Norse Greenland Settlements

Record summary

Norse farmers established settlements in Greenland from the late tenth century, conventionally divided into the Eastern and Western Settlements. Their eventual disappearance has been linked to changing climate, sea-ice conditions, declining trade, social choices, soil degradation, and relations with Inuit communities. Current research favors a multi-causal regional history rather than a single dramatic catastrophe. Church ruins, farmsteads, middens, isotope data, and sediment records allow comparison between textual traditions and environmental archaeology. The exact timing and relative importance of each factor remain contested, especially for the final generations.