Sustainability and Resilience in the North

Atlantic

Norse migration and potential subsequent trade routesNorse settlement of North Atlantic

The Vikings

Viking helmets?

Mad men?(berserkers)

Viking Age Westward Expansion

The Viking Age & the Norse Westward Expansion

• Norse “landnám package”– Farming-based domestic economy

• Domestic animals• Barley, flax, rye, oats, hay

– Supplemental use of wild food resources – “Natural Capital”

• Fish, sea mammals, birds, reindeer, etc.

Natural Capital

• Wild species & lush landscapes serve to underwrite landnám by reducing consumption of imported domesticates

• Some resources might be expended - “natural capital” is totally drawn down

• Others might be managed sustainably for long period of time

• Participation in a community network was key for continued access to most important wild resources

• Human impact story is NOT simple

Norse North Atlantic

Different choices- different outcomes to climate changes

Communities in the Atlantic islands faced different

challenges, made different choices

and faced different outcomes.

Norse N. Atlantic: Different Geographies

Faroes:Everywhere close to sea

Close to EuropeOpen landscape

Marginal grain productionPilot whales

Birds and fish

Iceland:Large island-

Extensive interiorWoodlands

Bog iron depositsVery marginal arable cultivation

No terrestrial mammalsBirds and fish

Greenland:Very large island- Distant resources

Short summer/pack iceNo accessible iron

Pastoralism challengingCaribou

Migrating sealsOther societies

1: The unsurprising part. In the Faroe Islands, sustainable practice, effective utilization of wild resources, limited landscape impacts and successful adaptation to climate change on centennial time scales is associated with long-term settlement success and the development of a prosperous society.

Three contrasting outcomes in the face of climatic hazards

Sandur, Sandoy

Unðir Junkarinsfløtti

Communal provisioning

2: In Iceland we have the puzzle of Norse sustainable practice, successful adaptation and long-term success linked to extensive landscape degradation.

Soil erosion

2009

Three contrasting outcomes in the face of climatic hazards

Same Beginnings, different Same Beginnings, different outcomes- deforestation & erosionoutcomes- deforestation & erosion

The Great Hall at HofstaðirThe Great Hall at Hofstaðir

Sveigakot “Great Hall”

Skutustaðir, Lake Myvatn Iceland

3: In Greenland, sustainable practice, limited landscape impacts and successful adaptation to climate change on centennial time scales was followed by settlement abandonment in the mid 15th century.

Three contrasting outcomes in the face of climatic hazards

Western Settlement, Greenland

Eastern Settlement, Greenland

Different choices & outcomes 1: Faroes

Human Impacts: Faroe Islands

• Little to no tree cover at settlement– Grasses & peat

• Topography limited settlement locations– Settlements clustered

Human Impacts: Faroe Islands

• Importance of Natural Capital– Coastal & marine

resources– Peat– Grasslands

Birding cliffs

Sea

Outfield

Village (Infield)

Homefields

Outlying field systems

KAM 3

Disruption of upland vegetationgenerates sediment flux

First introduction of herbivores to hill tops?

Deflation of Faroese summits and dispersal of silt a notable local impact of landnám…

..a modest effect compared to change in Iceland

The Faroes as success story

• Environmental:– Creation of managed infield system– No woodland to clear– Limited soil erosion & peat removal

• Wild resources heavily, sustainably exploited– Continued legacy

• Nucleated settlement– Reinforces social interactions

Different choices & outcomes 2: Iceland

Legislated management system

• Exclusive grazing rights to hreppur

• Farm quotas for maximum number of sheep– Penalty if exceeded

• Regulated grazing season– Began given week in June– Ended given week in September

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Proportions of cattle and sheep change over time from 9th-11th c, varying from ca 2

-6 sheep per cow.

However, a major transition takes place ca AD 1200: now 20-25 sheep per cow.

This pattern continues to the 18th century

The wool-producing part of the flock – which uses the highlands – dramatically increases

ca 1200

Creates far greater chance of upland degradation

13th Century environmental managers were slightly

distracted...

Civil War ! •Age of the Sturlungs:

- Five Great Families struggle to control all Iceland

- Icelandic warlords seek kingship

- Everyone loses

- Iceland submits to Norway 1264

The human impacts of climate changes that were extreme (in terms of their deviation for the mean of the previous 15 years) were buffered by the drawdown of natural (landscape) capital and resulted in threshold- crossing events.

Iceland: success at a cost

• Early establishment of environmental management & regulation; sustainable exploitation of finite resources (e.g. birds)

• When faced with predictable changes (e.g. woodland clearance) adaptations were made to conserve a landscape fit for purpose

• When faced with unpredictable change (e.g. climate hazards) natural capitals could be drawn down to maintain settlement

Different choices & outcomes 3: Greenland

Travel time & connectedness

• With a 12-hr travel time, all settlement connected to each other• Outer parts of fjord and skerries (seal hunting grounds) are only marginally

reached or not at all

Travel time & connectedness

• With deteriorating climate, travel conditions become more difficult• Settlements concentrate on best farmland & in greater concentration• But crucial marine food resources are now further away

Exposure to step-wise climate change

Settlement focused on marine mammals for subsistence & trade

did not endure past the climate hazards of mid 14th century

Changing world systems – a double exposure?

Plague may have reached Greenland in 15th century; it certainly caused the collapse of the Norwegian economy

(and market for ivory)

Triple exposure?

Inuit contacts: source of conflict, or source of

trade goods (furs)?

Lessons from the Viking Age

• In Greenland, successful adaptation led to the development of a rigidity trap– Path chosen by the Greenlanders created a society that could

not endure the conjunctures of climate hazard, economic change & culture contact of the mid 15th century

• In contrast to Iceland & Faroe Islands, the exploitation of marine resources in Greenland had greater exposure to climate hazards– Faroe Islands faced less extreme climate change– Icelanders could utilise greater pastoral resources (and drawn

down landscape capitals)– Greenlanders died

Lessons from the Viking Age

People can...

• Creatively adapt to new environments• Build up centuries of community-based managerial

experience• Wisely conserve fragile resources• Maintain long-term (century-scale) sustainable patterns

of life & society

• …and still face localized collapse and extinction

Lessons from the Viking Age

Scales & cross-scale interactions• Distances matter

– Utilization of dispersed resources carries cost, especially when settlements are fixed

– Dispersed systems are vulnerable to increased travel costs

• Strong communal interaction can be a strength, but collapse of a well-integrated system can kill everyone…