Transhumance agriculture formed a key component of subsistence strategies in the Norse economies of the North Atlantic, with evidence of shielings or sæters found in Norway, Scotland, the Faroe Islands and Iceland. It is frequently assumed to have played a role in Norse Greenland, yet little enquiry has been made into such activity. This paper seeks to address this deficit, presenting the first palaeoenvironmental study of a suspected Greenlandic shieling site in the uplands of the former Norse Eastern Settlement. Pollen analysis, 14C and associated proxies are used to date and assess the environmental and landscape impact of shieling activity. Evidence for vegetation disturbance associated with Norse settlement is indicated from c. ad 985, but the shieling itself is interpreted as having been established somewhat later (cal. ad 1050–1150). Initially the site appears to have been used exclusively for grazing of livestock and there is tentative evidence for the use of burning to stimulate the spread of pastures. Pollen influx figures suggest the intensification, or initiation, of hay production c. cal. 1225–1325 reflecting either the spread of settlement from the lowland valleys, or evolution of the site into a full farm in response to population pressure. A reduction of human impact cal. ad 1300–1390 suggests a reversion to shieling activity, indicating similarities to transhumance in northern Iceland. Abandonment of the site dates to cal. ad 1325–1415 and is in agreement with previous evidence from Norse Greenland.
AlbrethsenSEKellerC (1986) The use of the saeter in medieval Norse farming in Greenland. Arctic Anthropology23: 91–107.
2.
AllaartJH (1976) Ketilidian mobile belt in South Greenland. In: EscherAWattWS (eds) Geology of Greenland. Copenhagen: Geological Survey of Greenland, pp. 120–151.
3.
AndersenST (1978) Identification of wild grass and cereal pollen. Danmarks Geologisk Undersøgelse, Årbog1978: 69–92.
4.
AnthonyD (1990) Migration in archaeology: The baby and the bathwater. American Anthropologist92: 895–914.
5.
BengtssonLEnellM (1986) Chemical analysis. In: BerglundBE (ed.) Handbook of Holocene Palaeoecology and Palaeohydrology. Chichester: John Wiley and Sons, pp. 423–454.
BennettKDWhittingtonGEdwardsKJ (1994) Recent plant morphological changes and pollen morphology in the British Isles. Quaternary Newsletter73: 1–6.
9.
BerglundJ (1986) The decline of the Norse settlements in Greenland. Arctic Anthropology23: 109–135.
10.
BirksHJBLineJM (1992) The use of rarefaction analysis for estimating palynological richness from Quaternary pollen-analytical data. The Holocene2: 1–10.
11.
BlaauwM (2010) Methods and code for ‘classical’ age-modelling of radiocarbon sequences. Quaternary Geochronology5: 512–518.
12.
BlaauwMChristenJA (2011) Flexible paleoclimate age–depth models using an autoregressive gamma process. Bayesian Analysis6: 457–474.
13.
BöcherTWHolmenKJakobsenK (1968) The Flora of Greenland. Copenhagen: P Haase and Sons.
14.
BorthwickDMEdwardsKJCookG (2006) Shieling activity during the Norse period in the Faroe Islands: A palynological approach. In: ArneborgJGrønnowB (eds) The Dynamics of Northern Societies. Proceedings of the SILA/NABO Conference on Arctic and North Atlantic Archaeology, Copenhagen, 2004. Copenhagen: PNM, Publications from the National Museum, Studies in Archaeology and History, pp. 299–306.
15.
BruunD (1896) Arkæologiske Undersøgelser i Julianehaabs Distrikt. Meddelelser om Grønland16: 171–461.
16.
BucklandP (2008) The North Atlantic farm: An environmental view. In: BrinkSPriceN (eds) The Viking World. London: Routledge, pp. 598–603.
17.
CappersRTJBekkerRMJansJEA (2006) Digitale Zadenatlas van Nederland. Groningen: Groningen Institute of Archaeology.
18.
ClarkRL (1982) Point count estimation of charcoal in pollen preparations and thin sections of sediments. Pollen et Spores24: 523–535.
19.
DugmoreAJChurchMJBucklandPC. (2005) The Norse landnám on the North Atlantic islands: An environmental impact assessment. Polar Record41: 21–37.
20.
EdwardsKJErlendssonESchofieldJE (2011a) Is there a Norse ‘footprint’ in North Atlantic pollen records? In: SigmundssonSHoltASigurðssonG. (eds) Viking Settlements and Society: Papers from the Sixteenth Viking Congress, Reykjavík and Reykholt, 16–23August2009. Reykjavík: Hið íslenska fornleifafélag and University of Iceland Press, pp. 65–82.
21.
EdwardsKJSchofieldJEArneborgJ (2010) Was Erik the Red’s Brattahlið located at Qinngua? A dissenting view. Viking and Medieval Scandinavia6: 83–99.
22.
EdwardsKJSchofieldJEKirbyJR. (2011b) Problematic but promising ponds? Palaeoenvironmental evidence from the Norse Eastern Settlement of Greenland. Journal of Quaternary Science26: 854–865.
23.
EdwardsKJSchofieldJEMauquoyD (2008) High resolution palaeoenvironmental and chronological investigations of Norse landnám at Tasiusaq, Eastern Settlement, Greenland. Quaternary Research69: 1–15.
24.
FeilbergJ (1984) A phytogeographical study of south Greenland. Vascular plants. Meddelelser om Grønland: Bioscience15: 1–69.
25.
FitzhughWW (2000) Puffins, ringed pins and runestones: The Viking passage to America. In: FitzhughWWWardEI (eds) Vikings: The North Atlantic Saga. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, pp. 11–25.
26.
FredskildB (1973) Studies in the vegetational history of Greenland. Meddelelser om Grønland198: 1–245.
27.
FredskildB (1978) Palaeobotanical investigations of some peat deposits of Norse age at Qagssiarssuk, south Greenland. Meddelelser om Grønland204: 1–41.
28.
FredskildB (1988) Agriculture in a marginal area – South Greenland from the Norse landnám (985 AD) to present (1985 AD). In: BirksHHBirksHJBKalandPE. (eds) The Cultural Landscape: Past, Present and Future. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 381–393.
29.
FredskildBHoltS (1993) The West Greenland ‘Greens’ – Favourite caribou summer grazing areas and late Holocene climate changes. Geografisk Tidsskrift93: 30–38.
30.
FredskildBHulmeL (1991) Plant remains from the Norse farm Sandnes in the Western Settlement, Greenland. Acta Borealia1: 69–81.
31.
Gathorne-HardyFJErlendssonELangdonPG. (2009) Lake sediment evidence for late-Holocene climate change and landscape erosion in western Iceland. Journal of Paleolimnology42: 413–426.
32.
GauthierEBichetVMassaC. (2010) Pollen and non-pollen palynomorph evidence of medieval farming activities in southwestern Greenland. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany19: 427–438.
33.
GrafMTChmuraGL (2006) Development of modern analogues for natural, mowed and grazed grasslands using pollen assemblages and coprophilous fungi. Review of Palaeobotany & Palynology141: 139–149.
34.
GrimmEC (1987) CONISS: A FORTRAN 77 program for stratigraphically constrained cluster analysis by the method of incremental sum of squares. Computers and Geoscience13: 13–35.
35.
GrimmEC (1993) TILIA: A Program for Analysis and Display. Springfield: Illinois State Museum.
GuldagerO (2002) Brattahlið reconsidered. Some thoughts on the social structure of Medieval Norse Greenland, and the location of Brattahlið. Archaeolgica Islandica2: 74–97.
38.
HannonGEBradshawRHW (2000) Impacts and timing of the first human settlement on vegetation of the Faroe Islands. Quaternary Research54: 404–413.
39.
IngstadH (1966) Land Under the Pole Star. London: Jonathan Cape.
40.
IversenJ (1934) Moorgeologische Untersuchungen auf Grönland. Meddelelser fra Dansk Geologisk Forening8: 341–358.
41.
JakobsenBH (1991) Soil resources and soil erosion in the Norse settlement area of Østerbygden in Southern Greenland. Acta Borealia1: 56–68.
42.
JonesG (1984) A History of the Vikings. 2nd edn.Oxford: Oxford University Press.
43.
JowseyPC (1966) An improved peat sampler. New Phytologist65: 245–248.
44.
KalandSHHMartensI (2000) Farming and daily life. In: FitzhughWWWardEI (eds) Vikings: The North Atlantic Saga. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, pp. 42–54.
45.
KellerC (1989) The Eastern Settlement reconsidered. Some analyses of Norse Medieval Greenland. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Oslo.
46.
KroghKJ (1967) Viking Greenland. Copenhagen: The National Museum.
47.
KuivinenKCLawsonMP (1982) Dendroclimatic analysis of birch in south Greenland. Arctic and Alpine Research14: 243–250.
48.
KvammeM (1988) Pollen analytical studies of mountain summer-farming in Western Norway. In: BirksHHBirksHJBKalandPE. (eds) The Cultural Landscape – Past, Present, and Future. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 349–367.
49.
LepšJŠmilauerP (2003) Multivariate Analysis of Ecological Data Using CANOCO. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
50.
LucasG (2008) Pálstóftir: A Viking age shieling in Iceland. Norwegian Archaeological Review41: 85–100.
51.
LynnerupN (1998) The Greenland Norse a biological-anthropological study. Meddelelser om Grønland24: 1–149.
52.
McGovernTH (1985) Contributions to the palaeoeconomy of Norse Greenland. Acta Archaeologica54: 73–122.
53.
MagnusB (1986) Iron Age exploitation of high mountain resources in Sogn. Norwegian Archaeological Review19: 44–50.
54.
MahlerDL (1991) Argisbrekka: New evidence of shielings in the Faroe Islands. Acta Archaeologica61: 60–72.
55.
MahlerDL (1993) Shielings and their role in the Viking Age economy: New evidence from the Faroe Islands. In: BateyCJeschJMorrisC (eds) The Viking Age in Caithness, Orkney and the North Atlantic. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, pp. 487–505.
56.
MahlerDL (2007) Sæteren ved Argisbrekka. Økonomiske forandringer på Færøerne I Vikingetid og Tidlig Middelalder (Annales Societatis Scientiarum Færoensis. Supplementum 47). Tórshavn: Fróðskapur, Faroe University Press.
57.
MäkeläEHyvärinenH (1998) Holocene vegetation history at Vätsäri, Inari Lapland, northeastern Finland, with special reference to Betula. The Holocene10: 75–85.
58.
MillerGHGeirsdóttirAZhongY. (2012) Abrupt onset of the Little Ice Age triggered by volcanism and sustained by sea-ice/ocean feedbacks. Geophysical Research Letters39: 1–5.
59.
MoeDIndrelidSFastelandA (1988) The Halne area, Hardangarvidda. Use of high mountain area during 5000 years – An interdisciplinary case study. In: BirksHHBirksHJBKalandPE. (eds) The Cultural Landscape – Past, Present, and Future. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 429–444.
NakagawaTBrugiapagliaEDigerfeltG. (1998) Dense-media separation as a more efficient pollen extraction method for use with organic sediment/deposit samples: Comparison with the conventional method. Boreas27: 15–24.
62.
NörlundP (1930) Norse ruins at Gardar. Meddelelser om Grønland76: 1–171.
63.
NörlundPStenbergerM (1934) Researches into Norse culture in Greenland. Brattahlid. Meddelelser om Grønland88: 1–145.
64.
PattersonWAIIIEdwardsKJMaguireDJ (1987) Microscopic charcoal as a fossil indicator of fire. Quaternary Science Reviews6: 3–23.
65.
RaperMBushD (2009) A test of Sporormiella representation as a predictor of megaherbivore presence and abundance. Quaternary Research71: 490–496.
66.
ReimerPJBaillieMGLBardE. (2009) IntCal09 and Marine09 radiocarbon age calibration curves, 0–50,000 years cal BP. Radiocarbon51: 1111–1150.
67.
ReintonL (1969) Til seters. Oslo: Samlaget.
68.
RoussellA (1941) Farms and churches of the medieval Norse settlement in Greenland. Meddelelser om Grønland89: 1–355.
69.
SchofieldJEEdwardsKJ (2011) Grazing impacts and woodland management in Eriksfjord: Betula, coprophilous fungi and the Norse settlement of Greenland. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany20: 181–197.
70.
SchofieldJEEdwardsKJChristensenC (2008) Environmental impacts around the time of Norse landnám in the Qorlortoq valley, Eastern Settlement, Greenland. Journal of Archaeological Science35: 1643–1657.
71.
SchofieldJEEdwardsKJErlendssonE. (2013) Palynology supports ‘Old Norse’ introductions to the flora of Greenland. Journal of Biogeography DOI:10.1111/jbi.12067.
72.
SchofieldJEEdwardsKJMcMullenA (2007) Modern pollen–vegetation relationships in subarctic southern Greenland and the interpretation of fossil pollen data from the Norse landnám. Journal of Biogeography34: 473–488.
73.
SeaverKA (2010) The Last Vikings. London: I.B. Tauris.
74.
SkredeMA (2005) Shielings and landscape in western Norway – Research traditions and recent trends. In: HolmIInnselsetSØyeI (eds) Uttmark. The Outfield as Industry and Ideology in the Iron Age and the Middle Ages. Bergen: University of Bergen Archaeological Series, pp. 85–100.
75.
StockmarrJ (1971) Tablets with spores used in absolute pollen analysis. Pollen et spores13: 615–621.
76.
SwainAW (1978) Environmental changes during the past 2000 years in north-central Wisconsin: Analysis of pollen, charcoal, and seeds from varved lake sediments. Quaternary Research10: 55–68
77.
SveinbjarnardóttirG (1991) Shielings in Iceland: An archaeological and historical survey. Acta Archaeologica61: 73–96.
78.
SveinbjarnardóttirGKristofferDErlendssonE. (2011) The Reykholt shieling project: Some preliminary results. In: SigmundssonSHoltASigurðssonG. (eds) Viking Settlements and Society: Papers from the Sixteenth Viking Congress, Reykjavík and Reykholt, 16–23August2009. Reykjavík: Hið íslenska fornleifafélag and University of Iceland Press, pp. 162–175.
79.
TelfordRJHeegaardEBirksHJB (2004) All age–depth models are wrong: But how badly?Quaternary Science Reviews23: 1–5.
80.
ter BraakCJFŠmilauerP (2002) CANOCO Reference Manual and CanoDraw for Windows User’s Guide: Software for Canonical Community Ordination (version 4.5). Ithaca: Microcomputer Power.
81.
Troels-SmithJ (1955) Characterisation of unconsolidated sediments. Danmarks geologiske UndersøgelseSeries IV: 1–73.
82.
TweddleJEdwardsKJFiellerNRJ (2005) Multivariate statistical and other approaches for the separation of cereal from wild Poaceae pollen using a large Holocene dataset. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany14: 15–30.
83.
van GeelBBuurmanJBrinkkemperO. (2003) Environmental reconstruction of a Roman Period settlement site in Uitgeest (The Netherlands), with special reference to coprophilous fungi. Journal of Archaeological Science30: 873–883.
84.
VebaekCL (1943) Inland farms in the Norse East Settlement. Archaeological investigations in Julianehaab District, 1939. Meddelelser om Grønland90: 1–119.
85.
VebaekCL (1992) Vatnahverfi: An inland district of the Eastern Settlement in Greenland. Meddelelser om Grønland17: 1–247.
86.
WaateringeWG (1993) The effects of grazing on pollen production of grasses. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany2: 157–162.
87.
WallaceB (2009) L’anse aux Meadows, Leif Eriksson’s home in Vinland. Journal of the North Atlantic2: 114–125.
