Resilience in the Arctic: Material Culture Adaptations in Iceland and Greenland c. AD 870-1300

Abstract

Iceland and Greenland were two of the last territories to be settled by the Norse in the North Atlantic as part of their westward expansion during the Viking Age. These settlements were far away from the cultural centres of the Norse world, and did not experience urbanism so they developed differently from contemporary settlements in Scandinavia, Britain, Ireland and Western Europe.
This project explores how material culture developed in these marginal settings in the late 9th to 13th century. Using six Viking-Age and Medieval artefact assemblages from Iceland and Greenland totalling just under 7000 objects, including several datasets presented here for the first time, this dissertation interrogates issues of adaptation, tenacity, innovation and resilience in dispersed rural settlements in the far north through the lens of the material culture of everyday life. The research integrated holistic investigations of the objects and debris people left behind in buildings and middens, detailed information about site chronologies and find contexts, and interpretive approaches to material culture that focussed on the socio-functional roles of objects and their long and complex biographies (chosen objects, section 4.6.4). This made it possible to trace people´s actions and reactions to a range of challenging social, economic, and environmental scenarios.
The study concluded that the settlement of Iceland and Greenland was knowledge-based. The Norse had prior knowledge of what was needed for their migration to Iceland in the late 9th century and brought with them a ‘settlers kit’ of essential tools and implements needed for daily life, especially iron tools, cooking vessels, and textile equipment, and a range of objects that enabled them to display social status and religious affinity. The composition of this settlers’ kit had changed by the time Greenland was settled in the late 10th century, signalling the emergence of a new kind of society and what was important to them. Among the most significant changes were the lack of personal adornments and pagan ‘charms’ and the appearance of Christian symbols. It was possible to trace how settlers in Iceland and Greenland adapted differently over time to their respective environments and socio-economic contexts, using locally available stone, wood, bone, reindeer antler (in the case of Greenland), and iron (in the case of Iceland) to manufacture and craft everyday objects. Interestingly, their material preferences did not always match what was most abundant or easily accessible. It was also possible to assess the labour, degree of cooperation, and resourcefulness needed to exploit local resources and the degree to which different households had networks that enabled them to have continued access to items that had to be imported from Scandinavia. In so doing, this original study of Norse material culture significantly deepened our understanding of long-term adaptation and resilience in the Arctic.