Cracking the Norse Code

Walrus DNA has shown that Vikings were likely the first to have encountered Indigenous North Americans

- ARISTOS GEORGIOU

VIKING AGE NORSE PEOPLE SEEKing walrus ivory in the High Arctic may have encountered Indigenous North Americans hundreds of years before Christopher Columbus "discovered" the continent, a DNA study of bone fragments has suggested.

In medieval Europe, walrus ivory was a prized commodity and was supplied by Norse intermediaries who expanded across the North Atlantic in search of the product, establishing settlements in Iceland and Greenland in the process.

But the precise locations of where the traded ivory was sourced have long remained unclear. Now, a study published in the journal Science Advances has indicated that walrus ivory imported into Europe from Norse settlements in Greenland was harvested from very remote High Arctic hunting grounds.

Using high-resolution genetic sourcing methods, the research team was able to pinpoint specific hunting grounds in the High Arctic, especially the North Water Polynya― an area of open water surrounded by sea ice that lies between Greenland and Canada in northern Baffin Bay and possibly from the interior Canadian Arctic. These areas are far beyond areas traditionally associated with Greenland Norse ivory harvesting activities.

The authors came to their conclusions after matching ancient DNA from fragments of walrus skullswhich were found in European trade centers and ivory carving workshops-back to specific Arctic walrus populations using novel genetic "fingerprinting" techniques.

"We extracted ancient DNA from walrus samples recovered from a wide range of locations across the North Atlantic Arctic.