Who opened Greenland and in which year. Citadel, Derbent Old Town Construction

29.12.2020

On a covered green grass, the slope on the shore of the fjord near the extreme southern tip of Greenland is the ruins of the church, built here by the Scandinavian settlers more than in the century before Columbus went to look for India, and found America. Thick walls are preserved, isolated from granite blocks, and a six-meter frontoth. The wooden roof, rafters and doors long ago collapsed and rotted. Where once believers kneel knees, now sheep roam freely.

Here, in Fjord, who Vikings was called "Holvay", which in their language meant "whale island", on Sunday, September 16, 1408, combined Sigrid BjornSdottir and Torstein Olafsson (Thorstein Olafsson). The couple traveled on the ship from Norway to Iceland, but their vessel was killed from the course and, in the end, moored to the shores of Greenland, which by that time was the Wiking Colon for at least four centuries. The wedding was mentioned three times in letters sent between 1409 and 1424,

Another entry of the same period reports that a certain person, whose name and the floor remained unknown, was burned in a fire from Fjord Hwwsey for witchcraft.

These are the latest reliable information about the life of the Scandinavian settlers in Greenland. They do not give an answer to the question, where and why the European Population of the island was gone ...

The history of mankind is replete with cases of the mysterious disappearance of people, ships, airplanes, cities and entire civilizations. Scientists, criminologists, journalists and lovers of conspiraology come up with a variety of versions of each disappearance, accusing a wide range of subjects - from maniacs, special services and natural phenomena to aliens and residents of Atlantis.

Such a mysterious story occurred with immigrants from the Scandinavian Peninsula, inhabited in one of the most remote and insulated parts of the planet - in Greenland. This is the largest island on Earth. It is 50 times more than Denmark, which belongs! Greenland is located off the coast of North America, almost completely covered with ice and is distinguished by a very harsh climate, with the exception of the most southern part.

Approximately 982-986 Scandinavian Vikings on 14 ships sailed from Iceland and landed in Greenland to establish a settlement here. A more accurate date of arrival is unknown, since the only source of information about this event, Saga about Greenlanders, does not contain detailed chronology.

The colonists were engaged in cattle breeding - the only type of agriculture, possible then on this harsh land.

The extreme south of the island is free from ice, the warm water of the flow of Gulf Stream soften the climate, so the natural conditions here resembled the usual scandinales of the coast of Iceland.

There is a version that the leader of the first wave of the settlers Eric Ryzhy Lalgal Malgal Malglas, telling them before sailing to the new land about rich pastures covered with green grass. So he allegedly wanted to attract more people to the island. Indeed, after the volcanic fields of Iceland, reminiscent of the surface of the Moon or Mars, a place where many juicy herbs for sheep should have much more like the colonists.

Even the name for the island was invented by the corresponding - Greenland ("Green Earth"), although in fact most of this land is covered with snow and ice all year round.

It is not known whether the colonists or the island were disappointed, it was exactly how Eric told, but they founded the first European settlements in Greenland, giving them the names eastern (EystriBYGGD) and West (VestriGGGD). Today, the remnants of the first are located near the village of Kaktoktok (Qaqortoq), and the ruins of the second, where the wedding of Sigrid Bjorchdottir and the Olafsson Torstain, were found near the administrative center of Greenland Nuuk (Nuuk).

There was also a small central settlement, but it's almost nothing unknown about it.

At first, about 350 people lived in all three settlements of the island, but subsequently due to the influx of people from Iceland and Norway, as well as the birth of children from the colonists, the population has grown greatly.

During the excavations, archaeologists counted the remains of 400 residential buildings. During the maximum development of the colony in the XIII century in both settlements, up to 5-6 thousand people could live. Eastern was larger, about 4 thousand people.

It is not so little for Europe of the time. According to the tax census, 1377-1381 in all of England from about 250 existing cities only two - London and York - there were over 10 thousand inhabitants. In 16 cities, the population ranged from 3 to 10 thousand people, and the rest were even less. Then in German Cologne and Regensburg, 15-25 thousand people lived in French Strasbourg, and these cities were considered very large, real metropolisms of their time. During the heyday, the Greenland settlements were quite crowded for their time.

Colony has developed successfully. Scandinavians traded with Iceland and continental Europe. Selling a walruy tale, wool, meat, fish, fur and seal skins, and instead they received what was not on the island, first of all - iron and wood.

Greenlanders constantly supported communication with Europe. Every year, ships sailed from the continent in the colony. The settlers together with the rest of Scandinavia accepted Christianity, and in 1126 the Greenland Catholic diocese was founded, subordinate to the bishop of the Norwegian city Trondheim. The management of churches (their in Greenland was built at least five) demanded regular contacts with the continent. The flock needed priests, and they could only send them from Europe.

The colonists have repeatedly visited North America, for five centuries ahead of Christopher Columbus. In Newfoundland (this is the coast of modern Canada), they even founded a small settlement. When excavations of Viking houses in Greenland, the skin of Bizon was found, an animal inhabiting only in North America, which indicates contacts of a colony with a new light.

For a long time, Greenland was an independent state with a republican form of government - a rather rare phenomenon in medieval Europe, where almost all countries were monarchies.

In 1261, the inhabitants of the island swore at the loyalty to the King of Norway. In exchange for taxes, it was obliged to send one ship with the colonists each year with such a deficient on the island of iron and wood.

Icelanders and Grennentians paid for the Norwegian king times in six years. A record of 1327 has been preserved, according to which, from Greenland, a ship with 260 shiping taxes sailed from Greenland to the Norwegian Bergen. At that time, this cargo cost more than all the wool sent as taxes for a six-year period with about 4,000 Icelandic farms.

In 1380, Norway itself, together with dependent territories, entered the Ulya with Denmark. Since then, Greenland has been managed by Danish kings.

In the middle of the XIV century, the colony came into decay. As possible reasons, scientists call climate cooling, conflicts with Eskimos, a decrease in demand for a walrus bevel - the chief export goods of the colonists, the epidemic of the plague, attacks of pirates. The settlers were in such a difficult situation that in 1345 the Catholic Church freed them from the payment of church grade, and this was allowed only in the case of extreme poverty of the flock.

Between 1325 and 1350, the Western settlement was detected. It discovered a priest who came to visit believers. He found only abandoned houses, but no traces of battle. Residents simply left the city.

The last thing is that the Eastern settlement is known is the wedding of Sigrid Bjornsdottir and Torstain Olafsson in 1408 and the execution of the witch. And that's it. There are no testimonies about the future life of the colonists, as if the wedding and execution became the last episodes in the history of Eastern settlement.

"If some trouble had happened, we would have reason to assume that there would be some mention of her, Ian Simpson thought, an archaeologist from Sterling University in Scotland in a conversation with the Smithsonian magazine correspondent (Smithsonian Magazine). According to the scientist, judging by letters, "it was just an ordinary wedding in a relaxed community."

In world history it has repeatedly happened that people left the spaces based on the enemies. Citizens could die from the epidemic or hunger. But each time tragedies were left - the remains of people and animals, burnt ruins, eyewitness records and other sources that allow scientists to understand the reason for the disappearance of the population.

Residents of the Greenland Colony disappeared suddenly and without any traces and witnesses.

Meanwhile, these were experienced sailors and seasoned warriors who settled on the lands with one of the most unsuitable conditions on the planet, and made it their home. And they did not just survived. They built solid stone houses and churches, closed stained glass windows from Europe for them, the sheep, goats, bulls and cows were taken over the ocean of fur, walrus fangs, living polar bears and other exotic goods from the Arctic.

"These guys really lived on the edge of civilization," says Andrew Dagmore (Andrew Dugmore), a geographer from Edinburgh University. - And they did not just spend several years. They were there generations - centuries. "

In the XV century, Europeans almost did not attend a distant island, so the disappearance of the colony passed unnoticed. Only in 1540, a team of the Icelandic ship was landed in the former Eastern settlement. Sailors found only abandoned houses and a mummified corpse of an unknown man. In the cold of the body are preserved for a very long time, so the death time could not be determined.

Most often the disappearance of the colony explains the deterioration of weather conditions. Until the XIII century, the climate on Earth was significantly warmer than today. So much that, for example, in Scotland and South Sweden, growing grapes and existed winemaking. And in Norway near the northern polar circle, the wheat was cultivated. It is possible that Eric's Erica's stories about large Greenland pastures with juicy herb at that time were true.

In the Norwegian treatise of 1250, Konungs Skuggsjá ("Royal Mirror") It is written that the sun in Greenland "is quite strong to where the land is free from ice, the soil warmed enough and brought a good harvest and fragrant herbs."

American geographer and biologist Jared Diamond (Jared Diamond) in his book "Collapse. Why some societies survive, and others dying "wrote that in the south of Greenland, by the time of the arrival of the Vikings, there was a magnificent vegetation and even forests, subsequently cut down by the colonists.

In 1257, in the Indonesian island of Lombok (where, it would seem, Greenland, and where Lombok!) There was an eruption of a volcano. According to geologists, it was the most powerful eruption over the past 7,000 years. Current-climatologists found traces of its ashes in samples taken during the drilling of the icy bark and in Antarctica, and in Greenland. Sulfur, thrown into the stratosphere, reflected sunlight back into space. On the ground came cooling. "It influenced the whole planet," explains the Archaeologist of the New York City University Thomas McGovern. - Europeans have come a long period of hunger. It all started somewhere around the 1300s and lasted until the 1320s, 1340s. It was rather gloomy. Many people died of hunger. "

Having arrived in the XIII century, the cooling scientists call the "Small Ice Age". He lasted about 600 years. In Europe, the average annual temperature dropped very quickly. Cultural plants could not adapt to change, followed many years of failure. In 1315-1317, the continent covered the most terrible cold in medieval history. Every fourth European killed from him.

Small Ice Age touched and Greenland. Here the area of \u200b\u200bglaciers and permafrost increased, the winter has become even more severe, and the freezing sea made it difficult to shipping.

The latter circumstance greatly influenced the life of the colonists. Settlements could not long exist autonomously, without trade with Europe. The ice interfered with the ships from the continent to approach the shores of Greenland to pick up the local goods and deliver European products. Without wood and metal it is impossible to make tools and weapons, repair at home and ships. Due to the deficit of iron, the colonists were forced even to make nails from the tree.

Thomas McGovern so concociously formulated this version of the disappearance of the Greenland Vikings: "The stupid scandinavities go to the north outside their economic influence, spoil the ecology and then they all die when it becomes cold." The scientist himself adhered to this point of view for a long time, but then came to the conclusion that the Scandinavians could not be so stupid, but other explanations could be the disappearance of their Greenland settlements.

In the XIV century, an elephant bone from Asia and Africa began to act on the European market - better and cheap material than a walrupted talent. The price and demand for the main export product of Greenland have fallen sharply. The merchants were unprofitable to sail into the Arctic for the goods. And without trade, the scandinavis lost economic incentives to live on a distant island, to endure hunger, cold and other deprivation.

Some researchers suggest that the Vikings could not adapt to life in the Arctic. If the Scandinavians adopted the lifestyle of Eskimos: would hunt and catch fish, build houses from snow and ride on dog sledding, could stay in Greenland. But would they stay with the Vikings?

"Why scandinava just did not become natives? - Asks Niels Lynnerup, a forensic anthropologist from Copenhagen University, who studied the burial of Vikings in Greenland. - Why didn't Puritans just not become natives? Of course, they did not. There was never even a question that someone from Europeans who came to America began to wad and live, hunting for bison. "

Yes, in the ability to survive in the north, the Vikings strongly inferior to the Eskimos, but they were not particularly needed by such skills. After all, the indigenous inhabitants of the Arctic have no choice - it is necessary to adapt to harsh or to die. And Scandinavians had another third way - just return to Europe that many apparently did.

Studies of human remains and trash can near residential buildings show that at the beginning of the existence of the colony, the Greenland settlers were fed mainly by sheep meat, milk and cheese. But in the XIV century, 80% of their diet was meat seals and walruses. The most obvious explanation for this is to reduce livestock's livestock as a result of a decrease in pasture area. According to the incomprehensible reason, the colonists almost did not eat fish, although this is the most important element of the diet for the Scandinavian peoples.

All grain in Greenland became covered from the continent, but with such interruptions that some settlers, in the memoirs of the events on the island of Norwegians, never (!) In life, did not eat bread. So poor nutrition affected the health of the colonists. Studying their remains, experts found numerous traces of Rachita and other diseases associated with the lack of vitamins and microelements in the body.

The climatic theory has opponents. A scientist from the Danish National Museum of Christian Koch Madsen claims that Greenland was equally cold and in the X century, when Scandinavians came to the island, and four centuries later, when they disappeared. In his opinion, an unusually mild climate in the early Middle Ages, when in the south of Sweden Ros grapes was characterized only for Europe. And Greenland warming did not affect.

Vikings initially adapted to harsh natural conditions, four centuries lived in them. They would not notice the decrease in the temperature and the onset of the small glacial period.

This theory is confirmed by research by geologists. In 2015, the staff of the Colombian University and the University of New York have studied the samples of Greenland ice and concluded that the Square of Greenland glaciers reached its maximum between 975 and 1275.

"If the Vikings came to Greenland, when it was cold there, then it is impossible to say that they were expelled from the island of cooling," said Nicolas Young (Nicolas Young), a geologist from Columbia University.

Just 300 kilometers from the island is Iceland, where only a little warmer than in the extreme south of Greenland. But here the Scandinavians stayed, survived the small glacial period and live so far.

Another possible cause of the death of the colony is a disease. In 1348, the most terrible epidemic of plague began in Europe in the history of the Middle Ages, the name of Black Death. It is not known whether it reached Greenland, but in Norway, the disease was taken from different estimates from 50% to 70% of the population. The epidemic did not affect Iceland, since no ship came here from 1348 to 1350. Then the pathogen of the plague did not get to the island. But in 1402-1403, the disease still fell into Iceland and destroyed more than half of the population. Sad experience shows that in an isolated settlement, where everyone is next to each other, all the inhabitants often died from the plague without exception.

The small grenland colony could destroy the one-only infected person who arrived from Norway or Iceland. Infectious fleas could get to the island also on clothes, in the hair of people and on ship rats. With regular trading contacts of Greenland with Scandinavia, it was quite likely.

Even if the colony escaped the epidemic, the settlers suffered large economic losses. The population of Europe after black death decreased by one and a half - twice, which sharply reduced the demand for most of the goods. The restoration of the former trade on the continent took many years.

Vikings may have been able to survive each of the listed disasters separately. In the end, they remained in Greenland for even almost a century, after the climate began to change. Moreover, they had enough strength and resources to build temples. The wrecks of which rise today over the "whale island", was erected in the 14th century.

According to another version, the colony died due to the war with Eskimos. The latter appeared approximately in the XIII century in the north of Greenland and began to move to the south, where they faced the scandinals. The relationship between the two peoples did not work out. Vikings contemptively called Eskimos "Skraelings", which can be translated as "scoundrels", according to another version - "hardware".

Dislike turned into an open war. In 1379, the battle between the Scandinavians and Eskimos occurred near the Eastern settlement. Victims are unknown among the latter, and the Vikings lost 18 people killed. This battle became known from Eskimo testes recorded by ethnographers five hundred years later, already in the XIX century. Surely there were other clashes, information about which did not reach this day.

Eskimos really were militant people. So, in 1612, they, not even having a gunshot weapon, attacked the English ship "Patience", sailing in the Greenland waters, and killed him captain.

But evidence that the Eskimos destroyed the colony was not found. It is very likely that bloody local shocks could occur between the two peoples due to controlling hunting grounds, but the extermination of several thousand Scandinavians could be unlikely.

Vikings were able to handle the weapons and were considered hardly the best warriors of Europe. The struggle for destruction with them would lead to great losses on both sides. The small Eskimo tribes could not afford to lose many warriors and hunters (Greenland Vikings, however, too). Most likely, they fought exactly as much as necessary to obtain control over hunting grounds.

The "Eskimo" version confirms the fact that Pope Nikolai V in 1448 passed on the care of the Bishops of Scalcholt and Gulmic in Iceland "... The Greenland Churches, who survived the disaster, comprehended by Greenland in 30 years before SEN (in 1418 - Note the author) when the Varvarov fleet came there from the neighboring pagan country; They ruined the temples dedicated to God and caused a general emptying, from which only nine distant parishes were hidden, covered by mountains, with few residents who avoided captivity and turned into their homes. "

There was a legend that two people moved away from the struggle to cooperate and even rejected with each other. Allegedly a lot of mixed marriages were concluded, in which methuses were born. And the descendants of the Vikings did not died and did not leave the island, but simply dissolved among the Eskimos. But it turned out to be just a beautiful legend.

In 2005, Professor of Iceland University Gisley Powlsson (Gísli Pálsson) published the results of the study of the DNA of the Greenland and Canadian Eskimos. No traces of mixing with scandinals were found.

Recently, it is suggested that in fact the number of colonies even in the period of heyday did not exceed 2.5 thousand people. Such a small isolated group of people can suffer severely even from one natural disaster or a single attack.

Thomas McGovern put forward such a theory. In Scandinavia, there has always been the custom of collective hunting and fishing, when all men settlements simultaneously go to the sea on fishing fish and marine beast.

It is possible that the Greenlandians went on a joint catch of seals or walrus, the wind suddenly rose and turned their boats. In this case, the colony would immediately lose the majority of able-bodied men. Only women, old men, children and disabled people who could not hunt were left on the shore. Scooty pastures did not allow a lot of sheep to breed. There was no other food, so the settlers were doomed to hunger.

"I think, at the end it was a real tragedy. This was the death of a small community, maybe by the end it consisted of a thousand people. It was extinction, "says Thomas McGovern.

Something similar happened in 1881 in the village of Glob (Gloup) on the Shetland Islands located 300 kilometers from Norway. All men and teenagers of the settlement simultaneously reached the sea and fell into a storm, in which 80% of them died.

Do not exclude and attack pirates. Such a hypothesis proposed, in particular, the American writer of the Norwegian origin of Kirsten Siver in his book "Frozen echoes."

In the XIV-XV centuries, in addition to goods and jewels, they kidnapped people who were then sold to slavery at the slavery markets of North Africa and the Middle East.

Much later, in 1627, Iceland was attacked by Pirates. Maghreb robbers (this area on the territory of modern Algeria and Morocco) sailed more than 3 thousand kilometers and captured over hundreds of Icelanders. Scandinavians were in slavery and many of them have never returned to their homeland.

Greenland settlements were one thousand kilometers further from Europe and Africa than Iceland. But the pirates were skillful sailors and could overcome such a distance. Robbers always kidnapped the most healthy and physically strong people who were more expensive at slavery markets. If, after a raid in the settlement, weak and sick remained, they were waiting for hungry death. Corsairs usually did not make records of their "feats", and their captions could die in slavery, so Europe did not recognize the details of the death of a distant settlement.

The attack of pirates and an unexpected storm is only an assumption. There are no evidence of these tragic events. But also argue that this could not happen, too, it is impossible.

Perhaps (this version seems the most likely) to disappear of the colony on Greenland led a combination of several adverse factors at once - the worsening of the climate, the fall in demand for the walruss and a decrease in the number of Europeans, hunger and illness in Europe, the fall in yield. Alone to survive settlements on the island could not, and the Europeans became not up to them. Greenland Vikings, in a sense, became victims of medieval globalization and a pandemic.

"If you look at the world today, many communities encounter insecurity from climate change," Andrew Dagmore warns. - They also face globalization issues. The most difficult thing when you have to resist both challenges. "

"Maybe this is an ordinary human story. People move to where there are resources. And they go away when something does not meet their requirements, "says Niels Lünnoup. As for the lack of records in the chronicles on the resettlement of Greenlanders from the island, according to the scientist, if the outcome was not massive, but gradually, he could not attract attention.

The remains of the settlements of Europeans in Greenland testify that the inhabitants left their homes calmly, perhaps even, suggesting ever return. The farms were destroyed by time, not the war or some natural cataclysm, testify archaeologists. During all the time, the excavations did not have any valuable things, only one gold ring and a fragment of the squad from the bone of narrowing.

"When throwing a small settlement, what do you take? Values, family jewels, - Lists Niels Lünnerup. - Do not leave a sword or a good iron knife ... do not leave Christ on crucifixes. This is all taking with you. I am sure that there would be some kind of decoration - bowls, candlesticks - which, as we know, were in medieval churches, but who never found in Greenland. "

Yette Arneborg (Jette Arneborg), Senior Researcher of the National Museum of Denmark, along with colleagues, found evidence that the owners of Greenland farms left them no hardening. Not far from the Western settlement there are ruins of estates, known as the "farm under the sands". Doors in all rooms, except for one rot. Judging by the footsteps, the wild sheep wandered around the premises. However, one door has been preserved and it remained closed for centuries.

"There was absolutely clean. No sheep was in this room, "says Yette Arneborg, who, as its American colleague Thomas McGovern, studied the settlements of the Greenland Vikings decades. For it, what happened on the farm is obvious: "They were filled, they took everything that they wanted and left. They even closed the doors. "

It is unlikely that Greenlandians simultaneously decided to leave the island, all got together on the ships and sailed.

Firstly, for this you need a whole flotilla of the courts, which the colony was not. Recall, Eric Red, to bring the 350 first colonists to be required 14 ships, and after four centuries in Greenland, much more people lived.

Secondly, they should have saved somewhere, most likely in Iceland or Norway. But in these countries, where the writing and launch of the chronicle by that time were the usual matter, there are no mention of the mass arrival of immigrants from Greenland, although the emergence of thousands of new people could not be unnoticed.

"If hundreds or a thousand people come from Greenland," says Thomas McGurne. - Someone would notice it. "

Only isolated cases of moving colonists from the island are known. Torstain Olafsson and his spouse Sigrid, the most newly lines, the wedding of which became the last famous event in the life of the Eastern settlement, found themselves in Iceland. Here in 1424, they provided documents and testimony of witnesses confirming their marriage.

For the disappearance of the colony, simultaneous mass migration of residents is not required. According to Niels, Linnuroupe It was enough for each year with Greenland and only ten people of childbearing age. After some time, the birth rate will become so low that it will not compensate for the mortality. The population will begin to quickly decrease. The colony will remain without hunters and workers, which will lead to her death.

It is not known when the Eastern settlement completely ceased to exist. The Russian archaeologist A. I. Anokhin suggests that it happened in the first quarter of the XVI century, after 100 years after the wedding of Olafsson's coastain.

In 1921, the Danish archaeologist Paul Norland found a burial, dating from the XV century near the eastern settlement. Strange, but the dead man did not look like a beggar, depleted human disease and hunger. He was dressed in a very expensive clothing at the time, and on the remains there were no traces of rickets or other diseases associated with poor nutrition.

The identity of the deceased remained unknown. Historians found only one explanation for this find. In 1470, the Danish expedition went to Greenland and the unidentified dead man, perhaps it was her participant who was dead in the way.

After several visits to the island in the 1510-1540, it became clear that the Western and Eastern settlements were deserted. But in Europe, rumors went for a long time that descendants of Vikings still live in Greenland. For their searches, expeditions have not happened more than once. It was Scandinavians who was looking for the crew of the English ship "Peyzhes" of the captain of which in 1612 killed Eskimos.

In 1721, the Danish missionary Hans Egiede arrived on the island, and the descendants of Europeans were also striving to find here. He was worried that the Christians were torn off from civilization, there was no priest who could confess, span and communion.

Holy Father was worried. On the island, he discovered only pagans-Eskimos. Egieda lived in Greenland for many years and proved that the mythical descendants of Scandinavians have not lived here for a long time.

The history of Sigrid Bjornsdottir and Torstain Olafsson indicates the direction in which it is possible to go to the search for descendants of the Greenland Vikings. The spouses sailed in Iceland and there for some reason needed documents confirming the legality of their marriage. It is logical to assume that the pra-grandchildren of this pair still live and live - maybe in Iceland, maybe somewhere else. If the assumption of Niels Lüntroup is true, and medieval Greenlandians, indeed, gradually left their own island, their descendants still live among us.

Text: Sergey Tolmachev

A common feature of all these crops was the need for survival in the extremely unfavorable conditions of the most distant edge of the Arctic at the very border of the range of arole. Even small climate fluctuations turned minimally acceptable conditions into incompatible with human life and led to the disappearance of insufficiently adapted crops and devastating entire regions as a result of migrations and extinction.

Archaeologists stand out in Greenland four Paleoeesky cultures that existed before the discovery of the island of Vikings, but the terms of their existence are determined very approximately:

Sakkak culture: 2500 BC e. - 800 BC e. in southern Greenland;
Culture Independence I: 2400 BC e. - 1300 BC e. in the north of Greenland;
Culture Independence II: 800 BC. e. - 1 BC. e. mainly in the north of Greenland;
Early Dorset Culture, Dorset I: 700 BC. e. - 200 n. e. In the south of Greenland.

These cultures were not unique to Greenland. As a rule, they arose and developed in the territories of Arctic Canada and Alaska long before their penetration to Greenland, and could be maintained in other places of the Arctic after their disappearance from the island.

After the decline of culture, the island remained unnecessary over the centuries. The carriers of the Inito culture of Tula, the ancestors of modern indigenous people of Greenland, began to penetrate the north of the island at the beginning of the XIII century.

Settlements Viking

Decay of the first colonies

The Greenland Colony was an independent republic until 1261, when its population swore to the faithfulness of the Norwegian king: in exchange for the payment of taxes, Norway was obliged to provide a colony with the necessary materials, annually sending a trade expedition to the island annually; Even after that, Greenland continued to enjoy significant internal autonomy and live according to his laws. In 1380, Norway entered personal Ulya with the Danish kingdom, creating a basis for Danish claims to the island in the XVIII century.

There are many theories regarding the reasons for the disappearance of Norwegian settlements in Greenland. Jared Daimond, author of the book "Collapse: Why some societies survive, while others die," lists five factors that could contribute to the disappearance of the Greenland colony: environmental deterioration, climatic changes, enmity with neighboring peoples, isolation from Europe, the inability to adapt. The study of these factors is devoted to a large number of scientific research and publications.

Later archaeological surveys also showed that previous estimates of the population of the island may be overwhelmed. It is argued that the number at the same time lived on the island of Vikings did not exceed 2.5 thousand, and the process of extinction of the colonies was much longer than previously thought. The inhabitants of the island were revealed and highly increased on the viability of the colony: impoverished farmers were forced to go to occupation by hunting, and some young Normans were probably looking for the opportunity to float from the island to Iceland or Europe with rarely settling ships.

Environmental deterioration

Greenland vegetation belongs to the tundra type and consists mainly of sources, fluffy and lichen; The trees are almost absent, with the exception of dwarf birch, willow and alder who grow in some places. There are very few fertile lands, which, as a result of the absence of forests, suffer from erosion; In addition, the short and cold summer makes farming almost impossible, so the Norwegian settlers were forced mainly to engage in cattle breeding. Excessive exploitation of pastures in an extremely sensitive tundra medium with unstable soils could enhance erosion, lead to worsening pastures and falling their performance.

Climate change

The results of drilling glacial ice allow you to learn about the climatic situation in Greenland for centuries. They show that during the medieval climatic optimum there was indeed some mitigation of the local climate from 800 to 1200 years, but at the beginning of the XIV century began cooling; The "Small Ice Age" reached his peak in Greenland in about the 1420s. On the contrary, other researchers believe that climate optimum was local, purely European phenomenon. In the North-West Atlantic, apparently, the climate was cold originally. The lower layers of garbage near the oldest Norwegian settlements contain significantly more bones of sheep and goats than pigs and coarse livestock; However, in the sediments of the middle of the XIV century. Near the rich dwellings are only bones of cattle and deer, and near the poor are almost solid bone seals. The version of the decline of cattle breeding as a result of cooling and changes in the nature of the nutrition of the Greenland Vikings is also confirmed by studies of skeletons from cemeteries near Norwegian settlements. Most of these skeletons are traces of pronounced rickets, characterized by deformation of the spine and chest, in women - pelvic bones.

Enhance with neighbors

During the foundation of the Norwegian settlements, Greenland was almost completely deprived of the local population, but later the Scandinavian settlers were forced to come into contact with Inuit. Inuit of Culture Tula began to arrive in Greenland from Elsmir Island at the end of the XII - early XIII century. Researchers know that the Vikings called Inuita, as well as Aboriginalov Winland, english (Norv. Skræling). Icelandic Annals are one of the few sources, which indicate the existence of contacts between the Norwegians and the Greenland Eskimos. They are told about the attack of the latter on Norwegians, during which eighteen white settlers died, and two children were captured. There are archaeological evidence that the Eskimos led to the Norwegians trade, since there are many products of Norwegian work in the excavations of Eskimo parking; However, Norwegians, apparently, were not very interested in aborigines, at least, the findings of Eskimo artifacts in the settlements of Vikings are unknown. Norwegians were also not adopted by the Eskimos of Kayakov's construction technology and the receptions of the hunt for Killed Nerpen. In general, it is believed to be the relationship of Norwegians with Greenland Eskimos were quite hostile. From archaeological evidence it is known that by 1300, the winter parking of Eskimos existed along the shores of the fjords near the Western settlement. Somewhere between 1325 and 1350, the Norwegians completely left the Western settlement and its surroundings, perhaps because of the unsuccessful confrontation of the attacks of Eskimos.

The American historian Kirsten Siver in his book "Frozen echoes" is trying to prove that Greenlandians had a much stronger health and fed better than previously thought, and therefore denies the version of the extinction of the Greenland colony from hunger. She probably claims that the colony died as a result of the attack of the Indians, pirates or the European military expedition, which history did not save information; It is also likely to resettle Greenland back to Iceland or in Wellands in search of more favorable conditions for living.

Contacts with Europe

With quiet winter weather, the ship carried out a 1400-kilometer trip from Iceland to the south of Greenland in two weeks. Greenland should have supported relations with Iceland and Norway to trade with them. Greenlandians could not build ships themselves, because they did not have forests, and depended on the supply of Icelandic merchants and from expeditions for wood to Winland. Sagi talk about Icelandic merchants who flood to trade in Greenland, but trade was in the hands of the holders of large estates. They traded themselves with the commercial merchants, and then resold the goods to small landowners. The main article of the Greenland exports were walrus. In Europe, they were used in decorative art as a ivory replacement, whose trade was designed during hostility with the Islamic world in the era of crusades. It is considered likely that as a result of improving the relations of Europe with the world of Islam and with the beginning of Transshar caravan trade in ivory, demand for walrus beeves has fallen significantly, and this could contribute to the loss of interests of merchants to Greenland, reduce contacts and the final decline of the Norwegian colony on the island.

However, the cultural influence of Christian Europe felt in Greenland quite well. In 1921, Danish historian Paul Norland was digging the burial of the Vikings at the church cemetery near the Eastern settlement. The bodies were dressed in European medieval clothing XV century and did not have signs of rickets and genetic degeneration. Most had crucifixions on the neck and drawn up in a prayer gesture.

From the records of papal archives, it is known that in 1345, the Greenlandians were exempt from the payment of church decade due to the fact that the colony was seriously affected by the epidemic and raids of Eskimos.

The last vessel, which was visited by Greenland somewhere in the 1510th year, was an Icelandic ship that took the West storm. His team did not come into contact with any inhabitants of the island.

At about the same time, about 1501, the Portuguese expedition was visited in the Greenland area. The re-discovery of the Europeans of Greenland, as it is believed to have been committed about 1500 by the Portuguese expedition of the cortyaria brothers. It is usually attributed to the re-opening of Greenland by Europeans.

Inability to adapt

The last of five factors admits that the Norwegians simply turned out to be unable to adapt to life in Greenland. Sagy testify that some of the Norwegians left Greenland in search of another edge named Winland, but after collisions with hostile aborigines returned back. Obviously, the Norwegians felt that Greenland could not be a place of permanent residence, in particular as a result of the factors listed above. However, despite this, the colony was able to exist for 450 years. Archaeological studies indicate that the Norwegians did everything they could to adapt to the local conditions - some of them completely changed the way of their lives. It is most likely that the disappearance of the Greenland Vikings was a consequence of a non-one factor, but a certain combination of them.

The riddle adds intrigues to the almost complete lack of fish residues and fish bones in the garbage of the Norwegian settlements. The fish takes a very significant place in the diet of both medieval Icelanders and Inuit, and modern Greenlandians, however, among the Greenland Vikings, apparently there was some kind of prejudice against it. Jared Daimond admits that, perhaps, at an early stage of the base of the colony, some outstanding person was poisoned by fish, and since Norwegians did not want to risk their lives in these places, which do not forgive mistakes, subsequently taboo on fish consumption was included in the local cultural tradition , complicating survival when the climate worsened and other sources of food died.

Currently, there are several versions of what happened. They all disintegrate into two main groups: 1) the death of the colony from the lack of supply; 2) the punitive expedition of the mercenaries of Spain or Portugal before the conclusion of the Tordesillas Agreement, dividing Northern and South America along the influence of these countries.

Danish expeditions to Greenland in the XV century

From this time, Greenland became a territory, quite well known worldwide. Various English expeditions in search of the north-western passage studied its shore at least 75 ° north latitude.

In 1652-1654, on the initiative of the Danish king Frederic III, the chief manager of the customs in Copenhagen Heinrich Miller equipped three expeditions to Greenland, who headed the English captain David Dannel. The last of them brought three Greenland Eskiosok of different ages, later to the residence of the Duke of Holstein-Gottorpsky Friedrich III Castle Gottorp, where the famous German scientist and traveler Adam Olairi met with them, who recorded about hundreds of words from their language, as well as the noteworthy of their Appearance and habits with seeds encountered in Russia.

Strategic value

Autonomous Greenland proclaimed himself by the state of the people

The robbery and military campaigns of Vikings in England and France, as well as expeditions to the Mediterranean Sea, during one of which, for example, 62 vessels under the guidance of the legendary Hahashtein in 895 reached Byzantium, far from fully characterize them to achieve them as navigators. The navigation arts of the Vikings and the seaworthiness of their vessels testify to the navigation, ended with the settlement of Iceland and Greenland and the discovery of America.

The first Norwegians appeared on the Hebrid Islands around 620. Almost 200 years later, in 800 g. They settled on Faroe ("Sheep") islands, and in 802 - on Orkney and Shetland. In 820 in Ireland, they created a state that was located in the area of \u200b\u200bmodern Dublin, and existed until 1170.

Information about Iceland Vikings delivered the Swede Gardar Swalfarson, who in 861 transported the inheritance of his wife from Hebrid Islands. During the transition, his ship was a storm to the northern coast of Iceland, where he overreed with the team. When in 872, Harald beautifully created a great kingdom in Norway, Iceland became the goal for those Norwegians who did not want to obey the king. It is believed that up to 930 in Iceland moved from 20,000 to 30,000 Norwegians. With you, they were brought homemade household items, seeds and domestic animals. Fishing, agriculture and cattle breeding were the main classes of Vikings in Iceland.

Icelandic sagas transmitted from generation to generation and recorded only in the XIII and XIV centuries recorded only in the XIII and XIV centuries are the most important sources of viking information. Sugi inform us about Viking settlements in Greenland and the opening of America, called Wellands.

So, in a saga about the Eirik Raud (Redhead), which was recorded about 1200 Hawuk Erlandssson, it was said that in 983, Eica, expelled from Iceland for three years for the murder, swam in search of the country, which Gunbonn saw when swimming in " West Sea. " Eica Redhead reached Greenland and settled there with a group of Icelanders. The settlement was named brutalid. There lived Bard Herulifson. In 986, his son Bjarni sailed from Iceland with the intention to get to Greenland. During swimming, he stumbled three times on an unfamiliar land, until finally found his father who lived in the southern tip of Greenland. Upon returning to Norway, Bjarni spoke about his swimming at the courtyard of King Eika. The son of Eika Red - Leif Ericsson - acquired the ship from Baryni and swam on it with 35 people in Brattalid. After careful preparation, they first repeated the journey of Baryni on the Labrador ps. Having reached it, they turned to the south and followed along the coast. According to the Greenland Saga, recorded in 1387 by Yon Todarsson from Flatheibuk, they reached the terrain called by them Winland - the country of grapes. There, the wild grapes are growing rapidly, Mais, salmon met in the rivers. South Salmon Spread Border approximately corresponded to 41 ° latitude. The northern border of wild grapes took place around the 42nd parallels. Thus, Leif with his team at about 1000 reached the places where Boston is currently located (Fig. 1).

Brother Leif - Torvald - after his story on the same ship with 30 people, also reached Winland, where he lived for two years. During one of the skits with the locals, Torvald was mortally wounded, and Vikings left the settlement. Later, the second brother of Leif - Torstain - on the same ship wanted to reach Wilan, but could not find this land.

On the coast of Greenland in some places there were settlements of Icelanders, just 300 yards. Large difficulties for living there arose due to lack of forest. The forest grew on Labrador, located closer to Greenland than Iceland, but the swimming for the Labrador, the Labrador, due to the harsh climate, were dangerous. Therefore, Vikings who lived in Greenland had to carry everything they need from Europe on the courts, which were like ships from Skullayev. This is confirmed by the excavations of burials in Greenland, in which the remains of the courts are found. In the XIV century Viking settlements in Greenland ceased to exist.

Notes:
In the XI century Normans in addition to England captured Sicily and South Italy, founding here at the beginning of the XII century. "Kingdom of both Sicili." The author mentions exclusively the grip and military trips of Danov and Norwegians and says nothing about the Swedes, the expansion of which was directed mainly on Eastern Europe, including Rus.

The decisive battle between Harald and his opponents in Hafrsfid occurred shortly before 900 g. And, therefore, there was no direct connection between relocation in Iceland and political events in Norway.

Currently there are about forty hypotheses about the location of Winlands. Equally, the hypothesis of the Norwegian ethnologist X is not indisputable. Ingestad, who in 1964 opened the ruins of the settlement defined by him as Winland Normanov on Newfoundland. A number of scientists believe that this settlement belongs to Eskimo Dorset culture. In addition, in the sagas, the climate of Wilan is estimated as soft, which does not correspond to the harsh subarctic climate of Newfoundland.

Plan
Introduction
1 Early Paleo Eskimo Cultures
2 settlements of Vikings
2.1 decay of the first colonies
2.1.1 Environment Worsen
2.1.2 Climatic changes
2.1.3 Enmity with neighbors
2.1.4 Contacts with Europe
2.1.5 Inability to adapt

3 Culture Tula in Greenland
4 Danish colonization
5 Strategic importance
6 Self-management
Bibliography

Introduction

History of Greenland. Currently, 84% of the island's surface is occupied by a glacier, which limits the area of \u200b\u200bhuman population with narrow coastal stripes. The climate is arctic.

Greenland was unknown to Europeans until the opening of Norwegian Vikings, which shortly settled in Iceland in the 10th century.

The Arctic peoples inhabited Greenland long before the opening of the island by Europeans, although before the arrival of the Vikings is the island of the detection - the ancestors of modern Inuit began to settle in the north of Greenland only in the XIII century. Inuit - the only people who continuously inhabited Greenland for centuries; However, in the XVIII century, Denmark, taking advantage of the priority of Vikings, announced the island with its own possession and began his colonization. During World War II, Greenland was separated from the kingdom and became close to the United States and Canada. At the end of the war, Denmark returned control over the island, but he abolished his colonial status; Greenland was proclaimed by the integral part of the Danish kingdom, and in 1979 he received wide autonomy of internal affairs. Greenland is the only state education that came out of the European Union, although he keeps the status of the associated state.

1. Early Paleo Eskimo Cultures

The history of ancient Greenland is the history of repeating migrations of Paleo Eskimos from the Arctic Islands of North America. A common feature of all these cultures was the need for survival in the extremely adverse conditions of the most remote edge of the Arctic at the very border of the range of arole. Even small climate fluctuations turned intimately favorable conditions into incompatible with human life and led to the disappearance of insufficiently adapted crops and devastating entire regions as a result of migrations and extinction.

Archaeologists stand out in Greenland four Paleo-Eskimo cultures, which existed before the discovery of the island of Vikings, but the terms of their existence are determined very approximately:

· Sakkak culture: 2500 BC e. - 800 BC e. in southern Greenland;

· Infendensa culture I: 2400 BC. e. - 1300 BC e. in the north of Greenland;

· Independence II culture II: 800 BC. e. - 1 BC. e. mainly in the north of Greenland;

· Early Dorset Culture, Dorset I: 700 BC. e. - 200 n. e. In the south of Greenland.

2. Settlements of Vikings

About 980, Viking Eric Rauda (Redhead) was sentenced to three years of expulsion from Iceland for the killing of a neighbor. He decided to sail to the West and get to the Earth, which in clear weather can be seen from the vertices of the mountains of Western Iceland. She lay at a distance of 280 km from the Icelandic coast; According to Sagam, earlier in the 900s, Norwegian Gunbjern floated there. Eric sailed to the West in 982 together with his family, servants and cattle, but the floating ice prevented him to land ashore; He was forced to wake the southern limb of the island and landed at the place near Julianhoba (cocked). For three years of his expulsion, Eric did not meet any man on the island, although during his journeys along the coast, he reached the island of Disco, far to the north-west of the southern tip of Greenland.

At the end of the term of his expulsion, Eric Redhead returned to Iceland in 986 and began to encourage local Vikings to relocate for new lands. He called Greenland Island (Niz. Grønland), which literally means "Green Earth". Around the relevance of this name still continues disputes; Someone believes that in those days the climate in these places thanks to the medieval climate optimum was soft, and the coastal areas of the south-west of the island were really covered with thick herbal vegetation; Others believe that such a name was chosen with the sole purpose - to attract more settlers to the island.

According to Sagam, Eric Redhead sailed from Iceland with 25 ships, of which only 14 with 350 settlers got to Greenland, and founded on the island the first European settlement EystriBYGGD (East settlement). CEG certificates are confirmed by the results of a radiocarbon analysis of archaeological finds, which were found on the place of the previous fraternity (now Kassearnsuk), the residence of the Eric of Redhead near the modern Narassarssuaak (?), And date back to about 1000 years. e.

During his heyday, the colony numbered from 3,000 to 5,000 inhabitants, who first inhabited two settlements: East ( EystriGGD.) On the site of the modern cocoa at the southern end of the island, where the Erica of Red Bratitalid was the estate, and the West ( Vestribyggd.) On the site of modern Gothoba. The territory was divided between housing, which is known over 400. It was a fairly large colony (for comparison, now the population of all Greenland is about 56,000 people). Its economic basis was trading with Europe by walruses; Also exported hemp, twine, sheep, horned livestock and seals; Perhaps the dried fish (cod) was also exported, which is the basis of the economy of modern Greenland. There are no forests in Greenland, and therefore the colony completely depended on the supply of wood, which was especially needed for shipbuilding, from Norway and Iceland. Also, iron products and some foods were called from Europe. Trading ships from Iceland annually visited the colony, sometimes remaining here for the winter, the Norwegian ships from the continent appeared less often.

At the beginning of the XI century, Christianity began to penetrate into Greenland. According to Sagam, Leif Erickson brought him here, the second son of Eric Redhead, who visited Norway and was addressed to Christianity by the Norwegian king Olaf I, and then sent back to Greenland in order to spread Christianity among the locals. Returning to Greenland, Leif began to preach Christianity and drew his mother into him, who built the first church on the island in the estate of Erica Red Bratital. In 1126, Greenland was founded in Gardara (modern Igalik), subordinate to Archbishop Nidaros (modern Trondheim) in Norway; Archaeologists found remnants of at least five Greenland churches.

Greenlandians took the expeditions on to the west, as a result of which North America was discovered by them long before Columbus. At about 1000, all the same Leif Ericsson with a team of 35 people opened three regions of the American coast: Hellulyland (probably Baphinova Land), Markland (allegedly - Labrador Peninsula) and Winlands, who received its name for a large number of grape vines (possibly That was the coast of Newfoundland near the modern town of Lance Medos). There were also several settlements there. Scandinavians even came into contact with "scrajlings" - North American Indians. At first, the relationship was peaceful, but in a few years they were spoiled, and permanent scrapping raids forced the Vikings to leave their settlements.

2.1. Decay of the first colonies

The worsening of the climate, which began in the XIV century, made it difficult to agriculture and cattle breeding on the island and contributed to the acceleration of the decline of the Greenland colony. Epidemic Plague ("Black Death") in the middle of the XIV century. He devoured the island by reducing his population half. When Norway, together with Iceland and Greenland, became part of Denmark, the conditions worsened even more: now the island visited only pirate ships. Approximately in 1350, Western settlement was left; This may have contributed to the appearance of inuites in these places - carriers of Tula culture, which in 1379 already approached the outskirts of the Eastern settlement. In 1378, bishoprosis was abolished in Gardari. The last written certificate of Greenland settlers - a church record of marriage - refers to 1408; Starting from this date, there are no direct evidence. The Scandinavian settlers have completely disappeared from the island over the next 150 years. Danish missionaries who arrived in Greenland in the XVIII century, hoping to find the descendants of previous European settlers, they met here only inuita.

The last written certificate of Greenland Vikings - a wedding entry in the church of Khwali belongs to 1408. The ruins of this church are one of the most well-preserved monuments of the culture of Viking.

The history of Greenland is the history of survival in the extreme conditions of the Arctic climate. About 84% of the island's surface is occupied by a glacier, which limits the area of \u200b\u200bhuman population with narrow coastal stripes. The climate is arctic.

Greenland was unknown to Europeans until the opening inX. The century of Norwegian Vikings, who shortly settled in Iceland shortly. Arctic peoples inhabited Greenland long before the opening of the island by Europeans, although before the arrival of Vikings is the island, the ancestors of modern Inuit began to settle in the north of Greenland onlyXIII. century. Inuit - the only people who continuously inhabited Greenland for centuries; However B.XVIII The age of Denmark, taking advantage of the priority of Viking, announced the island with its own possession and began his colonization.

During World War II, Greenland was de facto separated from the kingdom and became close to the United States and Canada. At the end of the war, Denmark returned control over the island, but he abolished his colonial status; Greenland was proclaimed by the integral part of the Danish kingdom, and in 1979 he received wide autonomy of internal affairs. Greenland is the only state education that came out of the European Union, although he keeps the status of the associated state.

Settlements Viking

About 980, Viking Eric Rauda (Redhead) was sentenced to three years of expulsion from Iceland for the killing of a neighbor. He decided to sail to the West and get to the Earth, which in clear weather can be seen from the vertices of the mountains of Western Iceland. She lay at a distance of 280 km from the Icelandic coast; According to Sagam, earlier in the 900s, Norwegian Gunbjern floated there. Eric sailed to the West in 982 together with his family, servants and cattle, but the floating ice prevented him to land ashore; He was forced to wake the southern limb of the island and landed in the place near Julianshob (cocaton). For three years of his expulsion, Eric did not meet any man on the island, although during his journeys along the coast, he reached the island of Disco, far to the north-west of the southern tip of Greenland.

In the period of his heyday, the colony numbered from 3,000 to 5,000 inhabitants, who first inhabited two settlements: East (EystriBYGGD) on the site of modern cocoa on the southern end of the island, where Erica Red Brataglid was the estate, and Western (Vestribyggd) on the site of modern Gothoba. The territory was divided between housing, which is known over 400. It was a fairly large colony (for comparison, now the population of all Greenland is about 56,000 people).

Its economic basis was trading with Europe by walruses; Also exported hemp, twine, sheep, horned livestock and seals; Perhaps the dried fish (cod) was also exported, which is the basis of the economy of modern Greenland. There are no forests in Greenland, and therefore the colony completely depended on the supply of wood, which was especially needed for shipbuilding, from Norway and Iceland. Also, iron products and some foods were called from Europe. Trading ships from Iceland annually visited the colony, sometimes remaining here for the winter, the Norwegian ships from the continent appeared less often.

At the beginning of the XI century, Christianity began to penetrate into Greenland. According to Sagam, Leif Erickson brought him here, the second son of Eric Redhead, who visited Norway and was addressed to Christianity by the Norwegian king of Olaf I, and then sent back to Greenland in order to spread Christianity among local Vikings. On the way back, Leif Erickson knocked out from the course and got to Winland (most experts identify it with Newfoundland Island). Returning to Greenland, Leif began to preach Christianity and drew his mother into him, which built the first church on the island in the estate of Erica Red Brattyaglidi.

The worsening of the climate, which began in the XIV century, made it difficult to agriculture and cattle breeding on the island and contributed to the acceleration of the decline of the Greenland colony. Epidemic Plague ("Black Death") in the middle of the XIV century. He devoured the island by reducing his population half. When Norway, together with Iceland and Greenland, became part of Denmark, the conditions worsened even more: now the island visited only pirate ships. Approximately in 1350, Western settlement was left; This may have contributed to the appearance of inuites in these places - carriers of Tula culture, which in 1379 already approached the outskirts of the Eastern settlement. In 1378, bishoprosis was abolished in Gardari. The last written certificate of Greenland settlers - a church record of marriage - refers to 1408; Starting from this date, there are no direct evidence. The Scandinavian settlers have completely disappeared from the island over the next 150 years. Danish missionaries who arrived in Greenland in the XVIII century, hoping to find the descendants of the previous European settlers, they met here only inuita.