Researchers studied walrus ivory from museums around Europe to help reach their conclusion.
Musées Du MansThe upper jaw bone of a Walrus with tusk .
The debate ring the Norse ’s determination to settle on icy and treacherous Greenland , as well as their favourable macrocosm on such rough terrain has dun for decades . But , a new composition may hold some long awaited answers .
The Norse relied on agriculture , sportfishing , and trading to outlive , but anew study published in theProceedings of the Royal Society Bconfirmed a specific swop item that could have chair to their successfulness and downfall : walrus ivory .
Musées Du MansThe upper jaw bone of a Walrus with tusks.
The research worker for the study visited museum across Europe and examine walrus tusks , bone , and target constructed from their off-white to shape their origin . What they discovered shocked them .
Before the Norse closure ’s prime around mid-1100s-1400 , most of Europe ’s bone come from the east . However , the reputation state that a “ significant shift key in trade from an early , preponderantly eastern germ towards a near exclusive representation of Greenland pearl ” go on .
According to theAssociated Press , during the Norse ’s heyday , at least 80 percent of the walrus ivory that was trade in came from Greenland . Life in Greenland was extremely difficult for theNorsepeople so they had to rely on patronage to get many of their necessities .
Josef Knecht/Wikimedia CommonsA fjord full of ice in Greenland.
Josef Knecht / Wikimedia CommonsA fjord full of ice in Greenland .
“ If they wanted to pull round in Greenland , they really had to trade , because there were items they just could n’t get – like raw material such as iron , ” Jette Arneborg , an expert on Norse Greenlanders at the National Museum of Denmark who not involved in the bailiwick , toldNational Geographic . “ So from day one they needed something to trade – and we of course surmise it was the seahorse tusk that were their master trade items . ”
found on the grounds pile up in the study , it is believe that the NorseVikingsrelied to a great extent upon the walrus ivory trade to Europe to fly high . So when extraneous factors start to affect the demand for the ivory , they endure greatly .
The Norse settlements became extinct sometime in the 1400s , which was a small turn after life in Europe had been decimated by the onset of the Black Death as well as the Little Ice Age . These huge events could have shifted the Europeans priorities away from walrus ivory , leaving the Norse with a trade gap that they were no longer able to fill .
Poul Holm , an environmental historian at Trinity College in Dublin who was not involved in the study , told theAssociated Pressthat “ the fading allure of the mathematical product locks society in decline . ”
Other factor besides the decline of the walrus ivory trade are believed to have take on a part in the Norse ’s extermination . agent such as climate change , the destruction of Norse farmland due to rising ocean degree , and the expiration of contact with Norway , who was an important swop partner , are all said to have contributed .
Bastiaan Star , an ancient DNA expert at the University of Oslo and go author of the cogitation , toldNational Geographicthat this Norse case of reliance on another region was one of the first example of what would by and by become a more usual practice .
“ It ’s an early record , I think , of globalization , ” Star said . “ Whereby you have demand from Europe already having an impact in the outside Arctic region , yard of klick aside , one C or thousands of twelvemonth ago . ”
The mystery story surrounding the Norse ’s unprecedented raise and startling extinction is far from solved , but this latest discovery fetch researchers one step closer to at long last unlocking the truth .
Next , learn aboutErik the Red – the Viking who was banished for murder and then go on to find Greenland . Then , mark off out the story ofShieldmaidens , the Viking warrior cleaning lady .
