Change of Diet of the Greenland Vikings Determined from Stable Carbon Isotope Analysis and 14 C Dating of Their Bones
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Bone samples from the Greenland Viking colony provide us with a unique opportunity to test and use 14 C dating of remains of humans who depended upon food of mixed marine and terrestrial origin. We investigated the skeletons of 27 Greenland Norse people excavated from churchyard burials from the late 10th to the middle 15th century. The stable carbon isotopic composition (δ 13 C) of the bone collagen reveals that the diet of the Greenland Norse changed dramatically from predominantly terrestrial food at the time of Eric the Red around AD 1000 to predominantly marine food toward the end of the settlement period around AD 1450. We find that it is possible to 14 C-date these bones of mixed marine and terrestrial origin precisely when proper correction for the marine reservoir effect (the 14 C age difference between terrestrial and marine organisms) is taken into account. From the dietary information obtained via the δ 13 C values of the bones We have calculated individual reservoir age corrections for the measured 14 C ages of each skeleton. The reservoir age corrections were calibrated by comparing the 14 C dates of 3 highly marine skeletons with the 14 C dates of their terrestrial grave clothes. The calibrated ages of all 27 skeletons from different parts of the Norse settlement obtained by this method are found to be consistent with available historical and archaeological chronology. The evidence for a change in subsistence from terrestrial to marine food is an important clue to the old puzzle of the disappearance of the Greenland Norse, obtained here for the first time by measurements on the remains of the people themselves instead of by more indirect methods like kitchen-midden analysis.
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The calibrated radiocarbon dates for the 15 individuals broadly range between 1670 and 1950 ce.
“The results were calibrated to take into account marine reservoir effects derived from the consumption of marine proteins, and broadly range between 1670 and 1950 ce28–30 (Supplementary Information section 2).”
From Ancient Rapanui genomes reveal resilience and pre-European contact with the Americas (2024) · cites this paper as [30]
Table 2 (section “Year AD”; page unavailable) lists calendar dates for the Greenland Norse remains in the medieval period, including AD 976–1404, not 1670–1950 CE. The Methods and Analysis section confirms that the authors accounted for marine reservoir effects when calibrating dates, but that does not support the claimed date range. (LLM, conf=0.89)
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- Authors
- Arneborg, J., Heinemeier, J., Lynnerup, N., Nielsen, H. L., Rud, N., & Sveinbjörnsdóttir, Á. E.
- Affiliations
- National Museum of Denmark (DK)
- Aarhus University (DK)
- University of Copenhagen (DK)
- Venue
- Radiocarbon
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press (CUP)
- Published
- 1999
- Volume
- 41
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 157-168
- ISSN
- 0033-8222 (ISSN-L)
- 1945-5755
- OpenAlex
- W2130610729
- Cited by
- 230
- References
- 32
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 10 · 2016: 8 · 2015: 9 · 2014: 17 · 2013: 11 · 2012: 15
- FWCI
- 5.03
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Radiocarbon (publishedVersion)
- UA Campus Repository (The University of Arizona) (acceptedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Archaeology and ancient environmental studies
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History › Historical and Archaeological Studies
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Isotope Analysis in Ecology
- Keywords
- stable carbon isotopes, bone collagen, radiocarbon dating, marine reservoir effect, reservoir age correction, subsistence change, churchyard burials, grave goods
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