To be fair, Greenland was much greener during the Medieval Warm Period when it was settled. In fact, the leading theory as to why the Greenland Viking settlements died out was because they refused to learn to live like the Inuit, who had settled the northern, still frozen, part of Greenland not too long after the Vikings and knew how to live in tundra.
But there was a lot of grazing and farmland when the Vikings first settled and they did very well for a while, until the climate changed.
Sounds a bit familiar.
There’s a fantastic podcast on the rise/fall of the Greenland Vikings that goes into nice details on this:
https://fallofcivilizationspodcast.com/2019/03/26/episode-4-of-fall-of-civilizations-is-now-live/(Fall of Civilizations is the best podcast ever made)
I am already a huge fan and I have been waiting and waiting for the next episode because I’ve listened to all of them at least twice.
Meanwhile, I just discovered this really interesting podcast from an expert on Indigenous American archaeology. He was part of a massive project to map the Mayan city of Palenque in 1999 and he discovered an unknown Mayan city during another mapping project. He’s also just fun to listen to.
I’ve listened to all them at least twice as well, and a few of them even more (Sumer/Rapa Nui).
Thanks for the recommendation of archaeoed! I’ll add that to my list!
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again, Denmark winning the long game by owning Greenland.
They’ll sure have a large fresh water supply when a lot of other people will be needing it.
Fantastic wildlife, pleasant on the ears
