic Anthropology 20(2):93–120.
McGovern T.H., Amorosi T., Perdikaris S. & Woollett J.W., 1996, Zooarchaeology of Sandnes V51: Economic Change at a Chieftain’s Farm in West Greenland, Arctic Anthropology 33(2)94–122.
McGovern, T.H., G.F. Bigelow, T. Amorosi & D. Russell, 1988, Northern Islands, Human Error, & Environmental Degradation: a Preliminary Model for Social and Ecological Change in the Medieval North Atlantic Human Ecology 16(3):45–105
McGovern, T.H., Sophia Perdikaris, 2000, What Went Wrong with the Norse Voyages: The Silent Saga, Natural History Magazine, October 2000 pp. 50–55.
McGovern, T.H., Sophia Perdikaris, Clayton Tinsley, 2001, Economy of Landnám: the Evidence of Zooarchaeology, in A. Wawn & Thorunn Sigurdardottir (eds) Approaches to Vinland, Sigurdur Nordal Inst. Studies 4 Reykjavik. 154–165.
Munch, G.S. & Johansen, O.S., 1987, Borg in Lofoten: a chieftain’s farm in arctic Norway, in Knirk J (ed) Proceedings of the 10 th Viking Congress, Larkollen.
Nicholsen, R., 1998, Fishing in the Northern Isles, a case study based on fish bone assemblages from two multi-period sites on Sanday, Orkney, Environmental Archaeology 2:15–29.
Ogilvie, Astrid, Lisa K Barlow, & A.E. Jennings, 2000, North Atlantic Climate ca AD 1000 Weather 55/2: 34–45.
Ogilvie Astrid & T.H. McGovern, 2000, Sagas & Science: Climate and Human Impacts in the North Atlantic, in W.W. Fitzhugh & e Ward(ed). Viking Voyagers Smithsonian Inst Press pp. 385–394.
Perdikaris, Sophia, 1990, Åker: a zooarchaeological perspective on a Norwegian Iron Age site, Master’s Thesis (honors), Hunter College CUNY.
Perdikaris, S., 1996, Scaly Heads and Tales: Detecting Commercialization in Early Fisheries. Archaeofauna. Ichthyoarchaeology and the Archaeological record. Proceedings of the 8th meeting of the ICAZ Fish Remains Working Group, Madrid, Spain; A Morales (ed.). 5 (1996): 21–33.
Perdikaris, S., 1998, The Transition to a Commercial Economy: Lofoten Fishing in the Middle Ages, A Preliminary Report. 7th ICAZ Conference Proceedings, September 1994, Konstanz, Germany. Anthropozoologica no 25–26/1997:505–510.
Perdikaris, S, Amundsen C, McGovern TH., 2001, Zooarchaeology of Tjarnargata 3C, Reykjavík, Iceland, report on file Arch Inst Iceland, modified version in review, Environmental Archaeology.
Roesdahl Else, 1995, Hvalrostand elfenben og nordboerne I Grønland, Odense Univ. Press.
Sawyer Peter H., 1982, Kings and Vikings Methuen, London.
Scott G.R., Halfsmann C.M., Pedersen P.IO., 1991, Dental conditions of medieval Norsemen in the North Atlantic, Acta Archaeologica 62:183–207.
Schledermann, Peter, 1990, Crossroads to Greenland-3000 years of Prehistory in the Eastern High arctic, Komatic series 2, Arctic Inst. Of North America, Calgary.
Schledermann, Peter, 2000, Ellesmere: Vikings in the Far North, in Fitzhugh W.W. & E. Ward (eds) Vikings, the North Atlantic Saga, Smithsonian Inst. Press pp. 248–257.
Simpson, I.A. Perdikaris, Cook, G., Campbell, J.L. and Teesdale, W.J., 2000, Cultural sediment analyses and transitions in early fishing activity at Langenesvaeret, Vesterålen, northern Norway. Geoarchaeology 15, 743–763.
Simpson, I.A., Dugmore, A.J., Thomson, A. & Vésteinsson Orri, 2001, Crossing the thresholds: human ecology and historical patterns of landscape degradation. Catena, 42, 175–192.
Sutherland, Pat, 2000, The Norse and Native North Americans, in Fitzhugh W.W. & E. Ward (eds) Vikings, the North Atlantic Saga, Smithsonian Inst. Press pp. 238–247.
Stratford, Neil, 2001, Lewis Chessmen and the Enigma of the Hoard, British Museum Press, London.
Thorsteinn Vilhjalmsson, 2001, Navigation and Vinland, in A Wawn & Thorunn Sigurdardottir (eds) Approaches to Vinland, Sigurdur Nordal Inst. Studies 4 pp. 107–121.
Thurston, T. L., 1999, The knowable, the doable, and the undiscussed,: tradition, submission, and the ‘becoming’ of rural landscapes in Denmark’s Iron Age, Antiquity 73: 661–671.
Vesteinsson Orri, 1998, ‘Patterns of Settlement in Iceland. A Study in Pre-History.’ Saga-Book of the Viking Society XXV, 1–29.
Vesteinsson Orri, 2000a, The Christianization of Iceland. Priests, Power and Social Change 1000–1300, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Vesteinsson Orri, 2000, The archaeology of landnám. The shaping of a new society in Iceland. (In) Vikings. The North Atlantic Saga (Eds W.W. Fitzhugh and E. Ward), Smithsonian Inst. Press, pp. 164–174.
Vésteinsson, Orri, McGovern T.H. & Keller, C., 2002, Enduring Impacts: Social and enivronmental aspects of Viking Age settlement in Iceland and Greenland, Archaeologica Islandica 2:98–136.
Vibe, Christian, 1967, Arctic Animals in relation to climatic fluctuation Meddelelser om Grønland 170(5).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2007 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Perdikaris, S., McGovern, T.H. (2007). Cod Fish, Walrus, and Chieftains. In: Thurston, T.L., Fisher, C.T. (eds) Seeking a Richer Harvest. Studies in Human Ecology and Adaptation, vol 3. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-32762-4_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-32762-4_9
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-0-387-32761-7
Online ISBN: 978-0-387-32762-4
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawSocial Sciences (R0)