Greenland Norse walrus exploitation deep into the Arctic
Walrus ivory was a prized commodity in medieval Europe and was supplied by Norse intermediaries who expanded across the North Atlantic, establishing settlements in Iceland and Greenland. However, the precise sources of the traded ivory have long remained unclear, raising important questions about the sustainability of commercial walrus harvesting, the extent to which Greenland Norse were able to continue mounting their own long-range hunting expeditions, and the degree to which they relied on trading ivory with the various Arctic Indigenous peoples that they were starting to encounter. We use high-resolution genomic sourcing methods to track walrus artifacts back to specific hunting grounds, demonstrating that Greenland Norse obtained ivory from High Arctic waters, especially the North Water Polynya, and possibly from the interior Canadian Arctic. These results substantially expand the assumed range of Greenland Norse ivory harvesting activities and support intriguing archaeological evidence for substantive interactions with Thule Inuit, plus possible encounters with Tuniit (Late Dorset Pre-Inuit).
Authors
- Magie Aiken (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0424-6908)
- Lesley Howse (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9642-5833)
- Anne Birgitte Gotfredsen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7665-2935)
- Morten Tange Olsen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6716-6345)
- Paul Szpak (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1364-6834)
- Snæbjörn Pálsson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4297-3500)
- Morgan L. McCarthy (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9695-6060)
- Giulia Zampirolo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-0145-1538)
- Xénia Keighley (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7994-0414)
- Peter David Jordan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2837-3920)
- Hilmar J. Malmquist
- Emily J. Ruiz‐Puerta (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0129-9417)
- Sean P. A. Desjardins (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9688-9216)
- Scott Rufolo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0220-9732)
- Maarten J. J. E. Loonen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3426-4595)
- Greer Jarrett (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0000-8910-8736)
- Shyong En Pan
Institutions
- University of Copenhagen (DK)
- Bureau of Meteorology (AU)
- University of Iceland (IS)
- Lund University (SE)
- Hokkaido University (JP)
- Náttúrufræðistofnun (IS)
- Nunavut Research Institute (CA)
- Canadian Museum of Nature (CA)
- Institute of Archaeology (HU)
- Geocenter Denmark (DK)
- Trent University (CA)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Science Advances
- Published
- 2024-09-27
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adq4127
- Citations
- 6
- Primary Topic
- Archaeology and ancient environmental studies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 9.53
Funders
- Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek
- Lunds Universitet
- Háskóli Íslands
- Arts and Humanities Research Council
- Horizon 2020