ABSTRACT

This paper presents two high-resolution pollen records dating to ∼AD 1000–1400 that reveal the impacts of Norse colonists on vegetation and landscape around a remote farmstead in the Western Settlement of Greenland. The study is centred upon a ‘centralised farm’ (ruin group V53d) in Austmannadalen, near the margin of the Greenland Ice Sheet (64°13′N, 49°49′W). The climate is low arctic and considered marginal in terms of its suitability for the type of pastoral agriculture that the Norse settlers introduced. The data reveal that at a short distance (∼500 m) from the farm buildings, the palynological ‘footprint’ for settlement becomes extremely indistinct, the only clear palaeoenvironmental evidence for a human presence being elevated levels of microscopic charcoal. This contrasts with the Eastern Settlement, where a strong palynological signature for Norse landnám is evident, from the local (individual farm) through to the regional (landscape) scale. The palynological data from Austmannadalen, and the Western Settlement more generally, imply that farming occurred at very low intensity. This aligns with ideas that promote the importance of hunting, and trade in valuable Arctic commodities (e.g. walrus ivory), ahead of a search for new pasture as the dominant motivation driving the Norse settlement of this region.

摘要

本文介绍了可追溯到公元 1000 年至 1400 年的两个高分辨率花粉记录，这些记录揭示了北欧殖民者对格陵兰西部定居点偏远农庄周围植被和景观的影响。该研究的中心是位于格陵兰冰盖边缘（64°13′N，49°49′W）附近的 Austmannadalen 的一个“集中式农场”（废墟组 V53d）。气候处于北极低洼地带，就其对北欧定居者引入的田园农业类型的适用性而言被认为是微不足道的。数据显示，在距农场建筑很短的距离（~500 m）处，用于定居的孢粉学“足迹”变得非常模糊，唯一明确的古环境证据表明人类存在的微观木炭水平升高。这与东部殖民地形成鲜明对比，从当地（个体农场）到区域（景观）尺度，土地是显而易见的。来自 Austmannadalen 和更普遍的西部定居点的孢粉学数据表明，耕作的强度非常低。这与在寻找新牧场作为推动北欧人在该地区定居的主要动机之前宣传狩猎和有价值北极商品（例如海象牙）贸易的重要性的想法一致。