Section for Molecular Ecology and Evolution, Globe Institute, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Øster Farimagsgade 5-7, DK-1353 Copenhagen K, Denmark.
Arctic Centre and Groningen Institute of Archaeology, Faculty of Arts, University of Groningen, PO Box 716, NL-9700 AS Groningen, Netherlands.
Sci Adv. 2024 Sep 27;10(39):eadq4127. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adq4127.
Walrus ivory was a prized commodity in medieval Europe and was supplied by Norse intermediaries who expanded across the North Atlantic, establishing settlements in Iceland and Greenland. However, the precise sources of the traded ivory have long remained unclear, raising important questions about the sustainability of commercial walrus harvesting, the extent to which Greenland Norse were able to continue mounting their own long-range hunting expeditions, and the degree to which they relied on trading ivory with the various Arctic Indigenous peoples that they were starting to encounter. We use high-resolution genomic sourcing methods to track walrus artifacts back to specific hunting grounds, demonstrating that Greenland Norse obtained ivory from High Arctic waters, especially the North Water Polynya, and possibly from the interior Canadian Arctic. These results substantially expand the assumed range of Greenland Norse ivory harvesting activities and support intriguing archaeological evidence for substantive interactions with Thule Inuit, plus possible encounters with Tuniit (Late Dorset Pre-Inuit).
海象牙在中世纪的欧洲是一种珍贵的商品，由北欧中间商供应，他们在北大西洋扩张，在冰岛和格陵兰建立了定居点。然而，长期以来，交易象牙的准确来源一直不清楚，这引发了关于商业海象捕捞的可持续性、格陵兰北欧人能够在多大程度上继续进行长途狩猎远征，以及他们在多大程度上依赖与他们开始遇到的各种北极土著民族进行象牙贸易的重要问题。我们使用高分辨率基因组溯源方法将海象牙制品追溯到特定的狩猎场，证明格陵兰北欧人从高北极水域，特别是北水域洄游区获得了象牙，可能还有来自加拿大北极内陆。这些结果大大扩展了格陵兰北欧人象牙采集活动的假设范围，并为与图勒因努伊特人（晚期多塞特前因纽特人）进行实质性互动的考古证据提供了支持，可能还与图尼特人（晚期多塞特前因纽特人）进行了接触。
