Knowra Norse Greenland Norse Greenland Norse Greenland was a group of medieval settlements founded around the end of the tenth century, chiefly in the Eastern and Western Settlements. Its communities combined farming with hunting, fishing, and trade across the North Atlantic.
Eastern Settlement : The larger of the two principal Norse settlement districts in Greenland, located in the southwest. Its farms and church sites formed the demographic and institutional center of Norse Greenland.
Erik the Red : A Norse explorer traditionally credited with founding the first Greenland settlement around the end of the tenth century. His expedition established the settlement tradition and the name Greenland.
Brattahlíð : A Norse farmstead in the Eastern Settlement, traditionally associated with Erik the Red. Its remains anchor accounts of the settlement’s founding in a specific landscape.
Little Ice Age : A period of widespread, though regionally variable, cooling that began in the late medieval period and lasted into the nineteenth century. Changing environmental conditions may have increased pressures on Greenlandic farming and travel.
Greenland ice cores : Layered ice records from Greenland that preserve evidence of past climate and atmospheric conditions. They help reconstruct environmental change during the settlements’ lifetime.
Western Settlement : A smaller Norse settlement district north of the Eastern Settlement, near modern Nuuk. Its farms show how Norse communities occupied a colder, more northerly landscape.
Norse settlement of Iceland : The migration and establishment of Norse communities in Iceland, chiefly during the ninth and tenth centuries. Iceland served as the principal staging point for migration farther west.
Hvalsey Church : A medieval stone church in the Eastern Settlement, among Greenland’s best-preserved Norse buildings. Its architecture and surviving records offer unusually clear evidence of community life.
Medieval Climate Anomaly : A period of relatively warm climate in parts of the world, especially around the North Atlantic, during roughly 950–1250. Its conditions coincided with the settlements’ establishment and early growth.
Norse Greenland archaeology : The archaeological study of Norse buildings, artifacts, landscapes, and burials in medieval Greenland. Material evidence tests claims preserved in written sources and later explanations.
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