History rarely as simple as rhetoric

[Trakar]

Archaeologists Find Clues to Viking Mystery
By Günther Stockinger

Archaeologists Uncover Clues to Why Vikings Abandoned Greenland - SPIEGEL ONLINE

For years, researchers have puzzled over why Viking descendents abandoned Greenland in the late 15th century. But archaeologists now believe that economic and identity issues, rather than starvation and disease, drove them back to their ancestral homes.

(excerpt)

...
So, if it wasn't starvation or disease, what triggered the abandonment of the Greenland settlements in the second half of the 15th century? The scientists suspect that a combination of causes made life there unbearable for the Scandinavian immigrants. For instance, there was hardly any demand anymore for walrus tusks and seal skins, the colony's most important export items. What's more, by the mid-14th century, regular ship traffic with Norway and Iceland had ceased.
As a result, Greenland's residents were increasingly isolated from their mother countries. Although they urgently needed building lumber and iron tools, they could now only get their hands on them sporadically. "It became more and more difficult for the Greenlanders to attract merchants from Europe to the island," speculates Jette Arneborg, an archeologist at the National Museum of Denmark, in Copenhagen. "But, without trade, they couldn't survive in the long run."
The settlers were probably also worried about the increasing loss of their Scandinavian identity. They saw themselves as farmers and ranchers rather than fishermen and hunters. Their social status depended on the land and livestock they owned, but it was precisely these things that could no longer help them produce what they needed to survive.
Although the descendants of the Vikings had adjusted to life in the north, there were limits to their assimilation. "They would have had to live more and more like the Inuit, distancing themselves from their cultural roots," says Arneborg. "This growing contradiction between identity and reality was apparently what led to their decline."...

(read rest of article at: Archaeologists Uncover Clues to Why Vikings Abandoned Greenland - SPIEGEL ONLINE )

 

[Old Rocks]

Jared Diamond covered much of this in his book, "Collapse".

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Collapse-Societies-Choose-Succeed-Revised/dp/0143117009]Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed: Revised Edition: Jared Diamond: 9780143117001: Amazon.com: Books[/ame]

 

[westwall]

Archaeologists Find Clues to Viking Mystery
By Günther Stockinger

Archaeologists Uncover Clues to Why Vikings Abandoned Greenland - SPIEGEL ONLINE

For years, researchers have puzzled over why Viking descendents abandoned Greenland in the late 15th century. But archaeologists now believe that economic and identity issues, rather than starvation and disease, drove them back to their ancestral homes.

(excerpt)

...
So, if it wasn't starvation or disease, what triggered the abandonment of the Greenland settlements in the second half of the 15th century? The scientists suspect that a combination of causes made life there unbearable for the Scandinavian immigrants. For instance, there was hardly any demand anymore for walrus tusks and seal skins, the colony's most important export items. What's more, by the mid-14th century, regular ship traffic with Norway and Iceland had ceased.
As a result, Greenland's residents were increasingly isolated from their mother countries. Although they urgently needed building lumber and iron tools, they could now only get their hands on them sporadically. "It became more and more difficult for the Greenlanders to attract merchants from Europe to the island," speculates Jette Arneborg, an archeologist at the National Museum of Denmark, in Copenhagen. "But, without trade, they couldn't survive in the long run."
The settlers were probably also worried about the increasing loss of their Scandinavian identity. They saw themselves as farmers and ranchers rather than fishermen and hunters. Their social status depended on the land and livestock they owned, but it was precisely these things that could no longer help them produce what they needed to survive.
Although the descendants of the Vikings had adjusted to life in the north, there were limits to their assimilation. "They would have had to live more and more like the Inuit, distancing themselves from their cultural roots," says Arneborg. "This growing contradiction between identity and reality was apparently what led to their decline."...

(read rest of article at: Archaeologists Uncover Clues to Why Vikings Abandoned Greenland - SPIEGEL ONLINE )

Intersting, maritime trade had ceased by the middle of the LIA, too hazardous for the reward? Either way, the cold certainly made for a bleak life as evidenced by the other colonies and the homelands themselves populations leaving the northern climes for Normandy and Sicily and other spots in the Med.

The lack of gold is no indication of anything however, gold and silver were very rare in Europe, Roman coins were still being used up to the High middle Ages.

 

[Trakar]

Jared Diamond covered much of this in his book, "Collapse".

Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed: Revised Edition: Jared Diamond: 9780143117001: Amazon.com: Books

I'm most familiar with his "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" - [ame=http://www.amazon.com/Guns-Germs-Steel-Fates-Societies/dp/0393317552/ref=la_B000AQ01ZS_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1358403383&sr=1-2]Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies: Jared M. Diamond: 9780393317558: Amazon.com: Books[/ame]

I've got Collapse, but for some reason I can't recall a lot of details about it, I'll go back through it this weekend - Thanks for the memory jog, I often get so busy between trying to keep everything running smoothly that my pleasure reading time becomes very sporadic.