Development of Greenland. Citadel, old town and fortifications of Derbent. Who discovered Greenland
The Arctic is harsh and inhospitable. The polar night lasts there for many months, the polar sea is covered with ice, and a powerful ice cover extends over the huge island of Greenland. After many centuries of struggle, only about 110 years ago man reached the North Pole, and there he found only an icy, boundless sea. Airplanes and airships flew over the North Pole, and for the first time in history in 1937, four brave Soviet explorers began their wonderful journey on an ice floe, not to the Pole, but from the Pole.
The struggle for the Arctic has been going on for more than 2000 years. Back in 325 BC, the enterprising Greek Pytheas from Marsilia (Marseille) tried to push the narrow limits of the world known to the ancients. Having passed the Pillars of Hercules (Straits of Gibraltar), he passed the shores of Brittany and past Vergion or Hibernia (Ireland) and Albion (Britain) sailed to the highest latitudes where a Hellenic or Roman had ever appeared - to the Hebrides, Orkney and Shetland Islands. Even further to the north lay the mysterious Thule, but Pytheas did not reach it. Tula lies a “dead” or frozen sea, that further there is no land, no water, no air, but an impenetrable and cold mixture of all these “elements” is widespread.
For more than a thousand years after Pytheas, no one except the unknown Breton, Irish and Norwegian fishermen ventured so far north. Only in the 8th century. The brave Normans rushed to conquer the Arctic. They took possession of the Faroe Islands (725), one of their Vikings, Naddod, discovered Iceland in 861. There, to the new blessed country, supposedly “flowing with milk and honey,” in 871–874. masses of immigrants from Norway moved. Pioneers who visited Iceland praised its lush pastures, rich fisheries, seal fisheries, bird mountains, and abundant driftwood.
And then it was the turn of the island of Greenland. One of the indomitable furrowers of the sea, Gunbjorn, carried away from Iceland by a storm in 876, was the first to see the skerries and distant shores of some new country west of Iceland, but the real pioneer of Greenland was Erik the Red. Discord and blood feud drove him out of Norway, and he and his retinue sailed to Iceland. But here Eric was sentenced to three years of exile from the country for murder. Having left Iceland with his warriors, he circled the southern tip of the island of Greenland (City Farwell), climbed along the western coast and founded his camp in Juliansgab, where he spent three years. Having then returned to Iceland, Eric did not want to stay there, he praised the “Green Land” - Greenland and, with his stories about the riches and freedom of the country, attracted crowds of people there with him.
Neither earlier nor later in history has there been such a massive movement to this polar country. More than 700 people on 25 ships rushed to Greenland. Some of the ships were driven back by storms, some sank, but still 14 of them reached their goal and landed hundreds of colonists on the shore.
Greenland: Norman colony
New settlers occupied the green shores of the sea coast and fjords and built farms or hamlets in their depths. The ruins of these farms are now often found on the very edge of glaciers among rocky fields overgrown with scanty reindeer moss. The settlements quickly multiplied, and soon the number of farms reached 280. They were concentrated near two centers - the Western Settlement in the north and the Eastern Settlement in the south.
The eastern coast of the country remained uninhabited even then.
In the description of this trip, as well as earlier or subsequent ones, there is no hint of drifting or stationary ice, the kind of ice that powerful icebreakers now have difficulty handling.
The kings of Norway vigilantly monitored the successes of the colonists and in 1261 managed to impose their power on them. Greenland, after more than 300 years of independent existence, agreed to pay taxes and vira to the Norwegian kings.
The early years of Greenland's colonization were years of prosperity. The country's population reached 3 thousand people, and for its existence it used mainly local resources. The number of the indicated 3 thousand did not include the more ancient inhabitants of the island of Greenland - the Skrelings (Eskimos). At that time they lived somewhere far in the north, hunting for seals, which always huddle close to the edge of the ice. However, the remains of their dwellings and leather boats were found in southern Greenland by Eric the Red. In the 13th century The Normans penetrated far into the north of Greenland without meeting the Skraelings anywhere.
A thousand years separate us from the colonization of Greenland by the Normans. Nothing but ruins and graves remained of the ancient inhabitants of Greenland, and the very memory of the first brave conquerors of the Arctic almost disappeared among the peoples of Europe. Only the ancient northern sagas preserved the names of these pioneers.
About 100 years ago, sensational reports appeared in newspapers in America and Europe that allegedly eternal ice In Greenland, graves have been discovered in which, untouched by decay, in full armor, with long gray beards, ancient northern heroes sleep soundly. In fact, modest graves were excavated in rocky and peaty soil, where only half-decayed skeletons, sometimes shrouded in shrouds, and poor utensils were found. According to some data, it was established that some of the remains date back to the 11th–13th centuries.
Denmark, which now owns Greenland, carried out a thorough study of the finds both on site and in laboratories in Copenhagen. The legendary “warriors” who rested in the graves of the Gerjelfsness colony turned out to be humble cattle breeders and shepherds. The results of the research provided information about the life of ordinary villagers of hoary antiquity on the outskirts of the cultural world and a valuable collection of medieval clothing, which has no equal in the world.
Of course, Eric the Red probably greatly exaggerated when he painted the milk rivers and jelly banks of the island of Greenland and invited colonists to his new possessions. However, there is no doubt that this country a thousand years ago was warmer, its nature was richer and more favorable for the life of a person of European culture. True, although modest attempts were made in Greenland to cultivate vegetables and grains, such as barley, from the very beginning of colonization, or at least from the 13th century. bread was rare, and many of the colonists did not even know what it looked like, while others ate it only on major holidays. The basis of nutrition was dairy products, some of which (cheese, butter) were exported even to Europe. Cattle breeding (cows, sheep, goats) was highly developed; From the surviving ruins of corrals and barns, it is now still possible to calculate how much livestock Greenland had in its red days, sometimes in places where it is now impossible to feed even a one-year-old calf.
In addition to dairy products, Greenland exported walrus skins and ivory. But soon the sale of skins became worse: for Western Europe a closer and more profitable fur market in Muscovy opened.
One of the reasons for the death of the Greenlandic Normans was the monopoly of the Norwegian kings in trade with this northern colony. Private ships did not dare to trade with Greenland, and royal ships often did not visit the declining colony for years, left to the mercy of fate in the fight against harsh nature. The last reliable message about the return of a ship from Greenland came to us from 1410, then the thread connecting this country with Europe was finally broken.
The ice pressed on more and more insistently, the climate became more severe; Skraelings appeared from the north. Disputes began between the old and new owners, and wars arose. In 1379, the Eskimos attacked the Eastern village. The Eskimos still have memories of battles with European settlers. As soon as the balance was disrupted, the colony died.
Although the culture of the settlers with their cattle breeding was much higher than that of the Eskimos, it did not at all correspond to the changing conditions of the country, and the settlers did not abandon the European way of life. Deprived of an influx of fresh blood, left without any support during the years of severe disasters, perhaps during the lambing crisis, and ceased to be of interest to the Norwegian kings, who did not have any special profits from Greenland, the colony disappeared almost without a trace.
Climate of Greenland in Norman times
Studying the condition of the graves and the bodies buried in them reveals much about the climate history of Greenland since the Middle Ages.
The oldest graves are the deepest. More ancient coffins are made from good, large imported timber. As the temperature grew colder and the colony became impoverished, increasingly fine material from driftwood was used to make coffins, and finally, the dead began to be buried in shallow holes, simply wrapping the body in a shroud. Even wooden crosses placed in the hands of the deceased, often with inscriptions, show sharp degradation over the centuries. Now the coffins, which often contain almost no traces of bodies, lie in permafrost, and if the dead were directly placed in it, then, of course, they would not be subject to decomposition to the extent that is observed now. It is clear that the coffins were buried in thawed soil. This is also confirmed by the fact that in some places the coffins and remains of corpses were sprouted by small roots of plants that now also no longer live in this soil.
A study of the skeletons showed that by the end of the colony's existence, the settlers were greatly reduced; Among them, infant mortality and mortality at a young age, up to 30 years old, were very high; traces of rickets, tuberculosis, and scoliosis were found on the bones.
The ruins of farms are in some places located on the very edge of the ice, where nothing would attract a person who came from the mild climate of Europe to settle. What was the condition of the ice at this time around Greenland, in the Greenland Sea and Baffin Bay?
In the descriptions of the most ancient voyages of the Normans, there is no mention of ice that prevented the navigation of ships: the only fears were storms, which were difficult for the small Norman boats, which carried 15–20 people, to cope with. The description of the routes taken by the Normans from Iceland to Greenland shows that their route went first to east coast Greenland, along which the Papanin ice floe so recently floated; then, rounding Cape Farwell, they rose north along west coast. The first mention of ice is found only in 1130, and even later, in the 13th century, the route of the ships had to be changed, keeping the route south of the previous line. Thus, already 200–250 years after the country was settled, its climate became much colder and living conditions more difficult.
What does Greenland represent today?
The huge island is covered almost over its entire area with a thick ice sheet, which occupies 1.7 million square meters. km. Only along the western outskirts there remains an unice-covered strip from 50 to 200 km wide, which, probably, in part was not covered by ice at all: and where the vegetation survived the harshest times of the Ice Age. There is now no real forest in Greenland, although its southern end lies at the latitude of St. Petersburg, and at 63° N. w. In Norway, walnuts are still ripening (in cultivation, of course). Such is the sharp difference in climate created by the ice cover, although between Greenland and Norway there is a Gulf Stream, to which north-western Europe owes its much milder climate than that observed at the same latitudes in eastern Asia and in America. In Greenland now only small willows and stunted, crooked birch trees grow, which in some places form pitiful spikes. In the summer a short time Warm weather sets in, even with hot days, lush grass grows, and the slopes are covered with bright flowers. But a cold wind blew, snow began to fall, and the country again plunged into a long winter hibernation.
The history of the Norman colonies in Greenland has shown that over the past 1000 years the climate of the country has experienced some fluctuations in one direction or another (the Normans found natives' homes and boats in the south of Greenland, therefore, before the arrival of the colonists, the climate there was harsher). Still, even during the Normans, Greenland was not warm country, and then its interior was covered with ice, a legacy of the Ice Age.
Arctic climate in the Tertiary period
But there was also a time when it was probably warmer in Greenland and throughout the Arctic than here in Crimea. Near o. Disko and Eskimo villages Atanekerdluk is the famous fossil forest of Greenland at an altitude of 600 meters above sea level. Researchers who examined this forest were amazed to see trunks more than the girth of a person! On about. Disko and on the shores of Greenland there are also numerous imprints of leaves of various plants. But how far away is the time when the Greenland forest lost its green cover, which was then covered with sand and silt! This was the beginning of the Tertiary period, the Eocene and Oligocene epochs, separated from us by at least 40 or 50 million years.
A well-known researcher of the fossil flora of Greenland and the entire Arctic, Swiss prof. Ostwald Geer found that some of the Greenlandic plants are still much older; there are imprints of leaves from both the Cretaceous and Triassic periods, and even from the Carboniferous period, from which we are separated by hundreds of millions of years. Among the tertiary trees of Greenland were true chestnut, oaks, walnuts, elms or elms, plane trees, maples, ash, dogwoods, grapes, liquidambar (now growing only in North America and warm parts of Asia), sassafras from the laurel family, tulip tree and many different conifers, mainly those that now live in warmer climates. The Tertiary fossil flora of Greenland includes 200 species. If this number is halved, it will still be amazing, since modern tree and shrub vegetation of the vast territory of the Caucasus, Crimea and the entire European part of Russia has up to 150 species. True, there were no palm trees in Greenland at that time, but its climate, judging by the nature of the plants, was warmer climate central Europe and was closer to the climate of southwestern China and the southeastern states of America with their humid summers and mild winters.
Among the Arctic countries, Greenland was an exception. The same remains of flora from the Tertiary period were found in Iceland and Spitsbergen at 78° N. sh., and even on Grinnell Land under the 82nd parallel. There are many such remains within our Arctic; and circumpolar countries: the New Siberian Islands, northern Yakutia, the Chukotka Peninsula and the Anadyr Territory abound in the remains of the richest tertiary flora. Cold Alaska also enjoyed the benefits of a warm climate; even palm trees, which did not exist in Greenland, used to grow there.
If in the Middle Ages Greenland was a “Green Land”, then this warming was short-term, relative - periods of warming and cooling alternated after several hundred years. Another thing is the warm climate of the Arctic in the Tertiary and Cretaceous periods. To explain this fact, some scientists admit the possibility of independent movement of continents and the movement of pole points, why the same areas globe in different periods fell under different geographical latitudes. This was the opinion, for example, of the talented explorer of Greenland A. Wegener, who found premature death in the ice of this huge island. According to Wegener, in the Tertiary period, at least at its beginning, which included the strong warming of the Arctic, the North Pole region lay in the Pacific Ocean, between Asia and the North. America, where one can actually discern for this period some signs of cooling compared to the present time. The polar basin with Greenland, Spitsbergen and Franz Josef Land then lay in the middle latitudes of the northern hemisphere, and Ukraine, Crimea and Southern Urals- in the subtropics or even tropics. The richest accumulations of remains of evergreen plants and palm trees indicate that Volyn, Kyiv and the Southern Urals were located in the hot zone. The assumption that there has ever been a warm, uniform climate throughout the entire Earth is considered unfounded.
There is another explanation for the reasons for the warm climate of the Arctic in the Tertiary period and in the Middle Ages, which does not resort to bold hypotheses about the movement of continents and poles. These views belong to the English scientist S. Brooks. He proves that climate fluctuations are more or less reflected across the entire earth's surface and are associated with an increase in solar heat gain. The distribution of climates on the globe depends mainly on the configuration of land and sea, straits and currents. Indeed, similar parts of the earth in the northern and southern hemispheres are often completely different in climate. Even in the same hemisphere at the same latitudes, different climatic conditions. For example, in the southern hemisphere lies the huge polar continent of Antarctica, bound by glaciers whose area exceeds 12 million square meters. km. If this ice sheet were in the northern hemisphere, it would reach not only Murmansk, but also Torneo, northern Sweden and Norway.
In some places in the northern hemisphere, no less contrasts are observed: the ice cover of Greenland reaches 60° N. sh., i.e. it descends almost to the latitude of St. Petersburg, Helsinki, Stockholm and Oslo. Other places on the globe have extremely warm climates compared to those located at the same latitudes: warm South coast England, where laurels and myrtles grow in the open air, Paris, Northern Italy lie at the same latitudes as Sakhalin and harsh Newfoundland and Labrador. The southern hemisphere would be much warmer if, instead of a huge continent, there was a continuous sea around the pole, directly communicating with the seas of the temperate and warm zones.
In the northern hemisphere, a factor that increases the severity of the climate is the isolation of the polar basin, which creates conditions for the formation and accumulation of ice. Brooks believed that during the Norman era the polar sea did not freeze at all, or only a limited ice field appeared in winter, which melted in summer.
From what has been said, it is clear what diverse climatic conditions are created at the same latitudes, where the influx of solar heat is exactly the same. Even greater climate fluctuations can be imagined if we assume secular increases and decreases in the influx of solar energy. Brooks explains the warm Norman age of Greenland with such an outbreak. By the end of the Middle Ages, in his opinion, conditions had arisen under which Arctic Ocean froze and has not thawed even once since then, although there are indications (for example, the voyage of Sorrow) that at times vast expanses of ice-free sea were created there too.
But probably no changes in the contours of land and sea could have made the polar region, Greenland, and especially the Land of Ellesmere and Grinnell, the blooming garden that they were in the Tertiary period. An obstacle to this is the long night that covers the polar region for many months every year. In other geological epochs, polar ice may not have existed, ice fields in the ocean could appear and disappear - perhaps, as in the time of Eric, the open ocean could extend to the very pole, but the polar night inevitably covered these Hyperborean limits from year to year , about which ancient geographers wrote with shudder. Forests of chestnuts, beeches and plane trees would hardly have ever been conceivable under the latitudes of Spitsbergen and northern Greenland. Only relying on the ideas of A. Wegener can the past be satisfactorily explained.
Mysteries of history. Data. Discoveries. People Zgurskaya Maria Pavlovna
Who discovered Greenland?
Who discovered Greenland?
At the turn of the 15th–16th centuries, the Portuguese sailors brothers Miguel and Gaspar Cortirial set out on three caravels in search of a northwestern route to Asia. One day they came across an island lying at the “intersection” of the Arctic and Atlantic oceans. This is how Europeans discovered Greenland. second time. And in 1721, the colonization of this exotic piece of land began. The Scandinavians, although this time the Danes, were again reclaiming the lands that the Vikings had discovered long before them. Who owns the glory of the discoverer himself? big island in the world?
According to the sagas, it was the Norwegian Gunbjorn. Sometime between the 870s and 920s he sailed to Iceland, but a storm drove him west to the small islands off 65°30? With. w. 36° W d. Behind them was high land covered with snow and ice, which the sailors could not approach due to heavy ice. Today highest point The Arctic, which is located in Greenland, is named after the brave sailor Mount Gunbjorn.
Around 980, a group of Icelanders, sailing to the west, spent the winter on skerries, which they mistook for the islands discovered by Gunbjorn. Returning to their homeland, Icelanders also talked about mainland beyond the skerries. And in the summer of 982, the fiery hair of Eric Thorvaldson, who went down in history under the nickname Eric the Red, was already looming on the local shores.
Eric was born in Norway, but his father, Torvald, and his family were expelled from there for murder. So Eric ended up in Iceland, but from there he had to go home: this time he was expelled for two murders. According to sources, Eric’s anger was justified: one of the victims was his neighbor, who did not return the boat he had borrowed. Eric committed his second crime out of revenge - he punished the Viking who killed his slaves. However, even the cruel laws of that time did not approve of lynching, and now the red-haired brawler had to spend three years in a foreign land. Eric did not lose heart: he decided to get to the mysterious land, which in clear weather was visible from mountain peaks western Iceland. Eric decided to try his luck: he bought a ship, gathered a group of friends and rushed towards adventure. He took his family and servants with him. Eric even loaded his cattle onto the ship. Island, most of which today is covered with ice, oddly enough, seemed suitable for life to the Vikings. The thickness of the ice cover reaches three kilometers in some places, and therefore only the most unpretentious plants and animals are able to survive at the border of land and ice. There is practically no summer in these parts - it ends before it even begins, and summer days in Greenland are not much warmer than winter ones. Why did Eric and his companions like this island so much? Why did it receive such an absurd name - “Green Land”? The fact is that at the end of the 10th century, the climate of Greenland was much milder than it is today, and, having rounded the southern tip of the island, the sailors landed near Julianehob (Qaqortoq), where the grass was green near the fjords and the air was filled with the aromas of flowers. There is, however, another version: some researchers believe that the name “Greenland” was primarily an advertisement - Eric wanted to attract as many settlers as possible here. However, the name that Eric gave to these lands initially applied only to the friendly corners of the southwestern coast and spread to the entire island only in the 15th century.
During the three years that Eric had to spend in Greenland without going out - this was the period of his exile - the settlers cultivated enough land to feed themselves and raised livestock. They hunted walruses, harvested fat, walrus ivory and narwhal tusks.
One day, as the legend tells, Eric climbed one of the coastal peaks and saw in the west high mountains. Modern researchers suggest that it was Baffin Island: on a clear day it can be seen across Davis Strait. According to Canadian writer F. Mowat, Eric was the first to cross the strait and swim to Cumberland. He explored everything mountainous East Coast this peninsula and entered Cumberland Bay.
In the summer of 983, Eric passed from the Northern Arctic Circle to the north, discovered Disko Bay, Disko Island, the Nugssuaq, Svartenhoek peninsulas, and, possibly, reached Melville Bay, at 76° north latitude. He explored another 1,200 km of the western coast of Greenland. The Viking was delighted by the abundance of animals and birds that could be hunted: polar bears, arctic foxes, reindeer, whales, narwhals, walruses, eiders and gyrfalcons. But there were also different types of fish.
After two years of searching, Eric looked at several places - flat, but well protected from cold winds. In 985 he returned to Iceland, not to stay there forever, but to recruit future colonists. There were many people willing - about 700 people. They went to sea on 25 ships, but a storm began and 11 of them sank. Only 400 brave men reached Greenland. They based on south coast The islands are the so-called Eastern Settlement. Within ten years, another settlement appeared - Western. It was built by new colonists who arrived later.
Eric the Red
Of course, the settlers had a hard time: the winters were very harsh. Nevertheless, the Viking colony in Greenland flourished. As archaeologists say, the number of colonists grew steadily and eventually reached a peak of three thousand people.
Viking settlements stretched along the fjords. It was not so easy to build a house on the island - large trees did not grow here. We had to make do with driftwood or turf. Scientists estimate that the construction of one of the large buildings took about a square kilometer of turf - just how much work did the Vikings put in while ripping it off! There were also stone buildings. To keep the building warm, the walls were made very thick - sometimes more than two meters.
Since the summer was very short, grains grew poorly, but the traditional Viking diet included bread and porridge. Grain was also added to stews - fish and meat. The meat of domestic animals - goats, sheep and cows - was highly valued. Cattle were slaughtered extremely rarely, content with milk. The settlers caught fish with nets and hunted seals and deer.
In the 14th century, a cold snap began in Greenland. Glaciers were creeping into the lands of the Vikings, gradually depriving them of pastures. Trade with Scandinavia, which brought considerable income to the colonists, fell into decline - the plague raged in Norway and Iceland. We had to adapt to new conditions: scientists claim that the Vikings were saved by the sea, namely seafood. Their share in the diet was now more than 80%.
Around 1350, all the inhabitants of the Western settlement disappeared somewhere - about 1000 people. This became known because the priest from the Eastern settlement, when he came to the neighbors, did not find anyone. Only wild livestock wandered between the empty houses. He did not see the dead either - as if the Vikings had suddenly disappeared. There is still no solution. If pirates had attacked the settlement, the bodies of the dead would have remained. The same thing would have happened if the plague had reached the colonists. People could not move somewhere: no one would leave their belongings and animals.
The eastern settlement survived until the beginning of the 16th century. But in 1540, Icelandic sailors landing on the shores of Greenland did not find a single colonist. They found only the body of a man in a cloak with a hood. Who was this man? And where did the rest go? Historians believe that people sailed back to Iceland - after all, the climate became much colder, and there were no more opportunities to engage in farming and cattle breeding. According to Eskimo legends, the inhabitants of the Eastern settlement were attacked by pirates. Archaeological excavations in Greenland do not confirm this version, but it is curious why the Eskimos were so interested in the fate of the Vikings?
At first, the island seemed uninhabited to the Vikings. But was it so? The fact is that the first to “master” Greenland were not the Vikings, but the Eskimos. Scientists argue that the history of ancient Greenland is a history of repeated migrations of the Paleo-Eskimos. They sailed here from the Arctic islands of North America. The Paleo-Eskimos adapted to an extremely unfavorable climate and survived at the very edge of the habitat suitable for human existence. But even very small climate changes could destroy an insufficiently adapted culture.
Scientists identify four ancient Paleo-Eskimo cultures in Greenland, whose representatives lived on the island long before the appearance of the Vikings. These are the Saqqaq culture, the Independence I culture, the Independence II culture and the early Dorset culture. The last one disappeared later than all others; it existed until about 200 AD.
But who did the Vikings find in Greenland, if the last Eskimo left this land seven hundred years before their arrival? Researchers have different opinions. Some believe that they are still representatives of the Dorset culture. This culture (beginning of the 1st millennium BC - beginning of the 1st millennium AD) was discovered in 1925 on Cape Dorset (Baffin Island). It was distributed in the far northeast of Canada, the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, and western and northeastern Greenland. The Dorset tribes were hunters. Their prey included seals, walruses and reindeer.
Perhaps the Scandinavian colonists who arrived with Eric the Red were not the only inhabitants of the island. A new migration of the Eskimos - representatives of the late Dorset culture - supposedly took place shortly before their appearance. But the Eskimos settled in the far northwest of the island, a very long distance from the Viking settlements. Indeed, during excavations of sites of the Dorset culture, no items of Scandinavian production were found. However, there is indirect evidence of contact, so-called "exotic elements" that are not typical for this culture: screw carvings on bone tools and carvings of people with beards.
Another culture whose representatives the Vikings definitely encountered is called Thule. It existed between the 900s and 1700s on both banks
Bering Strait, Arctic coast and Canadian islands. Some researchers believe that Dorset and Thule were neighbors in Greenland for some time. This was between the 800s and 1200s, after which Thule was replaced by Dorset. The Thule tribes adapted well to local conditions; they were fed by hunting animals, both sea and land. In the central part of the American Arctic, the Tuleans built rounded dwellings from whale bones and stone, and rode dog sleds. The same Thule representatives who lived in the Bering Strait region lived in houses made of driftwood. Archaeologists find sinkers, stone lamps, knives, figurines of people, animals and waterfowl there. The Tuleans were mostly sedentary. They saved food supplies, and thanks to them they could survive the hungry winter months.
How did the Thule Eskimos get along with their Viking neighbors? There is no clear answer to this question. During excavations at Eskimo sites, archaeologists found many items of Norwegian work. But how did they get to the Thulians?
Due to the colder weather, the Eskimos migrated closer to the territories that belonged to the Vikings. A number of researchers believe that the Vikings not only met with the Eskimos, but even lived among them. But there are few supporters of this version. According to Eskimo legends, the Scandinavians were in conflict with the Tuleans. Sagas also tell about armed clashes with the Eskimos. It is possible that the Thulians interfered with the Vikings, displacing them from the hunting territories of the central part of the west coast.
Fragment of the Carta Marina map (XVI century). Thule is designated as Tile
Did these very different peoples trade with each other? Unknown. Things made by the Scandinavians could have reached the Thulians in another way: from the settlements left by the Vikings. Oddly enough, the colonists did not take advantage of the experience of their neighbors, whose clothing was more adapted to the conditions of the north, and did not even adopt individual elements of their costume. This surprises scientists, but the history of Greenland during the Viking times is generally full of mysteries, and who knows whether science will find the answer to them.
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From the book Alexander I the Blessed author Kolyvanova Valentina Valerievna“How the Tsar opened the Tsaritsyn’s palace for us” Enlightenment is a word that is traditionally a characteristic of Catherine’s reign, but – let’s be fair – it was under Alexander I that it acquired the character not of ideas floating in the air, but of specific measures and their consequences. IN
From the book Adventures open sea author Cherkashin Nikolay AndreevichVILKITSKY... HE DIDN’T OPEN ANYTHING!” I really don’t want to enter into controversy with my favorite hero of my favorite book, however, as the ancients said: “Plato is my friend, but the truth is dearer.” Valentin Kaverin (as well as his pilot, Sanya Grigoriev) was in full confidence that
Who first discovered Greenland??? and got the best answer
Reply from Ђ@nyushka[guru]
The island was first discovered by the Icelandic sailor Gunbjorn around 875 (he did not go ashore).
In 982 an Icelander Norwegian origin Eirik Rauda (Red) made the first survey of the island and named it Greenland.
In 983, Norman (Icelandic) colonies were founded in southern Greenland and lasted until the 15th century. In the 11th century, the population of Greenland, including the indigenous Eskimos, adopted Christianity (in 1126 the first bishopric was founded in Greenland). From 1262 until the beginning of the 18th century, Greenland actually belonged to Norway. In 1721, the colonization of the island by Denmark began. In 1744, Denmark established a state monopoly (existed until 1950) on trade with Greenland. In 1814, with the dissolution of the Danish-Norwegian Union of 1380, Greenland remained with Denmark and until 1953 was its colony. In 1953, Greenland was declared part of the territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. In April 1940, after the occupation of Denmark by Nazi Germany, the US government announced the extension of the Monroe Doctrine to Greenland. On April 9, 1941, the Danish envoy in Washington signed the so-called so-called agreement with the American government. agreement for the defense of Greenland (ratified by the Danish Rigsdag on May 16, 1945). The United States has begun creating military bases on Greenland. After Denmark joined NATO (April 4, 1949), a new agreement was signed between the Danish and American governments on April 27, 1951, under which Denmark and the United States jointly defend the island. In 1971, the United States had 2 military bases and other military facilities in Greenland.
Greenland (Grønland, literally - “green country”) is an island in the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, northeast of North America.
State of the Inuit people, autonomous territory of Denmark.
Greenland - largest island in the world. Area - 2,166,086 km². Population (2005, estimated) - 56,375 people.
Around 980, the Viking Erik Rauda (Red) was sentenced to three years of exile from Iceland for the murder of his neighbor [. He decided to sail west and reach a land that, in clear weather, can be seen from the mountaintops of western Iceland. It lay 280 km from the Icelandic coast; According to the sagas, the Norwegian Gunbjorn sailed there earlier in the 900s. Eric sailed west in 982 with his family, servants and livestock, but floating ice prevented him from landing; he was forced to go around the southern tip of the island and landed at a place near Julianshob (Qaqortoq). During his three years of exile, Eric did not meet a single person on the island, although during his travels along the coast he reached Disko Island, far northwest of the southern tip of Greenland.
At the end of his exile, Erik the Red returned to Iceland in 986 and began encouraging local Vikings to move to new lands. He named the island Greenland (Norwegian Grønland), which literally means “Green Land”. There is still ongoing debate about the appropriateness of this name; some believe that in those days the climate in these places, thanks to the medieval climatic optimum, was mild, and the coastal areas of the southwest of the island were indeed covered with dense grassy vegetation; others believe that the name was chosen for the sole purpose of attracting more settlers to the island.
Karl Lehmann
Connoisseur
(269)
Fascism was in Italy, Spain...
Answer from Elena Osinskaya (Pestova)[guru]
Vikings
Answer from User deleted[guru]
trust a professional!!
Answer from Albert[guru]
Actually I opened
But out of modesty I gave up the laurels... I don’t remember to whom! :))
Answer from Oras Dorofeev[guru]
The island was first discovered by the Icelandic sailor Gunbjorn around 875 (did not go ashore)
In 982 AD, Icelander Erik Thorvaldson reached the southwestern coast of Greenland. This stern and tough man, better known as Eric the Red, was sentenced in his homeland to three years of exile for murder. He decided to spend these three years exploring western lands, about which the sailors of Iceland talked so much.
Three years later he returned home and told his fellow tribesmen about his discovery. He wanted to arouse in his listeners the desire to go to this new land and therefore gave it an attractive name. Thorvaldson nicknamed the region he discovered “green” - Greenland!
The island belonged to Norway since 1386, after which it passed to Denmark. In 1979, the Danish parliament granted Greenland wide autonomy.
Also:
Archaeologists identify four Paleo-Eskimo cultures in Greenland that existed before the discovery of the island by the Vikings, but the dates of their existence are determined very roughly:
Saqqaq culture: 2500 BC e. - 800 BC e. in southern Greenland;
Independence I culture: 2400 BC e. - 1300 BC e. in northern Greenland;
Independence II culture: 800 BC e. - 1 BC e. mainly in northern Greenland;
Early Dorset culture, Dorset I: 700 BC e. - 200 N. e. in southern Greenland.
These crops were not unique to Greenland. As a rule, they arose and developed in the territories of Arctic Canada and Alaska long before their penetration into Greenland, and could persist in other places in the Arctic after their disappearance from the island.
After the decline of Dorset culture, the island remained uninhabited for centuries. The carriers of the Inuit Thule culture, the ancestors of the modern indigenous inhabitants of Greenland, began to penetrate the north of the island at the beginning of the 13th century.
The capital is Nuk (the old name is Gothob).
Most of Greenland's territory is hidden under ice cover, the thickness of which in some places reaches three kilometers. Only the most unpretentious plants and the strongest animals can survive on the border between land and ice. Winters in this region are harsh and last a very long time, and in summer the temperature rises very slightly, and the summer itself ends as soon as it begins.
Here and there, on small patches of land free of ice, you can find grass and some other low-growing plants, but for the most part, only stones covered with moss and lichens can be seen from under the ice.
Today, only about thirty-five thousand people live in Greenland, which is extremely small for such a vast territory. Most settled on the ice-free southwestern coast of the island. Only two and a half thousand people live in the eastern part and a little more than six hundred people in the northern part. 
The Vikings' robber and military campaigns in England and France, as well as expeditions to the Mediterranean Sea, during one of which, for example, 62 ships under the leadership of the legendary Haastein reached Byzantium in 895, do not fully characterize their achievements as seafarers. The navigational art of the Vikings and the seaworthiness of their ships are evidenced by the voyages that ended with the settlement of Iceland and Greenland and the discovery of America.
The first Norwegians appeared on the Hebrides around 620. Almost 200 years later, in 800, they settled on the Faroe ("Sheep") Islands, and in 802 on Orkney and Shetland. In 820, they created a state in Ireland, which was located in the area of modern Dublin, and lasted until 1170.
Information about Iceland was brought to the Vikings by the Swede Gardar Svafarsson, who in 861 transported his wife’s inheritance from the Hebrides. During the passage, his ship was carried by a storm to north coast Iceland, where he spent the winter with the team. When Harald Fairhair created a great kingdom in Norway by force in 872, Iceland became a target for those Norwegians who did not want to obey the king. It is believed that between 20,000 and 30,000 Norwegians moved to Iceland before 930. They took with them household items, seeds and domestic animals. Fishing, farming and herding were the main activities of the Vikings in Iceland.
The Icelandic sagas that have come down to us, passed down from generation to generation and written down only in the 13th and 14th centuries, are the most important sources of information about the Vikings. The sagas tell us about the Viking settlements in Greenland and the discovery of America, which they called Vinland.
Thus, in the saga of Eirik Raud (Red), recorded around 1200 by Hauk Erlendsson, it is said that in 983 Eirik, expelled from Iceland for three years for murder, sailed in search of the country that Gunbjorn had seen when he sailed to " Western Sea." Eirik the Red reached Greenland and settled there with a group of Icelanders. The settlement was named Brattalid. Bard Herjulfsson also lived there. In 986, his son Bjarni sailed from Iceland with the intention of going to Greenland. During his voyage, he stumbled upon unfamiliar land three times until he finally found his father, who lived on the southern tip of Greenland. Upon his return to Norway, Bjarni spoke about his voyage to the court of King Eirik. The son of Eirik the Red, Leif Eriksson, purchased a ship from Bjarni and sailed on it with 35 people to Brattalid. After careful preparation, they first repeated Bjarni's journey to the Labrador Peninsula. Having reached it, they turned south and followed the coast. According to the Greenlandic saga, recorded in 1387 by Jon Todarsson of Flateybuk, they reached an area they called Vinland - the Land of the Grapes. Wild grapes and maize grew wildly there, and salmon were found in the rivers. Southern border salmon distribution approximately corresponded to 41° latitude. The northern border of wild grapes was located near the 42nd parallel. Thus, Leif and his team reached the place where Boston is currently located around the year 1000 (Fig. 1).
Leif's brother Torvald, after his story, on the same ship with 30 people also reached Vinland, where he lived for two years. During one of the skirmishes with local residents Thorvald was mortally wounded, and the Vikings left the settlement. Later, Leif's second brother, Thorstein, wanted to reach Vinland on the same ship, but could not find this land.
On the coast of Greenland in a number of places there were settlements of Icelanders, up to 300 households in total. Great difficulties for living there arose due to the lack of forest. The forest grew on Labrador, which is closer to Greenland than Iceland, but sailing to the Labrador Peninsula was dangerous due to the harsh climate. Therefore, the Vikings who lived in Greenland had to carry everything they needed from Europe on ships that were similar to the ships from Skullelev. This is confirmed by excavations of burials in Greenland, in which the remains of ships were also found. In the XIV century. Viking settlements in Greenland ceased to exist.
Notes:
In the 11th century In addition to England, the Normans captured Sicily and Southern Italy, founding here at the beginning of the 12th century. "Kingdom of the Two Sicilies". The author mentions exclusively the aggressive and military campaigns of the Danes and Norwegians and says nothing about the Swedes, whose expansion was aimed mainly at Eastern Europe, including Rus'.
The decisive battle between Harald and his opponents in Hafrsfjord took place shortly before 900, and therefore there was no direct connection between the migrations to Iceland and political events in Norway.
Currently, there are about forty hypotheses about the location of Vinland. Equally not indisputable is the hypothesis of the Norwegian ethnologist H. Ingstad, who in 1964 discovered the ruins of a settlement in Newfoundland, which he identified as Vinland of the Normans. A number of scientists believe that this settlement belongs to the Eskimo Dorset culture. In addition, in the sagas the climate of Vinland is assessed as mild, which does not correspond to the harsh subarctic climate of Newfoundland.
Strange name. This land is not at all green, as it is called. It is white, or rather, icy. The name Iceland would be quite suitable for it. But it was assigned to the incomparably greener island. This is a geographic paradox. But, like any true paradox, it has a logical explanation.
At the beginning of the new era, Northwestern Europe was increasingly populated by enterprising, strong and courageous people. They herded livestock, farmed, hunted, and fished. However, despite the relatively mild climate of Scandinavia, there was not very much land suitable for agriculture. And the soils were quickly depleted.
The increase in population density, coupled with the impossibility of more intensive farming and cattle breeding, caused internal conflicts. More and more young, strong people began to go to sea robbery - to Viking, as they called it.
At first, perhaps, they simply tried to find and populate new territories. But the path to the west and southwest across the sea led to the well-inhabited lands of Britain and Ireland. The same thing happened on the western edge of Europe. In these parts the Vikings carried out predatory raids and conquests.
The largest geographical discoveries fell to the lot of those Scandinavians (Normans, Norwegians) who were looking not for wealth, but for a decent, peaceful life.
Residents British Isles suffered from Viking raids. For this reason, or simply from a desire to escape the bustle of the world, groups of Irish monks began to go to sea, settling on deserted islands.
According to the medieval Irish chronicler Dicuil, at the end of the 8th century one such group spent the spring and summer on a large desert island northwest of Ireland. This was Iceland. Some people returned to their homeland, but some remained.
In 867, one of the Viking leaders, Naddod, and his retinue were returning from Norway to their possessions on Faroe Islands. The storm threw his draka far to the northwest. He saw a mountainous land with snow-capped mountains and named it Iceland. Perhaps he didn't want her to attract people to her.
Soon another group of Vikings, led by Gardar, discovered this land, walked around it and became convinced that it was an island, and quite an attractive one at that. The Norwegian chronicler Ari Thorgilsson Frode left the following description: “In those days, Iceland from the mountains to the coast was covered with forests, and Christians lived there, whom the Norwegians called papars. But later these people, not wanting to communicate with the pagans, left there, leaving behind Irish books, bells and staves; from this it is clear that they were Irish.”
The name Greenland would be quite suitable for such an island. But for some reason the Norwegians preferred to call it “ice land.” According to one version, the choice of name was influenced by the wintering experience that one of the princes, the Viking Floki, who sailed from Norway, spent on the island. These settlers did not stock up on enough food for their livestock. The winter turned out to be long and snowy, and the livestock died. People could not leave the land because the sea was covered with ice. With considerable hardships, they survived until the summer and returned to their homeland.
Over time, not only economic life, but also government life improved on the island. In 930, residents at a general meeting decided to establish a supreme council - the Althing. This was the first parliament in the world. However, the Novgorod Republic arose about a century earlier with its government elected by citizens. But it did not last long due to internal strife and was replaced by a monarchy.
The Althing allowed the inhabitants of the island to restore order and coordinate their actions, and fight crime. This circumstance played a role in the discovery of a new land.
The owner of one of the estates, Eirik, nicknamed Red, killed two people in a quarrel that turned into a fight. He was sentenced to three years of exile. The circumstances of this case are unclear. Apparently there were some disputes over land ownership or long-standing feuds; and there was not just a fight, but a whole massacre, in which representatives of two clans took part. It is unlikely that the murder was vile and groundless, otherwise the punishment would not have been relatively mild: three years of exile. By the way, Eirik’s father and his family were expelled from Norway to Iceland, also for murder. Apparently, the men in this family were generally distinguished by their tough dispositions.
So, Eirik and his people in 981 or 982 embarked on drakars - long, sharp-nosed boats - and left Iceland. They knew that there was no room in the east, in Norway, and in the south, in Ireland and Britain. A cold ocean stretched to the north to unknown limits. In the west, as some sailors said, there is some unknown land. Perhaps Eirik himself had previously approached her during voyages.
This time they had to get used to the inhospitable deserted shores, behind which glaciers were piled up. The sailors moved south along the coast, choosing a suitable harbor with green meadows suitable for cattle breeding. They walked more than 600 km to the southern edge of the island and established a settlement. This is how Ari Thorgilsson Frode described the event:
“The country called Greenland was discovered and settled from Iceland. From there, Eirik the Red from Beidi Fjord headed to Greenland. He gave the country a name, calling it Greenland; he said people would want to go there if the country had a good name. They found traces of housing in the east and west of the country, as well as the remains of boats and stone tools. This is what was told to Thorkel, son of Gellir, in Greenland by a man who himself was on this journey with Eirik the Red.”
After the first winter, the settlers explored the western shores of the island, also about 600 km. In some places there were areas where it was possible to organize settlements. Eirik turned from an unfortunate outcast into the master of a vast country. One problem - nature was harsh. And another thing - there was no population. How to attract people here?
By that time, apparently, there were no territories left in Iceland that were more or less suitable for habitation. When, after serving his sentence, Eirik returned to his native island, he managed to persuade many people to go to Greenland - green country. Moreover, it was located (in its part examined by Eirik) at the same latitudes as Iceland, even further south.
Eirik was not exaggerating too much when he called the land he discovered “green.” He could not know either the true size of the island - the largest in the world, or the fact that it was almost entirely under ice. The explorers did not go deep into the island, and its coast almost everywhere, especially in the southwest, was indeed green. Perhaps there were even small groves here and there in the valleys. Tree trunks washed ashore served as building and heating material.
In 985, Eirik led a whole flotilla to the new land - 25 ships with families, belongings, and livestock. On the way they were caught in a storm. Several Drakars sank, a few turned back, but most reached Greenland. In total, it is estimated that 400-500 people arrived. They settled on the southern edge of the great island in places chosen in advance by Eirik.
Soon life in the new place improved. The population of Greenland was growing. In the 13th century there were already about a hundred small villages and up to five thousand inhabitants. There was an established regular connection with the continent: from there, bread, iron products, and construction timber were delivered to the colonists. And to the mainland the Greenlanders sent products from hunting birds and sea animals: eider down, whalebone, walrus tusks, skins of sea animals.
However, in the 14th century, the situation on the island began to deteriorate more and more, settlements fell into disrepair, people were increasingly getting sick and dying. Two hundred years later, the Norman population of Greenland almost completely died out.
Many geographers believe that the reason for this is a cold streak, the so-called “Little Ice Age”. However, there is no reason for such global climate change. Was it there? In any case, the most significant thing is that the political situation in Northwestern Europe has changed.
Iceland lost its independence in 1281 and was annexed by Norway. Now the trade relations between the Greenlanders and Iceland were disrupted and ceased to be regular.
About another century later, Denmark established its power over Norway. Ships almost completely stopped sailing to Greenland. The settlers increasingly had to engage in armed clashes with the Eskimos, who were pressing them from the north, where they had previously been forced to retreat. Now all that was left was to dream about a calm and satisfying life. After all, agriculture, which already required a lot of work, fell into decay: in the north, the soils quickly lose fertility, and the vegetation cover is poorly regenerated.
The Danes sent only one ship a year to Greenland (all others were prohibited from having trade relations with northern islands). Deprived of adequate food, good wood and metal tools, and hunting tools, the Normans found themselves in a critical situation. Those of them who did not die and did not move to the mainland destroyed churches and mixed with the Eskimos.
It turns out that both the prosperity and death of Europeans in Greenland were determined not by geographical reasons, more or less stable, but by environmental and socio-political ones. Living in isolation on an island, where nature is harsh and scarce, is possible only by joining the primitive economic system, which is fully consistent with the local nature.
Mainly for the same reason, the first attempt by Europeans to establish colonies in the New World failed - in North America. But this is another story and another great geographical discovery.