Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Raiding the Landscape: Human Impact in the Scandinavian North Atlantic

  • Published:
Human Ecology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Between ca. A.D. 800–1000, Scandinavian chiefly societies with a mixed maritime and agricultural economy expanded into the North Atlantic, colonizing Shetland, Orkney, Caithness, Hebrides, Faeroes, Iceland, Greenland, and Vinland. The settlers brought continental European economics and expectations to a widely varied set of island ecosystems. In many regions, rapid degradation of flora and soils took place associated with social and climate change. Recent research coordinated by the North Atlantic Bicultural Organization (NABO) highlights the extent of pre-modern impacts.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

REFERENCES

  • Amorosi, T. (1989). Contributions to the zooarchaeology of Iceland: Some preliminary notes. In Durrenberger, P., and Palsson, G. (eds.), The Anthropology of Iceland. University of Iowa Press, Iowa City, pp. 203-227.

    Google Scholar 

  • Amorosi, T. (1991). Icelandic archaeofauna: A preliminary review. In Bigelow, G. F. (ed.), The Norse of the North Atlantic: Archeology, Biology and Cultural Ecology of the Medieval Scandinavian Settlements. Acta Archaeologica. (Vol. 61) Munskgaard, Kobenhavn, Denmark, pp. 272-284.

    Google Scholar 

  • Amorosi, T. (1992). Climate impact and human response in northeast Iceland: Archaeological investigations at Svalbard, 1986–1988. In Morris, C., and Rackham, D. J. (eds.), Norse and Later Settlement and Subsistence in the North Atlantic. Archetype Publications, University of Glasgow, Department of Archaeology, pp. 101-127.

  • Amorosi, T., and McGovern, T. H. (1993). The 1987–88 Archaeofauna from Videy, Iceland. Unpublished manuscript on file at the departments of Archaeology, Arbaersafn, National Museum of Iceland and the Bioarchaeological Laboratory, Department of Anthropology, Hunter College, C.U.N.Y.

  • Amorosi, T., and McGovern, T. H. (1994). Appendix 4: A preliminary report of an archaeofauna from Granastadir, Eyjafjardarsysla, Northern Iceland. In Einarsson, B. F. (ed.), The Settlement of Iceland: A Critical Approach: Granastadir and the Ecological Heritage. Series B, Gothenburg Archaeological Thesis, No. 4, Gothenburg University, Sweden.

    Google Scholar 

  • Amorosi, T., Buckland, P. C., Olafsson, G., Sadler, J. P., and Skidmore, P. (1992). Site status and the paleoecological record: A discussion of results from Bessastadir, Iceland. In Morris, C., and Rackham, D. J. (eds.), Norse and Later Settlement and Subsistence in the North Atlantic. Archetype Publications, University of Glasgow, Department of Archaeology, pp. 169-192.

  • Amorosi, T., McGovern, T. H., and Perdikaris, S. (1994a). Bioarchaeology and cod fisheries: A new source of evidence. In Jakobsson, J. and Schopka, S. (eds.), Cod and Climate Change. ICES Marine Science Symposium Series, Denmark, pp. 31-48.

  • Amorosi, T., Buckland, P. C., Magnusson, K., Sadler, J. P., and McGovern, T. H. (1994b). An archaeological examination of the midden at Nesstofa, Seltjarnarnes, Iceland. In Luff, R., and Rowley-Conway, P. A. (eds.), Whither Environmental Archaeology? (Vol. 38). Oxbow Publications, Oxford, U.K., pp. 69-80.

    Google Scholar 

  • Amorosi, T., Woollett, J., Perdikaris, S., and McGovern, T. H. (in press). Regional zooarchaeology and global change: Problems and potentials. World Archaeology.

  • Arnalds, A. (1987). Ecosystem destruction in Iceland. Arctic and Alpine Research 19: 508-513.

    Google Scholar 

  • Arneborg, J. (1991). The Roman Church in Norse Greenland. In Bigelow, G. F. (ed.), The Norse of the North Atlantic: Archaeology, Biology and Cultural Ecology of the Medieval Scandinavian Settlements. Acta Archaeologica. (Vol. 61) Munksgaard, Kobenhavn, Denmark, pp. 142-150.

    Google Scholar 

  • Arneborg, J. (1996). Bugunderhuer, Baskere og Dode Nordboer I Herjolfsnaes, Gronland. Research report, National Museum of Denmark.

  • Arneborg, J., and Berglund, J. (1993). Gaarden under Sandet. Forskning I Gronland/Tusaat 4(93): 7-19.

    Google Scholar 

  • Balée, W. (1996). Historical ecology: Premiss and postulates. In Balé3, W. (ed.), Advances in Historical Ecology. Columbia University Press, pp. 23-59.

  • Barlow, L. L. (1994). Evaluation of Seasonal Scale Deuterium and Deuterium Excess Signals, GISP2 Ice Core, Summit, Greenland, AD 1270–1985. PhD thesis, University of Colorado, University Microfilms, Ann Arbor, MI.

  • Barlow, L. L., White, J. W. C., Barry, R. G., Rogers, J. C., and Grootes, P. M. (1993). The North Atlantic oscillation signature in deuterium and deuterium excess signals in the Greenland Ice Sheet Project 2 Core, 1840–1970. Geophysical Research Letters 20(24): 2901-2904.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barrett, J. (1995). Few Know an Earl in Fishing Clothes. PhD Thesis, Department of Archaeology, University of Glasgow.

  • Batey, C. E., Jesch, J., and Morris, C. D. (eds.) (1993). The Viking Age in Caithnes, Orkney and the North Atlantic. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berglund, J. (1991). Displacements in the building over of the Eastern Settlement, Greenland. In Bigelow, G. F. (ed.), The Norse of the North Atlantic: Archaeology, Biology and Cultural Ecology of the Medieval Scandinavian settlements. Acta Archaeologica. (Vol. 61) Munksgaard, Kobenhavn, Denmark, pp. 151-158.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bigelow, G. F. (1984). Subsistence in Late Norse Shetland: An Investigation into a Northern Island Economy of the Middle Ages. PhD dissertation, University of Cambridge, U.K.

  • Bigelow, G. F. (1989). Life in medieval Shetland: An archaeological perspective. Hikuin 15: 183-192.

    Google Scholar 

  • Buckland, P. C., Amorosi, T., Barlow, L. K., Dugmore, A. J., Mayewski, P. A., McGovern, T. H., Ogilvie, A. E. J., Sadler, J. P., and Skidmore, P. (1996). Bioarchaeological and climatological evidence for the fate of the Norse farmers in medieval Greenland. Antiquity 70(1): 88-96.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bigelow, G. F. (ed.) (1991). The Norse of the North Atlantic: Archeology, Biology and Cultural Ecology of the Medieval Scandinavian Settlements. Acta Archaeologica (Vol. 61). Munksgaard, Kobenhavn, Denmark.

    Google Scholar 

  • Buckland, P. C. (1988). North Atlantic faunal connections-introductions or endemics? Entomologica Scandinavia (Suppl. 32: 7-29.

    Google Scholar 

  • Buckland, P. C. (1992). Insects and the pre-Norse settlement of Faeroe: A case not proven. Frodskaparrit 38–39: 107-114.

    Google Scholar 

  • Buckland, P. C., and Dugmore, A. J. (1991). If this is a Refugiam, why are my feet so bloody cold?: The Origins of the Icelandic Biota in the Light of Recent Research. In Maizels, J. K., and Caseldine, C. (eds.), Environmental Change in Iceland: 19 Past and Present. Kluwer Academic Press, Dordrecht, pp. 107-126.

    Google Scholar 

  • Buckland, P. C., Dugmore, A. J., Perry, D., Sveinbjarnardottir, G., and Savory, D. (1991). Holt in Eyjafjallasveit, Iceland: A paleoecological study of the impact of Landnam. In Bigelow, G. F. (ed.), The Norse of the North Atlantic: Archaeology, Biology and Cultural Ecology of the Medieval Scandinavian Settlements. Acta Archaeologica (Vol. 61). Munksgaard, Kobenhavn, Denmark. pp. 252-171.

    Google Scholar 

  • Buckland, P. C., Dugmore, A. J., and Sadler, J. P. (1991). Faunal change or taphonomic problem? A comparison of modern and fossil insect faunas from south east Iceland. In Maizels, J. K., and Caseldine, C. (eds.), Environmental Change in Iceland: Past and Present. Kluwer Academic Press, Dordrecht, pp. 127-146.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cambridge, E. (1988). The architectural context of the Romanesque cathedral at Kirkwall. In Crawford, B. (ed.), St. Magnus Cathedral and Orkney's Twelfth Century Renaissance. Aberdeen University Press, pp. 111-120.

  • Carneiro, R. (1988). The circumscription theory. American Behavioral Scientist 31(4): 497-511.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crumley, C. (ed.) (1994). Historical Ecology: Cultural Knowledge and Changing Landscapes. School of American Research Press, Santa Fe, New Mexico.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cronon, W. (1993). Nature's Metropolis. Aldine, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crosby, A. W. (1995). Germs, Seeds, and Animals: Studies in Ecological History. M.E. Sharpe, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Diamond, J. M. (1994). The last people. Nature 370: 331-332.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dugmore, A. J., and Buckland, P. C. (1991). Tephrachronology and late Holocene soil erosion in south Iceland. In Maizels, J. K., and Caseldine, C. (eds.), Environmental Change in Iceland: Past and Present. Kluwer Academic Press, Dordrecht, pp. 147-160.

    Google Scholar 

  • Durrenberger, E. P. (1991). Production in medieval Iceland. In Bigelow, G. F. (ed.), The Norse of the North Atlantic. Acta Archaeologica (Vol. 61) pp. 14-21.

  • Einarsson, B. F. (1994). The Settlement of Iceland: A Critical Approach: Granastadir and the Ecological Heritage. Series B, Gothenburg Archaeological Thesis, No. 4, Gothenburg University, Sweden.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eliasen, K. (1995). Domkirken “Mivoren” I Kirkjubo. Frodskaparrit 43: 23-58.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fitzhugh, W. W., and Lamb, H. L. (1985). Vegetation history and culture change in Labrador prehistory. Arctic and Alpine Research 17(4): 357-370.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fleming, A., and Wooley, A. (1992). Cille Donnain: A late Norse church in south Uist. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 127: 329-350.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fredskild, B. (1973). Studies in the vegetational history of Greenland. Meddl. om Gronl. 198(4).

  • Fredskild, B. (1986). Agriculture in a marginal area: S. Greenland AD 985–1985. In Birks, H. (ed.), The Cultural Landscape--past Present and Future. Botanisk Inst., Raport 41, Bergen, pp. 28-35.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fredskild, B. (1988). Agriculture in a Marginal Area--South Greenland from the Norse Landnam (985 A.D.) to the present (1985 A.D.). In Birks, Birks, Kaload, and Moe (eds.), The Cultural Landscape--Past, Present and Future. Cambridge University Press, pp. 381-393.

  • Gunn, J. D. (1994). Special issue: Global Climate--Human Life: Physical contexts of historic landscapes. Human Ecology 22(1).

  • Hallsdottir, M. (1987). Pollen Analytical Studies of Human Influence on Vegetation in Relation to the Landnam Tephra Layer in Southwest Iceland. Lundqua thesis, Lund University, Department of Quaternary Geology, Sweden, volume 18.

  • Hansen, B. U. (1991). Using climate and vegetation studies in southern Greenland to estimate the natural resources during the Norse period. Acta Borealia 8(1): 40-55.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haraldsson, H. (1981). The Markarfljot area, southern Iceland: Sedimentological, petrographical and stratigraphic studies. Striae 15.

  • Hastrun, K. (1985). Culture and History in Medieval Iceland: An Anthropological Analysis of Structure and Change. Oxford.

  • Jacobsen, B. H. (1991). Soil resources and soil erosion in south Greenland: An attempt to estimate soil resources in the Norse period. Acta Borealia 1: 56-68.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jones, G. (1986). The Norse Atlantic Sage: Being the Norse Voyages of Discovery and Settlement to Iceland, Greenland, and North America. Oxford University Press, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johanneson, J. (1985). Studies in the Vegetational History of the Faroe and Shetland Islands. Torshavn, Faroe.

  • Keegan, J. (1993). A History of Warfare. Random House, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Keegan, W. F., and Diamond, J. M. (1987). Colonization of islands by humans: A biogeographical perspective. In Schiffer, M. B. (ed.), Advances in Archaeological Method and Theory. (Vol. 10). Academic Press, New York, pp. 49-92.

    Google Scholar 

  • Keller, C. (1989). The Eastern Settlement Reconsidered: Some Analyses of Norse Medieval Greenland. PhD dissertation, University of Oslo.

  • Keller, C. (1991). Vikings in the West Atlantic: A model of Norse Greenlandic medieval society. In Bigelow, G. F. (ed.), The Nose of the North Atlantic: Archaeology, Biology and Cultural Ecology of the Medieval Scandinavian Settlements. Acta Archeologica (Vol. 61). Munksgaard, Kobenhavn, Denmark, pp. 126-141.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kelly, R. L. (1992). Towards a Reconciliation of Processual and post-Processual Archaeology. In Wansnider, L. (ed.), Quandaries and Quests: Visions of Archaeology's Future. Center for Arch. Invest. Occ. Paper 20 SIU, Carbondale, pp. 254-265.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kroch, K. J. (1982). Eirik den Rodes Gronland. Nationalmuseet, Copenhagen.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mayewski, P. A., Meeker, L. D., Whitlow, S. I., Twickler, M. S., Morrison, M. C., Bloomfield, P., Bond, G. C., Alley, R. B., Grow, A. J., Grootes, P. M., Meese, D. A., Ram, M., Taylor, K. C., and Wumkes, W. (1994). Changes in atmospheric circulation and ocean ice cover over the North Atlantic during the last 41,000. Science 263: 1741-1751.

    Google Scholar 

  • McGhee, R. (1981). Archaeological evidence for climate change during the last 5,000 years. In Wigley, T. M. L. (ed.), Climate and History. Cambridge University Press, pp. 162-179.

  • McGoodwin, J. R. (1990). Crisis in the World's Fisheries: People, Problems, and Policies. Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA.

    Google Scholar 

  • McGovern, T. H. (1981). The economics of extinction in Norse Greenland. In Wigley, T. M. L., et al. (eds.), Climate and History. Cambridge University Press, pp. 404-434.

  • McGovern, T. H. (1990). The archaeology of the Norse North Atlantic. Annual Review of Anthropology 19: 331-351.

    Google Scholar 

  • McGovern, T. H. (1991). Climate, correlation and causation in Norse Greenland. Arctic Anthropology 28(2): 77-100.

    Google Scholar 

  • McGovern, T. H. (1992a). Bones, buildings, and boundaries: Paleoeconomic approaches to Norse Greenland. In Morris, C., and Rackham, D. J. (eds.), Norse and Later Settlement and Subsistence in the North Atlantic. Archetype Publication, University of Glasgow, Department of Archaeology, pp. 193-230.

  • McGovern, T. H. (1992b). The zooarchaeology of the Vatnahverfi. In Vebaek, C. L. (ed.), Vatnahverfi: An inland district of the Eastern Settlement of Greenland. Meddl. om Gronland Man and Society 17: 93-106.

  • McGovern, T. H. (1994). Management for extinction in Norse Greenland. In Crumley, C. L. (ed.), Historical Ecology: Cultural Knowledge and Changing Landscapes. School of American Research Press, Santa Fe, New Mexico, pp. 127-154.

    Google Scholar 

  • McGovern, T. H., Amorosi, T., Perdikaris, S., and Woollett, J. (in press). Vertebrate zooarchaeology of Sandnes V51: Economic change at a Chieftains farm in West Greenland. Arctic Anthropology.

  • McGovern, t. H., Bigelow, G. F., Amorosi, T., Woollett, J., and Perdikaris, S. (1993). The zooarchaeology of 071a. In Vebaek, C. L. (ed.), Narsaq--a Norse Landnama Farm, Meddl. om Gronland Man and Society (Vol. 18), pp. 58-72.

  • Mcgovern, T. H., Bigelow, G. F., Amorosi, T., and Russell, D. (1988). Northern islands, human error, and environmental degradation: A preliminary model for social and ecological change in the medieval North Atlantic. Human Ecology 16: 225-270.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mcgovern, T. H., and Jordan, R. (1982). Settlement and land use in the inner fjords of the Godthaab District, West Greenland. Arctic Anthropology 19(1): 63-80.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morris, C. D. (1989). The Birsay Bay project: Brought Road Excavations, 1976–1982. University of Durham, Department of Archaeology Monograph series, number 1.

  • Morris, C., and Rackham, D. J. (eds.) (1992). Norse and Later Settlement and Subsistence in the North Atlantic. Archetype Publications, University of Glasgow, Department of Archaeology, Glasgow, U. K.

    Google Scholar 

  • O'Brien, S. R., Mayewski, P. A., Meeker, L. D., Meese, D. A., Twickler, M. S., and Whitlow, s. I. (1995). Complexity of Holocene climate as reconstructed from a Greenland ice core. Science 270: 1962-1964.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ogilvie, A. (1991). Climatic changes in Iceland AD ca. 865–1598. In Bigelow, G. F. (ed.), the Norse of the North Atlantic: Archaeology, Biology and Cultural Ecology of the Medieval Scandinavian Settlements. Acta Archaeologica (Vol. 61). Munksgaard, Kobenhavn, Denmark, pp. 220-227.

    Google Scholar 

  • Palsson, H. (1971). Hrafnkels' Saga and Other Stories. Penguin Books, Hammondsworth.

    Google Scholar 

  • Park, T., and Greenberg, R. (1994). Political ecology. Political ecology 1(1): 3-15.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parry, M. L. (1978). Climatic Change, Agriculture, and Settlement. Dawson, Archon.

    Google Scholar 

  • Renfrew, C. (1978). Trajectory discontinuity and morphogenesis: The implications of catastrophe theory for archaeology. American Antiquity 43: 203-222.

    Google Scholar 

  • Roussell, A. (1941). Farms and churches in the medieval Norse settlement of Greenland. Meddl. om Gronl. 86(1).

  • Runolfsson, S. (1978). Soil conservation in Iceland. In Holdgate, M. W., and Woodman, M. J. (eds.), The Breakdown and Restoration of Ecosystems. Plenum Press, New York, pp. 231-240.

    Google Scholar 

  • Russell, D., Amorosi, T., and McGovern, T. H. (1986). An archaeofauna from Storaborg, Southern Iceland. Unpublished manuscript on file at the Department of Archaeology, National Museum of Iceland and the Bioarchaeological Laboratory, Department of Anthropology, Hunter College, C.U.N.Y.

  • Rutherford, G. K. (1995). Soils of some norse settlements in Southwestern Greenland. Arctic 48(4): 324-328.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schumm, S. A. (1979). Geomorphic thresholds: The concept and the applications. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers N.S. 4: 485-515.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, E. A., and Winterhalder, B. (eds.) (1992). Evolutionary Ecology and Human Behavior. Aldine De Gruyter, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sveinbjarnardottir, G. (1992). Farm Abandonment in Medieval and Post-medieval Iceland: An Interdisciplinary Study. Oxbow Monographs, Oxford, U.K., 17.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thorarinsson, S. (1961). Uppblastur a Islandi i lijosioskulagarannsoka. In Arsrit Skograektarfelags Islands. Reykjavik, pp. 17-54.

  • Urbancyzk, P. (1992). Medieval Arctic Norway. Institute of Archaeology and Ethnogrphay, Warsaw.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vickers, D. (1994). Environmental History and the Collapse of the Cod Fishers. Conference proposal, SERC.

  • Wallace, B. L. (1991). L'Anse aux meadows: Gateway to Vinland. In Bigelow, G. F. (ed.), The Norse of the North Atlantic. Acta Archaeologica (Vol. 61). pp. 166-197.

  • Winterhalder, B. P. (1994). Concepts in historical ecology: The view from evolutionary theory. In Crumley, C. (ed.), Historical Ecology. SAR Press, Santa Fe, pp. 17-42.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zeeman, C. (ed.) (1977). Catastrophe Theory, Selected Papers 19972–1977. London.

  • Zutter, C. M. (1989). Archaeobotanical Analysis of the Svalbard Midden, N.E. Iceland. MA. thesis, Department of Anthropology, University of Alberta, Canada.

  • Zutter, C. M. (1992). Icelandic plant and land-use patterns: Archaeobotanical analysis of the Svalbard midden (6706-60), northeastern Iceland. In Morris, C., and Rackham, D. J. (eds.), Norse and Later Settlement and Subsistence in the North Atlantic. Archetype Publications, University of Glasgow, Department of Archaeology, pp. 139-148.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bioarchaeological Laboratory, Department of Anthropology, Hunter College, C.U.N.Y., 695 Park Avenue, New York, NY, 10021

    Thomas Amorosi & Thomas H. McGovern

  2. Department of Archaeology and Prehistory, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, S10 2TN, United Kingdom

    Paul Buckland

  3. Department of Geography, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH1 1NR, Scotland, U.K

    Andrew Dugmore

  4. Department of Anthropology, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, 85721

    Jon H. Ingimundarson

Authors
  1. Thomas Amorosi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Paul Buckland
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Andrew Dugmore
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Jon H. Ingimundarson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Thomas H. McGovern
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Amorosi, T., Buckland, P., Dugmore, A. et al. Raiding the Landscape: Human Impact in the Scandinavian North Atlantic. Human Ecology 25, 491–518 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021879727837

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021879727837

Search

Navigation