^nnu Rei- Anihropoi I'J9O '9.

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C'>p\nehi ^ l'}9'') b\ Anruat Revie»i Irt. •\'l

THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE

NORSE NORTH ATLANTIC
Thomas H Mi Govern
Departtnetit of Anthropology. Hunter College & Graduate Center. City Utiiversity of
New York New York. NY 10021

KEY WORDS archaeologv medieval Nonh Atlantic, vikings, paleoeconomv bibhographv

THE NORSE NORTH ATLANTIC

Just over a thousand years ago. Scandinavian settlers colonized the islands of
the North Atlantic, spreading an initially homogeneous population and settle-
ment/subsistence system from Norway into the westem hemisphere (107)
Between approximately 800 and 1000 AD the Norse settled Shetland, the
Orkneys, the Faroes, parts of northem Scotland. Iceland, and portions of
West Greenland (Figure 1) They also penetrated eastem arctic Canada and
bnefly established a foothold in temperate North Amenca (126)
The Viking age also saw major Scandinavian militar>' and commercial
impact throughout Northem. Central, and Eastem Europe that extended into
the Eastem Mediterranean and Central Asia Norse settlements in northem
England, the isle ot Man. Ireland, and Normandy paralleled the North
Atlantic colonization and may have competed successfully for potential set-
tlers in the letter phases of the Viking Age (106) How^ever. these processes
are beyond the scope ot the present review which is restncted to the North
Atlantic axis of expansion
By the end of the 10th century, a population shanng a common culture and
speaking a common language stretched from Bergen s quayside to the Gulf of
St Lawrence Employing new shipbuilding skills and open-water navigation
capabilities (135). pushed by competition among complex chieftainships and
etnergent secondar>' states (166). and tueled by growing wealth and popula-
tion at home, this rapid expansion appeared destined to complete the cir-

331
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332 MCGOVERN
 NORSE NORTH ATLANTIC 333

cumpolar circuit and link the Old Worid with the New in the early Middle
Ages However, this early medieval connection to the Westem Hemisphere
remained unexploited Vinland failed shortly after AD 1000. Norse Greenland
dwindled to extinction about 450 years later, and Iceland slipped from a
Scandinavian cultural and literar\' center to an lmpovenshed marginal
backwater hy 1500 While the islatids of the eastem North Atlantic fared far
better in the later Middle Ages and early modem penods, their integration mto
the early European world-system camed a heavy pnce in hazardous offshore
fishing and ruthless mercantile exploitation (66. 69. 194)
Why were early North American discovenes not followed up hy permanent
European colonies as in the 16th century^ ^ What caused the decline or collapse
of the other westem hemisphere colonies m Iceland and Greenland^ For the
past 15 years, research teams employing modem archaeological and
paleoecological techniques have begun to address these complex questions,
repeatedly documenting what appears to be a marked shift in adaptive strat-
egy Early colonists seem to have heen remarkably flexible and resilient,
swiftly altenng a generalized herding fishing/hunting economy to fit local
resources and environmental constraints Within a hundred years of settle-
ment, political stratification and centrahzation appear to correlate with in-
creasingly conser\^ative stabilized" economic strategies These strategies
sometimes failed to respond effectively to changing climate (onset of the
Little Ice Ageof ca 1250-1880). unintended degradation of groundcover and
grazing, and culture contact Especially in the Westem North Atlantic, lost
adaptive resilience, declining prosperity and population, and local extinction
were the result, dooming a possible North Atlantic route to New W^orid
colonization and condemning the sur\i\ing Norse colonies to an exploited
marginalization
Broad similanties with some Polynesian cultural trajectones and models of
island biogeographers (126) suggest the wider evolutionar\^ significance of the
Norse North Atlantic cases These diverse island laboratones" with differing
distances from mainland markets (and from emerging state systems) and
diffenng environmental vulnerability to changing climate and overgrazing
provide excellent opportunities for both selectionist and adaptationist analy-
ses

RESEARCH HISTORY
The North Atlantic islands were tirst subjects of systematic archaelogical
research in the last quarter of the 19th century, during a period when the
Faroes. Iceland, and Greenland were part of Denmark's colonial holdings
The work of the Danish Captain Daniel Bruun in the 1890s-1920s spanned
virtually the entne region but concentrated tn Iceland and Greenland Bruun
334 MCGOVERN

brought professional archaeology of a ver>' high standard to the region,

pioneenng settlement-pattem analyses and beginning a tradition of systematic
collection of unmodified animai bones and plant remains from excavated
sites
The tate 1920s and 1930s saw expansion of both single-sjte excavations and
more ambitious large-scale projects, especially in Greenland and Iceland Led
by Poul Norlund. Martin Stenberger, and Aage Roussell, these projects ended
at the beginning of World War Two (W^'II) in the spectacular intemational
investigation in Iceland of the Thjorsa valley sites covered by the volcano
Hekla ca 1104'1158 AD (174, see also recent re-analyses hy Vilhjalmsson
189, 190) The reports of this penod are somewhat short on stratigraphic
analysis or systematic typology of common finds, but they do show a con-
sistent lnter-island comparative onentation, drawing ethnographic analogies
to recent North Atiantic communities throughout the region Roussell's most
controversial work (162) explicitly attempted to use standing traditional
structures m the Bntish Isles to explain archaeological finds in Greenland and
Iceland
The post-WWU penod saw a certain ebbing of the comparative, lnter-
island approaches followed by Bruun and Roussell, and research tended to
become more site focused and to avoid regional syntheses Dunng the late
1940s and 1950s, medieval archaeology emerged as an independent field in
many European museums and universities This development had the salutary
effect of rescuing medieval layers from discard as uninteresting overburden"
and continues to contnbute to vital work on artifact typology and distnbution,
the large-scale urban excavations of the 1970s represent landmarks in the
theor\' as well as the method of complex site investigation (91)
However, much (though not all) Viking-period archaeology tended to
become isolated from developments in other areas and penods The introduc-
tion of analytic methods and theoretical models borrowed from ecology,
geography, and anthropology that so transformed prehistonc archaeology in
Europe in the 1960s and 1970s only gradually penetrated medieval and Viking
Age research A strong art-histoncal bias is evident in the spate of lavishly
illustrated Viking books pubhshed in the late 1970s and early 1980s, where
elite grave finds appear to dominate the record and where the same exquisite
Items of animal-art metalwork (often excavated in the 1930s) appear in nearly
ever>^ volume Common artifacts, settlement pattems. paleoecological and
paleoeconomic data are scarcely mentioned, and the sparse and often con-
tradictory documentary record is uniformly allowed to substitute for attempts
at independent archaeological descnption and explanation The limitations of
what has been somewhat unkindly called the 'broocbes, beasts, and barrows"
approach have been apparent to both archaeological cntics (101, 111) and
Viking Age histonans (108). leading to Sawyer's now famous remark that
 NORSE NORTH ATLAN'HC 335

medieval archaeology is an expensive way of finding out what we already

know •'
Fortunately, this theoretical impasse has not long remained Klavs Rands-
borg's 1980 book on Viking Denmark (159) represented a theoretical break-
through, introducing models and concepts of locational geography and eco-
nomic analysis employed by prehistonans and skillfully applying them to a
topic of ongoing anthropological interest—secondar}^ state formation In
Randsborg's w^ork. the documentar\' record became supplementary to the nch
(and now fully exploited) Danish archaeological record Richard Hodges's
vvork in Vikmg and pre-Viking long-distance trade and the formation of
proto-urban empona has further widened the methodological and theoretical
breakthrough, firmly establishing that medieval archaeology need not be
restncte^l to footnoting documentar\' history or providing attractive illustrative
plates (92) As in other regions, this realignment of objectives and ex-
pectations has not gone uncnticized i93. 158). but it seems clear that Viking
penod-medieval archaeology has undergone an nrevocable transformation (cf
30. 60)
These developments in the Norse archaeological heartland have been paral-
leled in the North Atlantic penpher\'. and the past 15 years have seen dramatic
expansion of archaeological activity in ever\^ island group Renewed intensive
fieldwork has been associated with theoretical and methodological innova-
tion Beginning in Iceland in the late 1950s, the pioneenng interdisciplinary
work of Sigurdur Thorannsson and his associates (182) demonstrated the
potential of a fully ecological perspective and integrated geological and
biological data with histoncal and archaeological land-use evidence Re-
newed mterest m traditional lifeways has produced a rich literature with
considerable ethnoarchaeological potential (74. 113). and ethnologists are
now beginning to make a significant contnbution to archaeological debates
(6. 67, 68. 88, 97) Climate impact investigations are also expanding in the
region, as geophysical and documentarv sources begin to be more fully
integrated and early climatic determinism (cntiqued in 82) gives way to more
sophisticated analyses (22. 23. 64. 146-148) Several archaeological projects
begun in the 1970s utilizing modem sur\-e> and excavation techniques and
explicitly adopting economic and ecological approaches (and the m-
terdisciphnar\^ cooperation that these require) are now yielding nch harvests
ot new data There is again considerable interest in lnter-island and inter-
regional companson as these new data sets are gradually integrated, and the
coming decade promises to be an exciting and productive penod in the
archaeology of the Norse North Atlantic
A recent series of edited volumes may provide an over\'iew of much of this
new research (35. 51, 75, 151). and many reports and short notices are to be
tound in \'ordtc Archaeological Ahsfacts AcTa Borealia (Tromsct), Acta
336 MCGOVERN

Archaeologica. Norwegian Archaeological Review, Northern Studies (Edin-

burgh). Medieval Archaeology, Arbok hins Islenzka Fornleifafelags, Hikuin
(Aarhus). and the penodic Viking Congress volumes While I have attempted
here to cite English-language sources wherever possible, many important
sources (some with English summanes) are in Scandinavian languages

CURRENT RESEARCH
Arctic Norway
Much recent research m Viking Age-Medieval arctic Norway has cetitered on
the prohlem of the tell-like 'farm mounds"' These massive accumulations
represent up to 2000 years of continuous occupation and often contam a
mixture of midden matenal and structural remains Most modem work on
these rich deposits has been camed out by teams from the University of
Troms0 led by Reidar Bertelsen and Inger-Mane Holm-Olsen (25-29. 94).
who have combined meticulous stratigrapbic excavation with innovative sta-
tistical analyses The deposits document a mixed herding-fishing economy
with a strong mantime orientation and appear to reflect a northward expansion
of Norse populations roughly contemporary with the migrations to the west
The mteraction of Norse and local Sami populations is also a major research
interest to north Norwegian scholars, and this culture-contact situation is
becoming increasingly well documented (28)

Shetland
Systematic Norse archaeology in the Shetland Islands began with the ex-
cavations of Curie and Hamilton at the multi-component site of Jarlshof in
Dunrossness on the southemmost tip of the archipelago In Norse times, this
site grew to become a large estate, and the excavations produced an ex-
emplary site monograph by Hamilton (84)
Excavations by Small at the site of UnderhouU on Unst (169) documented a
senes of stmctures first thought to be Viking Age but subsequently dated to
later medieval pbases Ongoing excavations at Da Biggins site on the small
island of Papa Stour by Barbara Crawford (55) have uncovered traces of later
medieval structures that are probably associated with an elite residence known
from documentar}' sources In 1977-1980, Gerald Bigelow camed out a
multidisciplinar>^ investigation of sites around Sandwick hay on Unst His
team documented a two-phase i2th-14th-century small farm whose deposits
yielded large collections of artifacts and an enormous archaeofauna (31-34)
Simon Buttler has camed out a thorough study of Norse steatite (soapstone)
production in Shetland, documenting several types of quarrying activity (45,
46)
 NORSE NORTH ATLANTIC 337

Building on Hamilton's typologies and integrating the results of the Sand-

wick excavations. Bigelow descnbed a widespread transition in artifact type,
house form, and subsistence economy between Viking Age and Late Norse
phases that apparently occurred around ^D 1100 (34) Bigelow links these
shifts to an increase in dair\'ing (w^hich may reflect new- taxation pattems). an
intensification of fishing, and greater importation of durahle goods from
Norway Transition to similar Late Norse pattems may also be evident in
Orkney and northernmost Scotland Many workers now suspect that this Late
Norse socioeconomic transition in the Eastem North Atlantic may mark the
development and spread of large-scale commercial fishenes

Orkney & Northern Scotland

With Its nch soils and relatively productive cereal agnculture. Orkney is
somewhat anomalous in the Norse North Atlantic and formed the center of an
Earldom that for a time was one of the most powerful political forces m
northem Bntain (54. 191) In addition to a number of ehte residential centers,
several small Vikmg-penod castles' have been descnbed on the islands (52,
53). some of which can be associated with figures mentioned in Orkneyinga
Saga (153) As political and economic ties among the Orkneys, the nearby
mainland of Caitbness, and the outer Hebndes were probably always strong,
modem archaeological research has tended to take a regional perspective (for
an excellent overview, see 142)
The nature of the culture contact and transformation that took place dunng
the Norse colonization of Celtic north Scotland has long heen controversial
Anna Ritchie used her excavations at Buckquoy in Birsay Bay in Orkney to
argue for a relatively peaceful assimilation of Pictish residents to Scandina-
vian dwelling styles and language (160. 161). while Ian Crawford cited
evidence from his project at the Udal in North Uist m the Hehndes as proof of
violent conquest and population replacement (56-58) As Moms points out
(142 2i6-!7), the actual contact situation was probably extremely complex
and locally vanable. so that any attempt to generalize broadly from single
sites IS inevitably somewhat futile The nature of Celtic-Scandinavian contact
will probably remain a major research focus in this area
On Orkney, much research has also focused upon elite centers and their
associated church-complexes At the Brough of Birsay. the seat of the Earls of
Orkney, a church and residential complex of Viking-Late Norse date clusters
on an easily defensible headland now isolated at high tide (59, 95. 96. 140,
141) Similarly sited ehte settlements have also been documented at SkaiU
(79) and the Brough of Deemess (139). and a rich 9th-centur\' cemetery has
been excavated at the Bay of Westness (109)
During the past decade Orkney and Caithness have become major centers
of interdisciplinar>^ paleoeconomic and paleoecological research, where lnno-
338 MCGOVERN

vative sampling strategies and intensive bioarchaeological analyses have set

new standards for the region In Orkney, much of this research has clustered
in the Birsay Bay area, partly in response to widespread manne erosion (62,
65, 89, 143, 161) Evidence for animal husbandry pattems and use of manne
resources is abundant, and some elements of the Late Norse pattem of
intensification of fishing noted in Shetland by Bigelow are clearly present in
the Birsay samples While two monographs have been completed (89. 161),
much time-consummg analysis is still under way Fresh results from the
highly productive teams led by Chns Moms should shortly expand our
understanding of economic change m the area
In Caithness, comparable research has been camed out in the Freswick
Links area in Freswick Bay by teams led by Colleen Batey (14-17) This
eroding sand beach landscape has revealed a senes of Late Norse structures
and middens first lnvesagated by Curie (61) and V G Childe (48) Later
research has focused upon the nch and rapidly eroding midden deposits,
which have a great potential for providing eeonomic and paleoecological
evidence Systematic sampling and smail-mesh sieving have agam generated
large collections that allow for detailed analyses but that require time to bnng
to completion and full publication Preliminary results again suggest an
intensification of fishing in Late Norse times, probably on a commercial scale
(17. 105a)

Faroes
The Faroe Islands have long supported a highly sophisticated local antiquanan
tradition, which played a significant role histoncally in fostenng national
consciousness (156, 194. 195) Place-name analyses have received much
attention in Faroe (IOO), and techniques fn^t developed there have been
applied in the Shetlands. Orkneys, and northem Scotland (144) in attempts to
trace settlement history and land use Systematic Faroese archaeology is
somewhat more recent, beginning in the post-WWII penod with the work of
Sveni Dahl (63) and continued under the leadership of Ame Thorsteinsson
(187) Much recent work has centered on the dating and character of the initial
settlement Pioneenng palynologicai work by Johatmes Johansen (102-104)
claimed to have identified evidence of early cereal cultivation by pre-Nor^
Celtic monks ca AD 600 This claim has proved controversial (105. 115), and
the status of the Celtic pengnni in Faroe remains ambiguous A recent review
of Viking Age archaeological evidence by Simun Arge (10. 11) concludes
that there is in fact little hard evidence to support the traditional Norse
settlement date (ca AD 825), with most radiocarbon and artifactual dates
clustering several generations later Arge notes that many early sites may have
been removed by ongoing manne erosion, and that the present archaeological
record probably does not reflect the earliest settlement pattem
Excavations directed by Steffen Suimmann Hansen at the site of Toftanes
 NORSh NORTH AT1,ANTIC 339

on Eysturoy have recently revealed a well-preserved Viking-penod farmstead

(86. 87) Large amounts of preser\^ed wood and fiber have shed new light on
Norse plant use (116). and a preliminar\' analysis of the archaeofauna in-
dicates a predominance of sheep, followed by cattle and pigs
Work on a set of probable saeters (sheihngs) at Argisbrekka on Eysturoy by
Ditlev Mahler clearly documents a senes of largely turf-built structures dating
from Viking Age to Early Middle Ages (119. 120) The use of these seasonal
herding sites seems to have ended by the 12th-l3th centunes, probably as a
result of growing population and a different pattem of upland resource use

Iceland
Archaeological research in Iceland began in the late 19th centur>- (38. 73).
and popular interest in the physical evidence for the dramatic saga-history of
Iceland has probably always been strong As in the Faroes, linguistic and
antiquanan scholarship has played a significant role in the movements
towards home rule and eventual independence from Denmark
The most ambitious archaeological project of the pre-independence penod
was the joint Scandinavian Thjorsardalur Project mentioned above (174).
which excavated or tested a series of neighboring ahandoned farms in the
Thjorsa valley in southem Iceland The project hegan the use ot dating by
volcanic tephera layers now extensively employed by Icelandic archaeologists
(184-186, but also see cntiques in 70. 188. 190) The onginal conclusions of
the project have been modified in recent work by Vilhjalmur O Vilhjalms-
son. who demonstrated that the abandonment bad been gradual rather than
abrupt and that some occupation persisted to the beginning of the 13th centur\-
(189) Since independence. Icelandic archaeologists have been active
throughouttheislandl7l. 72. 80. 81. 117. 118. 149, 150. 157. 176). mainly
publishing their findmgs in the yearbook of the Icelandic National Museum
{Arbok hins Islenzka Fornleifafelagsi Some of the strengths of modem
Icelandic archaeology are us continued interest in all phases of the island's
settlement history (not only the Viking Penod) and its strong commitment to
multidisciplinar>' investigations involving geo- and bioarchaeological col-
laboration The possibilities for ethnoarchaeological investigation (97). re-
gional settlement modeling (170), and histoncal agncultural reconstmction
(1) are also beginning to be fully exploited
Recently a debate has developed over the datmg of the fist Norse Settle-
ment in Iceland (traditionally cd AD 874) Margret Hermanns-Audardottn-'s
excavations of an early site at Herjolfsdalur on the Westman Islands off the
south coast produced some radiocarbon dates indicating occupation in the 7th
centur>' (90) Her claim of a pre-Viking Scandinavian colony has drawn
cnticism from botb archaeologists and natural scientists, and the topic re-
mains controversial
The Celtic monks (Icel papar) traditionally beheved to have preceded the
340 MCGOVERN

Norse colonizers have remained as elusive in Iceland as in Faroe Recent

reinvestigation of sites on the island of Papey off the southeast coast by
Gudrun Sveinbjamardottir documented 9th-century Norse settlement but
found no traces of papar (181)
Excavations begun in 1987 (directed by Gudmundur Olafsson) at Bes-
sastadir near Reykjavik have proved extremely productive The site is the
current presidential residence, it was formerly the Danish Royal Govemor's
estate and before that an elite manor belonging at one time to Snom Sturlas-
son. the saga author The site has been partially excavated dunng renovation
work, tuming up nearly 3 m of stratified deposit in some areas (152) The
site's excellent organic preser\^ation has produced a large archaeofauna (5)
and an insect fauna including accidentally imported ants (P Buckland. per-
sonal communication) Additional rescue work continues at the site
Videy. an island m modem Reykjavik harbor, was the seat of the Danish
Lieutenant Govemor and also a medieval elite monastic holding The site has
been partially excavated dunng the construction of a conference center,
revealing well-preserved early modem and medieval stmctures and excellent
organic preser\ation In addition to a large archaeofauna (5). continuing
excavations by Margret Hallgnmsdottir have produced a set of medieval
wax-tablet texts and a large number of wooden artifacts (82a. 83)
Rescue work at the ehte site of Nesstofa near Reykjavik in 1989 (directed
by Vilhjalmur O Vilhjalmsson) also revealed structural remains and a deeply
stratified midden with excellent organic preservation The potential for com-
parative investigation of changing conditions on elite farmsteads in the greater
Reykjavik area thus seems considerable
Sur\'ey and paleoecological research camed out since the mid-1970s by
teams led by Paul Buckland and Gudrun Sveinbjamardottir have produced
extensive mapping and documentation of changing land use and climate in the
south (42-44. 175, 176). the east (178). and the north (177) The innovative
combination of insect, macrofloral. and geoarchaeological evidence by this
team has made major contnbutions, in collaboration with many recent proj-
ects in Iceland and elsewhere in the North Atlantic (40. 165, 179)
Survey work and small-scale testing of deposits in the inland Hrafenkels-
dalur region by Sveinbjom Rafnsson. begun in the 1970s, continues to
document sites Two archaeofauna from the region (4) indicate that sheep
herding was dominant in the area since at least 1104
Rescue excavations at Storaborg. a large farm on the south coast, have been
under way since 1978 (directed by Mjoll Snaesdottir) This deep, mounded
site was abandoned ca 1840, and deposits appear to extend into the early
Middle Ages (171. 172) The site has produced a huge archaeofauna (prob-
ably over 100.000 identifiable fragments, cf 4) and an extensive insect and
macrofloral assemblage (43. 154) Evidence thus far points to an early
 NORSE NORTH ATLANTIC 341

adoption of large-scale (possibly commercial) tishing (mainly for cod signifi-

cantly larger than those taken in the area today) that continued dow^n to
abandonment
Reykhoh. in Borgarfjordur. the manor of the chieftain and saga-author
Snom Sturlasson. has been under excavation since 1986 (directed by Gudrun
Sveinbjamardottir and Gudmundur Olafsson) Early modern and medieval
structures have been uncovered, and the investigations continue In 1988-
1989. Kevin Smith directed excavations at the nearby small site of Hals,
providing indications ot non-elite lifeways in the Reykholt region
In 1987-1988. excavation and survey were camed out by Thomas Amorosi
and Gudrun Sveinbjamardottir on a number of sites in the east and northeast,
the most productive being the deeply stratified midden deposits at the site of
Svalbard in Thistilfjordur These deposits span ca 1050-1850 and produced a
huge archaeofauna as well as substantial artifact collections from closely
datable strata Preliminary' analyses of animal bones show marked Little ice
Age impact m this agnculturally marginal zone, with a dramatic increase m
seal bones evident in the later deposits (4, 5) Preliminar\' paleoecological
research (196) likewise suggests changing climate and land use in the later
Middle Ages
In 1989. a farm midden at Midbaer on the island of Flatey m Breidafjord
(first identified by Aevar Petursson) was investigated by Amorosi and
McGovem. revealing nearly 3 m of stratified deposit with rich organic
preser\'ation The sample archaeofauna is still under analysis but indicates a
far greater reliance on manne species (birds, ^eals. and fish) than previously
reported for any Norse site The rich marine resources of the Breidafjord area
may have provided significant buffering against climatic fluctuations and
probably contnbuted to the region's continued later medieval prospenty
Sun-'ey and small-stale excavation by Amorosi and Haukur Johanneson in
the climatically marginal northwest peninsula (Strandasysla distnct) in 1988
will be followed up by a multidisciplinar> investigation of land use and
climate impact in the region in 1990 (directed by Amorosi and Vilhjalmur
Vilhjalmsson)
Icelandic archaeology is thus in an extremely active phase, with major new
collections under analysis and tieldwork continuing in many parts of the

Greenland
After a long hiatus. Greenlandic Norse drchaeoJogy has seen a rapid expan-
sion in both fieldwork and laboratorv' analysis since the mid-1970s (for
summaries of earlier research see 39. 99, 145. for cntical review see 101.
112) Projects involving both excavation and sur\ ey were camed out between
1976 and 1984 in the Westem Settlement (Inuit-Norse Project 1976-1977.
342 MCGOVERN

Lansmuseum survey project 1981, Anavik investigations 1982. Sandnes res-

cue project 1984, Kaptsilik Valley survey 1985, see 7, 12, 18, 36.41, 49, 50.
77.94, 125, 131. 132, 134. 136, 138, 173) These investigations resulted in a
massive expansion in bioarchaeological samples, the first radiocarbon dates
from Norse Greenland, several deeply stratified midden sequences, extensive
paleoecological collections (pollen, macrofloral, and microfaunal), and a
systematic sur\'ey coverage of most of the settlement area
A major project in the Eastem Settlement area (Inter-Scandinavian Project
1975-1978, 114) camed out intensive sur\'ey activity m the Brattahhd region,
dicovenng a new site class of high-altitude saeters with some similanties to
the newly discovered Faroese sites (2, 3. 110) Fresh settlement-pattem
analyses have addressed prohlems of expansion and contraction of Eastem
Settlement farm sites (21. 112, 137)
While much recent research awaits full publication, the rich Greenlandic
data sets (uncomplicated by post-medieval settlement) have allowed for much
more detailed locational and economic analyses than have yet been possible
for most other portions of the Scandinavian North Atlantic We now know-
that the Norse Greenlanders were heavily dependent upon migratory seals and
caribou (some archaeofauna are over 10% seal bone) as well as imported
domestic mammals Their overseas trade was fueled not by large-scale fishing
or intensive wool production but by a remarkable long-distance hunt for
walrus ivory and other arctic luxur\' goods (128, 129) The stone churches of
later Norse Greenland are among the largest in the North Atlantic region and
were produced by one of the smallest communities (19. 163, 164) Contact
with incoming Thule Inuit is still little understood (12, 121-123) hut appears
to have been a mix of fnendly and hostile relations culminating in Inuit
occupation of outer-fjord resource spaces critical to long-term Norse subsis-
tence The role of climate change and unplanned ecological degradation in the
Norse decline has been freshly investigated (64, 77. 78. 133). and a comhina-
tion of computer models of Norse economic impact with steadily improving
paleoecological and paleoclimatic evidence seems a promising research direc-
tion
In recent years this fresh basic research has led to a productive shift from
debates over one or another monocausal explanation for the extinction of the
Norse colony to more interesting controversies over the nature and organiza-
tion of Norse society in Greenland McGovem (124. 127, 130) and Berglund
(19, 20) have argued for a sharply hierarchical later-medieval society man-
aged by partly foreign elites and dominated by the episcopal manor at Gardar
in the Eastem Settlement Ameborg (12, 13) and Keller (111. 112) have
downplayed the role of the Latin church in Greenland, modeling a much more
autonomous set of complex chiefdomships rather than a penpheralized colony
of a medieval European core All authors agree on the vital role of Norse
 NORSH NORTH ATLANTIC 343

decision-makmg in response to the challenges of Inuit contact, climate

change, and increasmg isolation There seems to have been a decisive shift
away from simplistic explanations for the settlements' extinction that treat
human adaptive (or a maladaptive) strategies as a dependent vanable

Vinland and North America

The search for the Norse settlements of Viniand mentioned in Eirik the Red's
Saga and the Greenlanders' Saga has spawned a huge literature marred by
many shoddy fakes and many speculative pipedreams apparently denving
from the psychological needs of white European immigrants for a politically
and racially acceptable past divorced from the reality of Native Amencan
cultural diversity and complexity (see 126, 192) The discovery of a genuine
Norse site at L'Anse aux Meadows in northemmost Newfoundland separately
by J0rgen Meldgaard and Helge Ingstad in the late 1950s abmptly lifted the
question of Norse settlements in temperate North Amenca from the morass of
"cult archaeology "
Seven years of excavation by the Ingstads (98) was followed up hy four
years of additional intensive worit by a Canadian Parks Service team led by
Birgitta Wallace Now backed by 141 radiocarbon dates and an impressive
senes of environmental analyses, the L'Anse aux Meadows site is unquestion-
able evidence for a bnef Norse presence in temperate North Amenca In a
recent monograph-length paper. Wallace discusses the saga evidence for
Vinland and systematically compares it to the archaeological evidence
from L'Anse aux Meadows She finds many discontinuities and argues that
L'Anse aux Meadows is probably not the Leifs' booths" mentioned in the
sagas but a gateway staging point for exploration into the Gulf of St Law-
rence (193)
In addition to the single settlement site, a number of scattered Norse
artifacts have been recovered from several Inuit sites in arctic Canada and one
Indian locality in Maine The Goddard site in Maine produced a Norse penny
(the only mmted coinage thus far found west of Iceland) but no other Norse
finds The Maine State Museum team investigating the site concludes that the
coin probably traveled through a long coastal exchange network and need not
reflect Norse penetration of the Gulf of Maine (37) The greatest concentra-
tion of Norse finds in Inuit contexts outside of Greenland is m northem
EUesmere across from the Thuie distnct Excavations by Peter Schledermann
and Karen McCullough (167) tumed up a vanety of Norse finds, including
cloth and a few scraps of chain mail armor A recent paper by McGhee (121)
reviews the evidence from arctic Canada and concludes that some limited
trading and possible mutual raidmg between lnuit and Norse were likely This
3CK)-year culture-contact situation remains poorly understood and m need of
further research
344 MCGOVERN

Human Biology in the North Atlantic

Biological anthropology has had a long research history in the Norse North
Atlantic and promises additional major contnbutions in the near future Early
work centered on the problem of Norse extinction in Greenland, generating a
longstanding controversy Initial publication of analyses of human remains
from the cemetery at 0 111 Herjolfsnes by Hansen (85) strongly suggested
that inbreeding and 'racial degeneration" had produced a female population
with narrow pelvises unsuitable for successful childbirth While these find-
mgs are still occasionally quoted to support theones of Norse extinction,
Fisher-M0ller's reanalysis of the Herjolfsnes matenal conclusively demon-
strated that post-mortem decalcification and soil pressure were responsible for
the shape of the specimens and that other Greetiiandic cemeterj' samples
showed no such abnormalities (76) The personal courage it required to
publish an attack upon politically favored racial theones in German-occupied
Denmark is worthy of note, even in this bnef review
Broader questions of population movement and genetic distance were
addressed by A Carohne Berr>''s nonmetncal analyses of Norse crania from a
wide range of sites from Norway to Greenland (24) Her investigation tended
to confirm the traditional documentarj' accounts but emphasized the Bntish
Isles component evident in the westem North Atlantic samples from Green-
land and Iceland In Iceland, Jon Steffanson and the late Sigurdur Thoranns-
son used changes in reconstructed stature within dated cemetery populations
to argue for significant famine-induced stature reduction m the late medieval
to early modem penods (183)
Most recently, an intemational research team has been using a spectrum of
techniques ranging from stable isotope archaeometr>' through skeletal
paleopathology and dental morphology to investigate the diet, health, and
nutntionai status of North Atlantic Norse populations Results of dental
investigations thus far strongly suggest major differences in diet between the
Norse Greenlanders and other contemporary North Atlantic populations (168)
and indicate widespread reduction in stature m the later Middle Ages At
present, biological anthropology appears to be on the threshold of potentially
revolutionary' contnbutions to our understanding of human adaptation in the
North Atlantic region

SUMMARY
The archaeology of the Norse North Atlantic has a long scholarly history, hut
the region has only recently emerged as a well-defined area of intemational
interest A senes of recent meetings has ser\'ed to strengthen ties among
workers in Scandinavia, the United Kingdom, and North Amenca and has
contnbuted to an emerging consciousness of shared research goals and
 NORSE NORTH ATLANTIC 345

problems Locational analyses, archaeometnc dating, systematic sampling

and recover\' strategies, computer-aided mapping and recording, and a full
spectrum of geo- and bioarchaeological techniques have become standard
tools of most North Atlantic fieldworkers. and productive intemational and
interdisciplinar>' research has become the rule rather than the exception
Theoretical as well as methodological sophistication is also increasingly
evident in the growing capacity of North Atlantic scholars to build social and
economic models that are not cnppled by a complete dependence on an
incomplete documentary record (108) With a great deal of excavated matenal
under intensive analysis and with steadily expanding fieldwork in ever>' part
of the region, medieval archaeology in the Norse North Atlantic is proving a
highly effective means for finding out what no one knew before

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
1 would like to thank all the many scholars in North Amenca. Greenland.
Iceland. Faroe, the United Kingdom. Norway, and Denmark who have so
generously shared data, ideas, cnticism. and tent space over the past two
decades My gratitude is especially due to those who participated in fieldwork
in W'est Greenland. Shetland, and Iceland and to our kind hosts in all these
places Tom Amorosi provided the map and much unpublished data Research
reported here was made possible by grants trom the US National Science
Foundation, the National Geographic Society, the Wenner-Gren Foundation
tor .Anthropological Research. The NATO Scientific Grants program, the
Amencan-Scandinavian Foundation, and the PSC-CUNY Grants Program
Ali errors are the author's responsibilitv

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