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Why Did Greenland’s Vikings Vanish? (2017)

smithsonianmag.com

31–34 of 34 posts

Re: Why Did Greenland’s Vikings Vanish? (2017)

#31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect the knowledge was restricted to the working classes. I suspect that the noble classes didn’t really care about how Norese Greenlanders got their lumber, or how North Europeans got the fish they traded with. They’d much rather know where the Chinese get their silk, where the South Asians get their spices, or where the West Africans get their gold from. Since the resources coming from the North Atlantic were…

But there's evidence that there was a substantial Greenland walrus-ivory trade in the 1300s. "The high value that medieval Europe placed on walrus ivory would have provided plenty of incentive to pursue it in Greenland. Craftsmen used ivory in luxury ornaments and apparel, and in objects like the famous Lewis chess set, discovered in Scotland in 1831. In 1327, an 802-kilogram parcel of Greenland tusks was worth a sma…

True, but by the 1400s there was more plentiful ivory to be had from India and East Africa. On top of having to compete for market share with the east trade, the Norse also had to compete with the more technologically advanced Inuit for hunting grounds in west Greenland.

I’m guessing the European noble class didn’t really have to care about ivory from the North Atlantic when they knew they could have cheaper and more plentiful Ivory from the East.

Re: Why Did Greenland’s Vikings Vanish? (2017)

#32

I don't get it, they bash on diamonds book and then are making the same points as he did

I don't see that they bashed on his book. They said that he followed the narrative accepted at the time which has since been disproven (or modified, anyway). Saying that he wrote approximately what historians at the time believed seems to be far from a harsh criticism. It may, perhaps, be a warning that the information has been superseded.

Re: Why Did Greenland’s Vikings Vanish? (2017)

#33
post #23

I wonder how the Vikings kept warm during winter. It's mentioned in the article that there almost weren't any trees in Greenland and it must have been extremely cold there in winter.

There are other things you can burn: peat (probably not plentiful in Greenland), dried cow manure. Also, you wear furs and sleep under furs. Even my grandparents, living in a place with far more plentiful wood at a much later time in history, had stories of breaking the ice on the wash basin in the morning.

Re: Why Did Greenland’s Vikings Vanish? (2017)

#34
post #23

I wonder how the Vikings kept warm during winter. It's mentioned in the article that there almost weren't any trees in Greenland and it must have been extremely cold there in winter.

There are other things you can burn: peat (probably not plentiful in Greenland), dried cow manure. Also, you wear furs and sleep under furs. Even my grandparents, living in a place with far more plentiful wood at a much later time in history, had stories of breaking the ice on the wash basin in the morning.

I lived in a place where I had to break the ice in the toilet in the morning. And that was in England.
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