J. Edward Schofield

Palaeoecological and historical evidence for manuring and irrigation at Garðar (Igaliku), Norse Eastern Settlement, Greenland

Palaeoenvironmental data are presented from the site of Garðar (modern Igaliku), the location of the cathedral and the bishops farm in the Norse Eastern Settlement of Greenland. The latter was founded from c. AD 985 and abandoned some time during the fifteenth century. Inspection of drainage ditches located in close proximity to the settlement ruins revealed inter alia an organic-rich unit containing cultural debris (worked wood, animal bone, stone and charcoal) dated by AMS radiocarbon dates on seeds to the period c. AD 1110—1370. Fossil insect and pollen assemblages contained within the deposit appear representative of natural environments (primarily wet eutrophic meadows) but are mixed with high frequencies of a range of synanthropic insects, including human and animal ectoparasites that could only derive from indoor habitats. This is strongly indicative of the manuring of fields with waste from houses and byres in order to increase yields of hay. Large amounts of hay would have been necessary to provide winter fodder for the bishops herd of cattle — the largest known in Norse Greenland — and dung from these animals seems likely to have been a significant component of the material used to fertilize the fields. The process of spreading the manure at Garðar was probably integrated with the careful manipulation of water resources across the site, indicated by the presence of a network of irrigation channels and dams in the archaeological record, and comparisons are drawn with similar systems elsewhere in Mediaeval Europe.

Shieling activity in the Norse Eastern Settlement: Palaeoenvironment of the ‘Mountain Farm’, Vatnahverfi, Greenland

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.

Re-deposited cryptotephra layers in Holocene peats linked to anthropogenic activity

Tephra layers can form useful age-equivalent stratigraphic markers for correlating palaeoenvironmental sequences and they provide information about the spatio-temporal nature of past volcanic ash fall events. The use of microscopic ‘cryptotephra’ layers has both increased the stratigraphic resolution of tephra sequences in proximal areas and extended the distal application of tephrochronology to regions of the world situated far from volcanoes. Effective tephrochronology requires the discrimination between in situ tephra deposited directly from volcanic plumes and tephras that have been remobilised since their initial deposition. We present tephrostratigraphic and glass chemistry data from two proximal peat profiles (one lowland, one upland) from the Shetland Islands, UK. Both profiles contain the Hekla-Selsund tephra (deposited c. 1800–1750 cal. bc), whilst the Hekla 4 ash (c. 2395–2279 cal. bc) is present in the upland record. Overlying the Hekla-Selsund tephra are a number of distinct peaks in tephra shard abundance. The geochemistry of these layers shows that they represent re-working of the Hekla 4 and Hekla-Selsund layers rather than primary air-fall deposits. Pollen analysis of the peat sequences illustrates that these re-deposited tephra layers are coincident with a rise in heather-dominated vegetation communities (heath and/or moorland) and a subsequent intensification of burning in the landscape. We suggest that burning caused increased erosion of peats resulting in the remobilisation of tephra shards. The study demonstrates both the need for caution and the opportunities created when applying tephrochronologies in regions heavily affected by past human activity that contain both reworked tephra layers and in situ fallout.

Vatnahverfi: A Green and Pleasant Land? Palaeoecological Reconstructions of Environmental and Land-use Change

Abstract Accounts describing the Vatnahverfi region of Greenland are almost always effusive in their praise for the rich and bountiful nature of the landscape. Whether it was the dense scrub and woodlands, or the freshwater lakes and fertile green pastures, this landscape—contrary to elsewhere in the Eastern Settlement—is frequently assumed to have been an excellent location for Norse pastoral farming. Nevertheless, these observations are merely anecdotal in nature and based on the perceptions of archaeologists, or others who have visited the region. This paper asks whether Vatnahverfi was really the green and pleasant land that the literature would suggest, while exploring the rationale behind settlement in this region. Pollen-analytical data and associated proxies are deployed here in an attempt to assess whether the pre-landnám landscape was an attractive location for settlement, and to investigate vegetation and land-use changes consequent upon settlement. Pollen analysis allows an assessment of the natural capital of the pre-landnám (initial settlement) environment, which suggests that the central valley of northwest Vatnahverfi supported substantial Betula-Salix scrub or low woodland prior to landnám. The presence of woodland at landnám indicates the availability of a key resource (for fuel, building materials, or as fodder for livestock), and a cluster of early landnám-era dates have been returned on pollen sequences from farms in the center of Vatnahverfi. Data from pollen influx and coprophilous fungal spores associated with grazing animals also point towards this landscape having been particularly suitable for pastoralism. Poaceae (grass) pollen influx values, for instance, are often double those of farms in the Qassiarsuk region, suggesting higher hay yields with the potential to support larger numbers of domesticates. Radiocarbon age-depth modelling of pollen sequences suggests that abandonment of farms in the region may have begun from the mid-13th century AD, culminating in the 14th century.

Was Erik the Red’s Brattahlið Located at Qinngua? A Dissenting View

The location of Eric the Red’s farmstead of Brattahlið in Greenland’s Eastern Settlement has long been debated. Following investigations in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, it was later concluded that it lay in the modern settlement of Qassiarsuk. A contrary view has been propounded by Ole Guldager who has suggested that a Norse ruin group at Qinngua, at the top of Eiriksfjorðr (Tunulliarfik fjord), is a more likely location. This paper presents new palaeoenvironmental evidence involving pollen analysis and landscape history, together with a consideration of settlement structure culminating in the excavation of a putative church site, and suggests that wherever Eric’s farm was located, it was probably not at Qinngua.

Industrial-era lead and mercury contamination in southern Greenland implicates North American sources

To study the long-range transport of atmospheric pollutants from lower latitude industrial areas to the Arctic, we analysed a peat core spanning the last ~700cal.yr (~1300-2000CE) from southern Greenland, an area sensitive to atmospheric pollution from North American and Eurasian sources. A previous investigation conducted in the same location recorded atmospheric lead (Pb) pollution after ~1845, with peak values recorded in the 1970s, and concluded that a North American source was most likely. To confirm the origin of the lead, we present new Pb isotope data from Sandhavn, together with a high-resolution record for mercury (Hg) deposition. Results demonstrate that the mercury accumulation rate has steadily increased since the beginning of the 19th century, with maximum values of 9.3μgm-2yr-1 recorded ~1940. Lead isotopic ratios show two mixing lines: one which represents inputs from local and regional geogenic sources, and another that comprises regional geogenic and pollution sources. Detrending the Pb isotopic ratio record (thereby extracting the effect of the geogenic mixing) has enabled us to reconstruct a detailed chronology of metal pollution. The first sustained decrease in Pb isotope signals is recorded as beginning ~1740-1780 with the lowest values (indicating the highest pollution signature) dated to ~1960-1970. The 206Pb/207Pb ratio of excess Pb (measuring 1.222, and reflecting pollution-generated Pb), when compared with the Pb isotopic composition of the Sandhavn peat record since the 19th century and the timing of Pb enrichments, clearly points to the dominance of pollution sources from North America, although it did not prove possible to further differentiate the emissions sources geographically.

Influences of salinity on the physiology and distribution of the arctic coralline algae, Lithothamnion glaciale (Corallinales, Rhodophyta)

In Greenland, free‐living red coralline algae contribute to and dominate marine habitats along the coastline. Lithothamnion glaciale dominates coralline algae beds in many regions of the Arctic, but never in Godthåbsfjord, Greenland, where Clathromorphum sp. is dominant. To investigate environmental impacts on coralline algae distribution, calcification and primary productivity were measured in situ during summers of 2015 and 2016, and annual patterns of productivity in L. glaciale were monitored in laboratory‐based mesocosm experiments where temperature and salinity were manipulated to mimic high glacial melt. The results of field and cold‐room measurements indicate that both L. glaciale and Clathromorphum sp. had low calcification and photosynthetic rates during the Greenland summer (2015 and 2016), with maximum of 1.225 ± 0.17 or 0.002 ± 0.023 μmol CaCO3 · g−1 · h−1 and −0.007 ±0.003 or −0.004 ± 0.001 mg O2 · L−1 · h−1 in each species respectively. Mesocosm experiments indicate L. glaciale is a seasonal responder; photosynthetic and calcification rates increase with annual light cycles. Furthermore, metabolic processes in L. glaciale were negatively influenced by low salinity; positive growth rates only occurred in marine treatments where individuals accumulated an average of 1.85 ± 1.73 mg · d−1 of biomass through summer. These results indicate high freshwater input to the Godthåbsfjord region may drive the low abundance of L. glaciale, and could decrease species distribution as climate change increases freshwater input to the Arctic marine system via enhanced ice sheet runoff and glacier calving.

The glacial geomorphology of upper Godthåbsfjord (Nuup Kangerlua) in southwest Greenland

ABSTRACT The Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) is known to have experienced widespread retreat over the last century. Information on outlet glacier dynamics, prior to this, are limited due to both a lack of observations and a paucity of mapped or mappable deglacial evidence which restricts our understanding of centennial to millennial timescale dynamics of the GrIS. Here we present glacial geomorphological mapping, for upper Godthåbsfjord, covering 5800 km2 at a scale of 1:92,000, using a combination of ASTER GDEM V2, a medium-resolution DEM (error <10 m horizontal and <6 m vertical accuracy), panchromatic orthophotographs and ground truthing. This work provides a detailed geomorphological assessment for the area, compiled as a single map, comprising of moraines, meltwater channels, streamlined bedrock, sediment lineations, ice-dammed lakes, trimlines, terraces, gullied sediment and marine limits. Whilst some of the landforms have been previously identified, the new information presented here improves our understanding of ice margin behaviour and can be used for future numerical modelling and landform dating programmes. Data also form the basis for palaeoglaciological reconstructions and contribute towards understanding of the centennial to millennial timescale record of this sector of the GrIS.