 | Homestead Ruins
Through the analysis of materials unearthed in archaeological excavations of Viking settlements, including houses, farms, churches, graves, and middens, scientists and researchers have a better understanding of the Greenland Vikings and clues as to why they may have disappeared.
|  | |  | Midden Artifacts
Household implements that were excavated from middens were carved out of wood or soapstone, a soft local stone. Since wood is fairly rare in Greenland, the wood might have been imported from Europe, or, more likely, found on the beach as driftwood.
| | Fossilized Blowflies
Blowflies survive on fresh meat, and their presence in the earliest levels of the midden suggest that food was plentiful and meat was often thrown away. Towards the final years of the settlement, however, the number of blowfly bodies decreases. During this same period, plenty of blowfly bodies are found in Inuit middens. Some archeologists believe these findings suggest that the Inuit had plenty of food, while the Vikings were starving.
|  | |  | Animal bones
The middens do contain lots of bones from wild game. The largest category, about one-third of the bones, are usually from seals. Then comes caribou, followed by bones from reindeer, seal, walrus, and hares. Cod fish and whales bones are also found. Fresh mussels were widely enjoyed, judging from the vast number of shells in the middens.
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