Contact, Continuity, and Collapse: The Norse Colonization of the North Atlantic

by James H Barrett (Editor)

Overview

This collection of ten papers investigates the Norse colonization of the North Atlantic region, starting with Viking expansion in Arctic Norway and ending with a discussion of the longterm implications of medieval Scandinavian exploration of the New World. Each chapter provides a short regional synthesis of the archaeological evidence and, where appropriate, addresses three interrelated themes: the relationship between native and newcomer; the creation of local identities in the settlement period; the relationship between archaeology, history and the construction of modern national identities. In sequence, the chapters focus on North Norway, the Faeroes, Scotland, Ireland, Iceland, Greenland, the Inuits of Smith Sound, L'Anse aux Meadows and Vinland, together with introductory and concluding chapters.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9782503512914
Publisher:	Brepols Publishers
Publication date:	03/04/2003
Series:	Studies in the Early Middle Ages Series , #5
Pages:	270
Product dimensions:	6.58(w) x 9.70(h) x 0.82(d)

Table of Contents

Introduction - James H. Barrett Belligerent Chieftains and Oppressed Hunters? Changing Conceptions of Interethnic Relationships in Northern Norway during the Iron Age and Early Medieval Period - Bjornar Olsen The Early Settlement of the Faroe Islands: The Creation of Cultural Identity - Steffen Stummann Hansen Culture Contact in Viking Age Scotland - James H. Barrett The Vikings and Ireland: Ethnicity, Identity, and Culture Change - Harold Mytum Creating a Past: A Historiography of the Settlement of Iceland - Adolf Fridriksson and Orri Vesteinsson Norse Greenland: Reflections on Settlement and Depopulation - Jette Arneborg Inuit-Norse Contact in the Smith Sound Region - P. Schledermann and K.M. Mc Cullough L'Anse aux Meadows and Vinland: An Abandoned Experiment - Birgitta Linderoth Wallace Epilogue: Was There Continuity from Norse to Post-Medieval Explorations of the New World? - Robert Mc Ghee