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Seals and Sea Ice in Medieval Greenland

Seals and Sea Ice in Medieval Greenland

By A.E.J. Ogilvie et al.

Journal of the North Atlantic, Vol.2:1 (2009)

greenland seals

Abstract: 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 palaeoclimatic 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.

Introduction: It is claimed that there are all sorts of seals, too, in those seas, and that they have a habit of following the ice, as if abundant food would never be wanting there. ~ The King’s Mirror-Speculum Regale-Konungs Skuggsjá

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Both humans and marine mammals have an intricate and complex relationship with sea ice. For people living in the Arctic and Subarctic, the presence of the ice can appear as a friend, facilitating, for example, hunting or transport, or as an enemy, disrupting fisheries and navigation. For certain marine mammals, the ice is a vital component of their life cycle and habitat. With the current rapidly diminishing Arctic sea-ice cover, a number of studies are underway to consider the impacts of this major change on Arctic peoples and animals in the present and future. With a view to placing such developments in the context of changes in the past, the focus of this paper is an interdisciplinary study of the interaction of different seal species in Arctic/North Atlantic regions with sea ice, and, more specifically, the implications for the Norse settlements in Greenland in medieval times. Although it is not until the 1970s, with the development of satellite imagery, that truly accurate sea-ice monitoring becomes possible, the existence of a number of data sets documenting past sea-ice variations in the North Atlantic region make it feasible to consider past impacts on both humans and seals.

One hypothesis that will be considered here is that variations in climate played a part in changes and shifts in the seal-hunting patterns of the Norse Greenlanders. Certainly, a transition from less to more ice would be a major threshold shift with serious implications for both marine biology and human society. The reasons for the presence of more or less ice must also taken be into account. Studies of the incidence of sea ice reaching the coasts of Iceland have established a close correlation with temperatures on land, but the reasons for the presence of sea ice are complex. A large quantity of ice in a certain location could mean colder sea temperatures, and hence a colder climate, or it could also indicate calving icebergs from glaciers during a warmer climatic phase.

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