What do Vikings (those short, exaggerated, axe-loving, Oden-worshipers) and UMass Boston have in common? Both have seen inclement weather. The difference – 50 inches of snow, while that may be a lot for one month, is nothing compared to the climate these brusque folks faced.
We UMass Bostoners and the Vikings also share the Fiske Center for Archeological Research.
The Fiske Center’s Skagafjördur Archaeological Settlement Survey (SASS) has been working on excavation and analysis of various aspects of Viking life in Northern Greenland. They seek to, according to their website, “understand the changes in the settlement pattern from the Viking Age through Early Danish Rule (AD 874-1800).”
The research has led John Steinberg (a researcher in the Fiske Center and member of UMB’s anthropology department) to the conclusion that, “the Vikings are poster children for environmental destruction” – a statement he made in a National Science Foundation (NSF) Release.
The author of the piece, Marlene Cimons of the National Science Foundation, described the Viking’s environmental policy as one focusing on “leveling trees, overgrazing their sheep, cattle and pigs, laying waste to much of the once productive land.”
Perhaps, then, the Vikings have more in common with us then just inclement weather. Both people today and the Vikings of the middle ages seem particularly skilled at damaging the environment.
The research received almost 95,000 dollars in funding from the Obama Administration’s 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (a policy that plans to distribute 787 billion dollars in grants like the one the Fiske Center received.) One reason the Fiske Center received the funding (in addition to the historical importance of their normal research) is because of the environmental changes faced (and partially caused by) by our Viking friends.
Around the 15th and 16th centuries (when the Vikings were in Iceland) something called the “Little Ice Age” (according to Environmental History Resources online) cooled the globe. Thus, in addition to facing a shortage of resources caused by incautious behavior, the Vikings also faced climate change.
“Our study provides an example of conflict over dwindling resources that politicians and policy makers should heed,” Steinberg stated in the NSF release. “It’s important that we understand how the environment responded. It can help predict what might happen to us.”
Researching what people did over 500 years ago is not easy. In order to understand the SASS team is analyzing pollen samples preserved within the earth. It is, “an experimental project to see how well pollen is preserved in fields,”according to the Fiske Center’s blog.
“We can see what the environment was like before the Vikings arrived, how it changed, and how they eventually responded to the destruction with more sustainable practices,” Douglas Bolander (another researcher associated with the Fiske Center and faculty member of Kenyon College) reported in the NSF release.
By understanding how the Vikings changed their ways both to adapt to and protect their environment we (at UMass Boston, as citizens of the US, as citizens of a planet in environmental crisis) can learn new ways to adapt and protect our environment. The 95,000 dollar grant and the NSF article are recognitions that research like this, done out of UMass Boston, can have global consequences and deserves our support and attention.