Seals and Sea Ice in Medieval Greenland

• Published in: Journal of the North Atlantic 2009, Vol.2 (1), p.60-80
• Main Authors: Ogilvie, Astrid E.J, Woollett, James M, Smiarowski, Konrad, Arneborg, Jette, Troelstra, Simon, Kuijpers, Antoon, Pálsdóttir, Albina, McGovern, Thomas H
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1935-1984; 1935-1933; 1935-1933
• DOI: 10.3721/037.002.0107

Multidisciplinary approaches are used to examine possible changes in North Atlantic sea-ice cover, in the context of seal hunting, during the period of the Norse occupation of Greenland (ca. 985–1500). Information from Iceland is also used in order to amplify and illuminate the situation in Greenland. Data are drawn mainly from zooarchaeological analyses, but written records of climate and sea-ice variations, as well as paleoclimatic data sets are also discussed. Although it should be noted that any use of seal bones from excavated archaeofauna (animal bone collections from archaeological sites) must recognize the filtering effects of past human economic organization, technology, and seal-hunting strategies, it is suggested that differing biological requirements of the six seal species most commonly found in Arctic/North Atlantic regions may provide a potential proxy for past climate, in particular sea-ice conditions. It is concluded that an increase in the taking of harp seals, as opposed to common seals, in the Norse Greenland “Eastern Settlement” in the late-fourteenth century, may reflect an increase in summer drift-ice.