Archaeological Investigations in Vatnahverfi, Greenland 2008 Season Preliminary Report

Summary

July and August 2008 was the fourth season of the collaborative Norse

Settlement in the Vatnahverfi Region, South Greenland ca. AD 985 – 1450

Project. The Danish Middle Ages & Renaissance Department at The Danish

National Museum and the Greenland National Museum and Archives (NKA)

collaborated with the Northern Science and Education Center at City University

of New York (NORSEC/CUNY) to complete an archaeological project in

Southwestern Greenland, in the Qaqortoq Municipality. The project is part of a

larger NABO (North Atlantic Biocultural Organization) and IPY (International

Polar Year) program Human Ecodynamics in the North Atlantic, which works to

coordinate international interdisciplinary projects in the Shetlands, Faroes,

Iceland, and Greenland (see www.nabohome.org). The overall main objectives

for this field season were to continue excavations of human burials (started in

2007) in the churchyard of a middle-sized Norse farm, Ø64 – Innoqquasaq, and

take ancient DNA soil samples from multiple sites by the Danish team. The

main objective of the CUNY crew was to test organic preservation, locate datable

patches of cultural deposit, and recover a sample of ecofacts and artifacts from

the midden layers at the same site. The field participants were Dr. Jette

Arneborg (Project director), Dr. Martin Applet, Christian Koch Madsen, and

Caroline Paulsen from The Danish National Museum, and Konrad Śmiarowski

(CUNY team supervisor), Francis Feeley, Aaron Kendall from CUNY. Dr. Martin

Hebsgaard, a biologist worked, with us part of the time while taking ancient

animal DNA samples.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• E68 Timerliit

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Konrad Smiarowski

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