A paleoethnobotanical investigation of Garden Under Sandet, a waterlogged Norse farm site, Western Settlement, Greenland (Kalaallit Nunaata).

摘要

Garden Under Sandet, GUS, is a Norse age central farmstead in the Western Settlement of Greenland. Archaeobotanical samples were collected during the 1995 and 1996 seasons; 42 of the 139 samples collected were analyzed. The archaeobotanical remains are excellently preserved because the site was sealed by alluvium and permafrost.;The Western Settlement was established by the Norse in ca. AD 1000; the Greenlandic economy of the times was based on animal husbandry and hunting. The Norse relied on infields and outfields to provide fodder and construction material resulting in a heavy reliance on vegetation. The abandonment of the Western Settlement (ca. 1350) may have been caused by many factors but of those suggested only caterpillar attack, climate change and non-sustainable land-use practices could influence the archaeobotanical assemblage.;Norse archaeobotanical assemblages are created by dynamic formation processes which must be carefully determined. To avoid formation processes resulting in general interpretations a specific sampling is suggested and should be implemented.;Samples from the long house may indicate use of different fuels. A few anthropochores present in these samples indicate that the vegetation was quickly changed. Anthropochores later dominate the samples indicating weeds became prolific. Analysis of manure showed cows ate Grass or Heath/Outfield plants and caprines grazed on Heath/Outfield plants or on plants from mixed groups.