Mystery Of The Vanished Settlers Of Greenland - What Happened To The Lost Viking Colonists?

[Warpy]

1. Young people decamped when the dlimate turned sour

their main export of walrus ivory collapsed in favor of African ivory, and Europe was devastated by the Black Death, meaning there were far fewer supply ships bringing food they could no longer grow. It was a perfect storm of climatic, mercantile and historical events that made the colony unlivable.

It was only a mystery because there were no records of mass evacuations from the colony. There wouldn't have been, it seems it was an old pattern, younger people leaving for better economic prospects, old people not willing to move and staying behind, the last few dying alone to be found hundreds of years later in the ruins of their homes.

What they didn't do was deplete the soil or overfish/overhunt local food stocks. The colony seems to have fizzled out slowly, the last documented event a wedding in 1408, after which the couple left, and burials up to 1450. After that, silence, no one left to bury the last few who died of starvation or cold.

People ask why the more northern colony on Iceland continued to thrive. Well, for one thing, it's warmer, warmed by the top of the Gulf Stream, which also keeps summer sea ice to a minimum. Greenland is kept frozen by the Labrador Current, which also keeps sea ice present (and dangerous) year round. Sheep grow well in Iceland, while it was a struggle to keep them alive in Greenland. Those are the main reasons.