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Why did a colony of Vikings suddenly disappear from the Greenland coast? The New Theory The writings of Ivar Barteson, an emissary from Norway, may provide some clues. He tells of traveling to the colony only to find its homesteads abandoned and wild farm animals wandering the streets. What had happened to the Vikings who had farmed this harsh land for nearly four hundred years? Excavations of bones from the cemeteries and clothing found preserved in permafrost hint that the settlers may have met a terrible end.. Pathological analysis of their remains shows that many Vikings suffered from middle ear disease, a sign of declining health. An overpopulation of young adult females in cemeteries points to a famine or plague in the community. But there are even more troubling signs of what led to the colony's demise. Butchered hunting dog remains suggest the settlers suffered from desperate hunger; fossilized flies show that many died at home. Now polar ice core samples and tooth enamel analysis have led some scientists to a startling new theory. Did this lost colony of Vikings succumb to a mini-Ice Age? |
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