Ancient DNA | The North Atlantic | Norse Greenland

What happened to the Vikings of Greenland?

For almost five centuries, Norse farmers lived at the edge of the known world, in the fjords of southwest Greenland. Then, around 1450, they disappeared. Did they die out, leave, or vanish into the Inuit? Their genomes, and those of today's Greenlanders, answer part of the riddle. We tested them in Global25.

985 to 1450the life of the Norse colony, from Erik the Red to the last radiocarbon dates of the Eastern Settlement
Under 1%Inuit-related ancestry in the 12 Norse genomes from Greenland, in a test that reads a 5% mixture as 3.7%
Part Gaelicthe Greenland Norse carried the same mix of Norse and Irish or Scottish ancestry as the generation that founded Iceland

Hero image: AI generated illustration of a Norse family loading a small boat with a chest, sacks and furs on the shore of a fjord below a whitewashed stone church of the Eastern Settlement of Greenland in the fifteenth century, with two sheep beside them and Inuit hunters in kayaks watching from the water. Clothing, buildings, boats and the scene are approximations, and it is not a reconstruction of a documented event or of the individuals whose genomes are discussed here.

In September 1408, Thorstein Olafsson and Sigrid Bjornsdottir were married in the stone church of Hvalsey, on a fjord in southern Greenland. The wedding was recorded in letters by a priest of Gardar and by several Icelanders. It is the last written record of the Norse of Greenland. The couple later settled in Iceland. After them, silence. When the Dano-Norwegian missionary Hans Egede sailed to Greenland in 1721, hoping to find the descendants of the old Norse colonists, he found only Inuit and the ruins of farms and churches.

What happened to the people who had lived there for almost five hundred years has been debated ever since. They froze, starved, were killed by the Inuit, were carried off by pirates, sailed away, or became Inuit themselves: every theory has had its champions. Ancient DNA cannot answer all of them, but it can answer some very precisely. We read the genetic studies and modelled the Norse genomes ourselves.

Five centuries of Norse GreenlandKey dates, from the settlement of Iceland to the Danish colonyfrom about 870Iceland is settledNorse settlers and the Gaelic women and slaves they bringfrom Ireland and Scotland found a new people.985Erik the Red sails to GreenlandSettlers from Iceland found the Eastern and WesternSettlements in the fjords of the southwest.about 1000 to 1021VinlandLeif Erikson reaches North America; Norse timberfelling at L'Anse aux Meadows is dated to 1021.1120sA bishop for GreenlandWalrus ivory pays the way; by the 1100s Greenlandsupplies most of the walrus ivory sold in Europe.about 1200The Inuit arriveAncestors of today's Greenlanders reach the north,then spread south along the west coast.mid 1300sThe Western Settlement emptiesIvar Bardarson finds farms abandoned andlivestock running wild.1408A wedding at HvalseyThe last written record of Norse Greenland;the couple later settles in Iceland.about 1450The Eastern Settlement endsRadiocarbon dates stop. No one recordedthe last departure.1721Hans Egede arrivesA Dano-Norwegian mission finds only Inuit;Danish colonisation begins.Dates are approximate.
Key dates of Norse Greenland, from the Icelandic sagas and annals, tree-ring dating at L'Anse aux Meadows (Kuitems 2022), walrus DNA (Star 2018) and the radiocarbon record. Dates are approximate.

A colony at the edge of the world

According to the Icelandic sagas, Erik the Red, exiled from Iceland for manslaughter, explored the coast of Greenland and returned around 985 with a fleet of settlers. They founded two colonies in the fjords of the southwest: the Eastern Settlement, near the southern tip, and the smaller Western Settlement, near today's Nuuk. At its peak the Norse population is estimated at 2,000 to 3,000 people. They kept cattle, sheep and goats, built churches and, from the 1120s, had their own bishop at Gardar. It was from Greenland that Leif Erikson sailed to North America, where Norse timber felling at L'Anse aux Meadows, in Newfoundland, has been dated by tree rings to the year 1021.

The colony's wealth came from the far north. In 2018, Bastiaan Star, James Barrett and colleagues used the DNA of walrus bones from medieval workshops across Europe to show that by the 1100s Greenland had become the main supplier of walrus ivory to Western Europe, a near monopoly. Chess pieces, crucifixes and caskets of the Romanesque age were carved from tusks hunted by the Greenland Norse. Ivory paid for the bishopric, for church tithes and for the ships that brought iron, timber and grain.

Who were the Greenland Norse?

The settlers came from Iceland, and Iceland itself was a mixed society. In 2018, Sunna Ebenesersdottir, Agnar Helgason and colleagues at deCODE sequenced the first Icelanders and found that most were of unmixed Norse or Gaelic ancestry, with some already mixed on arrival. At the time of settlement, Norse ancestry made up about 57% of the gene pool, the rest coming from Ireland and Scotland, largely through women, many of them brought as slaves. Over the following thousand years, Norse ancestry rose to about 70% in today's Icelanders.

In 2020, Ashot Margaryan, Eske Willerslev and colleagues published 442 genomes from across the Viking world, including genomes of the Greenland Norse, and traced a Norwegian influx into Ireland, Iceland and Greenland. In 2023, a study of skull shape by Kimberly Plomp and colleagues estimated that about 63% of the ancestry of 40 Norse from the Eastern Settlement traced to Britain and Ireland. Global25 contains 12 Greenland Norse genomes; we used the 10 with at least 20% coverage, which also excludes two close relatives of the genome VK1.

Who were the Norse of Greenland?Global25 distance from 10 Greenland Norse genomes (average) to other populations0.05.010.015.020.025.030.0Faroes, early modern13.0Icelanders today13.6Norwegians today13.9Danes today15.6Iceland, settlement era16.6Orcadians today17.1Norway, Iron Age17.5Scots today18.1Scotland, Late Iron Age19.0Irish today20.2Swedes today20.4Norway, Viking Age20.7Denmark, Viking Age21.0English today21.2Green: populations of today. Gold: ancient and early modern groups. Lower is closer.
Global25 distance from the average of the 10 Greenland Norse genomes with at least 20% coverage to present-day populations (green) and to ancient or early modern groups (gold), our analysis. Iceland, settlement era: 39 genomes from the first generations of Iceland.

The Greenland Norse sit closest to the early modern people of the Faroe Islands, at 13 units, and to today's Icelanders and Norwegians, at 13.6 and 13.9. The first Icelanders are close as well, at 16.6, followed by Orcadians, Iron Age Norwegians and Scots. In other words, they look exactly like what the sagas say they were: people of the North Atlantic, of Norwegian origin, with a strong admixture from the British Isles.

How Gaelic were they?

Measuring the Gaelic share is harder than it looks. In Global25, Iron Age Norwegians and medieval Irish are only 30 units apart, and modern Norwegians and Irish even less, so the answer depends on the proxies chosen. We therefore modelled the Greenland Norse and the first Icelanders side by side, with seven different pairs of Norse and Gaelic sources.

Same mixture as the first IcelandersGaelic share estimated with seven different pairs of Norse and Gaelic sources (our analysis)0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%Viking Age Norway +medieval Ireland4441Iron Age Norway +medieval Ireland3954Iron Age Norway +Iron Age Scotland4649Iron Age Norway +Irish today4451Viking Age Sweden +medieval Ireland5663Iron Age Norway +Picts613Norwegians today +Irish today91Greenland Norse (10 genomes)Iceland, settlement era (39 genomes)Absolute values depend on the sources; the gap between Greenland and Iceland does not.
Gaelic share of the Greenland Norse and of the first Icelanders, modelled with seven pairs of Norse and Gaelic sources (our analysis). The absolute values swing with the sources; the two populations stay within 15 points of each other in every model and within 9 points in six of them. The published figure for the first Icelanders is about 43%.

The absolute value swings with the sources: from 39 to 56% Gaelic for the Greenland Norse in five of the seven pairs, and below 10% in the two pairs whose sources are too close or too poorly covered to separate. But the comparison is stable. In every pair, the Greenland Norse stay within 15 points of the first Icelanders, and within 9 points in six of the seven. Our estimates for the first Icelanders, 41 to 63% in the five informative pairs, bracket the published figure of about 43%.

We also checked how far a group of 12 genomes can be trusted. Mixing real Norwegian and Irish genomes in known proportions, a 50% mixture was read back as 49 to 50% and a 40% mixture as 40%, but a group of pure Norse genomes still read as 10 to 14%, and the spread around each value was 11 to 17 points. For single genomes, the spread reaches 25 to 30 points. The individuals of Greenland range from mostly Norse, like VK513, to strongly Gaelic, like VK6, but no single estimate should be read too closely. What the data show clearly is that the Greenland Norse were not a pure Scandinavian population: they carried the same Norse and Gaelic mixture as the Icelanders who founded the colony, perhaps 40% or more of it from Ireland and Scotland.

Did the Norse become Inuit?

The ancestors of today's Greenlanders, the Thule Inuit, reached northern Greenland around 1200 and moved south along the west coast. For two centuries Norse and Inuit shared the island. The sagas, papal letters and archaeology record contact, trade and occasional violence. One old theory holds that the last Norse, cut off from Europe, joined the Inuit and disappeared into them. That leaves a genetic prediction in two directions: Inuit ancestry in the late Norse, and Norse ancestry in today's Greenlanders.

No Inuit ancestry in the NorseInuit-related share detected in each Greenland Norse genome, and in test genomes with Inuit DNA added0.0%2.0%4.0%6.0%8.0%10.0%12.0%VK1 (97% coverage)0.0%VK6 (89% coverage)0.0%VK11 (8% coverage)0.0%VK9 (9% coverage)0.0%VK75, late group (26% coverage)0.0%VK183 (44% coverage)0.0%VK184 (74% coverage)0.6%VK186 (60% coverage)0.0%VK513 (91% coverage)0.0%VK179 (87% coverage)0.9%VK190, late group (100% coverage)0.0%VK187 (61% coverage)0.3%Test mixtures, 2% added0.9%Test mixtures, 5% added3.7%Test mixtures, 10% added8.8%Model: Norse + Gaelic + Inuit (East Greenlanders). Red: average of 48 test mixtures each.
Inuit-related share detected in each Greenland Norse genome with a three-source model (Iron Age Norway, medieval Ireland, unadmixed East Greenlanders), and in test mixtures in which 2, 5 or 10% of an East Greenlander genome was added to each Norse genome (our analysis). VK9 and VK11 are low-coverage first-degree relatives of VK1.

The Norse genomes show none. With a model of Norse, Gaelic and Inuit sources, every one of the 12 genomes gives between 0 and 0.9% Inuit-related ancestry. The test can see more: when we add 5% of an East Greenlander genome to each Norse genome, it reads 3.7% on average, and 10% reads as 8.8%. A child of mixed parentage, or even a grandchild, would stand out clearly. One limit should be stated plainly: the genomes come from the colony's early and middle centuries. Two are catalogued as late, but none can be shown to belong to its final decades, when contact might have been closest.

The other direction was tested on a much larger scale. In 2015, Ida Moltke, Anders Albrechtsen and colleagues genotyped 4,674 Greenlanders, more than 10% of the adult population. More than 80% of them carry some European ancestry, about 25% of the genome on average, but the authors found no evidence of admixture between the Norse and the Inuit. In 2021, Ryan Waples and colleagues compared Greenlanders with 8,275 Europeans from 14 countries using haplotypes, long stretches of shared DNA, and found that their European ancestry is almost entirely Danish, much of it from the last few generations.

Danish or medieval Norse?Fit distance when East Greenlanders of mixed ancestry are modelled as Inuit plus each European source0.04.08.012.016.0Danish today9.1Norwegian today9.7Icelanders today10.2Greenland Norse (medieval)10.3Dutch today10.5Irish today10.7German today14.6All Scandinavian sources fit almost equally (European share about 42% in each): Global25 cannot tell them apart.
Fit distance when five East Greenlanders of mixed ancestry are modelled as unadmixed East Greenlanders plus one European source (our analysis). Differences of about 1 unit cannot separate Danish from medieval Norse ancestry; haplotype methods show it is almost entirely Danish (Waples 2021).

Global25 cannot make that distinction on its own, and we prefer to show it. When East Greenlanders of mixed ancestry are modelled as Inuit plus one European source, Danish fits best, but Norwegians, Icelanders and the medieval Greenland Norse fit almost as well, all within 1.2 units, with a European share of about 42% in every case. The haplotype studies have the resolution that a 25-number summary lacks: the European ancestry of Greenland arrived with the Danish colony, not with the medieval Norse.

In their bones, too, the Norse stayed Norse. Isotope studies of 80 skeletons, published in 2012 by Jette Arneborg, Niels Lynnerup and Jan Heinemeier, showed that their diet shifted steadily towards the sea, with seals making up 50 to 80% of it by the 14th century. They adapted, but they never adopted the Inuit way of life: according to the authors, the gap between the two groups remained too great for the Norse to become Inuit.

So what happened?

If they did not merge with the Inuit, the Norse either died out or left, and most researchers now think of a slow decline rather than a sudden catastrophe. Several pressures came together:

  • Climate. The Little Ice Age has long been blamed. In 2022, Boyang Zhao, Raymond Bradley and colleagues reconstructed the climate next to the Norse farms from lake sediments and found that temperature changed little there, but the region became steadily drier, which would have reduced the hay needed to feed livestock through the winter.
  • The sea. In 2023, Marisa Borreggine and colleagues calculated that the advancing ice sheet raised the local sea level by up to 3.3 metres during the Norse occupation, flooding about 204 square kilometres of coastal land, including pastures near many farms.
  • Trade. Walrus ivory is hard to find in Europe after 1400. Elephant ivory replaced it in fashion, and the Black Death of 1349 struck Norway, Greenland's lifeline. Fewer ships came, and the colony lost its economic reason to exist.
  • Neighbours. Around 1360, the Norwegian cleric Ivar Bardarson reported that the Western Settlement was deserted, with livestock running wild. Some historians have read conflict with the Inuit into his account; archaeology shows that some farms there were occupied until nearly 1400.
  • Departure. The graves of the last period hold few young women, which some researchers read as a sign that young people were leaving. The last couple in the written record moved to Iceland.

No evidence of a final massacre has been found. The genomes add a firm element to this picture: the Greenland Norse did not dissolve into the Inuit population, and no hidden Norse lineage survives in Greenland today. Whether the last of them died on their farms or sailed for Iceland and Norway is a question that only genomes from the colony's final generation, or from their possible descendants in Iceland, could settle.

What DNA can and cannot tell

The sample is small: 12 genomes for a colony that lasted 465 years, none securely from its final decades. Global25 is a summary of the genome; it measures the Gaelic share only within broad limits and cannot tell Danish from medieval Norse ancestry, which the haplotype studies can. And absence of evidence is not proof: a few unions between Norse and Inuit may have left no trace in the genomes sampled so far. What can be said is this: the Greenland Norse were a North Atlantic people of mixed Norwegian and Gaelic ancestry, like the Icelanders who founded the colony; they did not merge with the Inuit; and the European ancestry of Greenland today comes from Denmark, not from them.

Key points

  • Norse settlers from Iceland lived in southwest Greenland from about 985 until about 1450; the last written record is a wedding at Hvalsey in 1408.
  • The 10 best-covered Greenland Norse genomes are closest to early modern Faroese, today's Icelanders and Norwegians, and the first Icelanders.
  • Like the first Icelanders, they carried a strong Gaelic share: 39 to 56% in five of seven source pairs in our models, always within 15 points of the Icelanders.
  • None of the 12 Norse genomes carries Inuit ancestry: all are at 0 to 0.9%, while a 5% Inuit mixture is read as 3.7%.
  • Large studies of today's Greenlanders find no Norse admixture; their European ancestry, about a quarter on average, is almost entirely Danish.
  • Drought, rising sea levels, the collapse of the walrus ivory trade and isolation from Norway probably led to a slow decline and departure, not a sudden massacre.

Global25 coordinates used in this article

The Greenland Norse genomes and their average, the Norse, Gaelic and Inuit sources, and a few present-day populations. They can be pasted directly into the Vahaduo tool.

Greenland_Norse_avg10_cov20plus,0.129872,0.129886,0.070559,0.054329,0.041392,0.021168,0.005029,0.008653,0.004724,-0.004611,-0.003378,0.006054,-0.013246,-0.007982,0.021199,-0.000835,-0.015098,0.003256,0.002451,0.004915,0.008535,0.003586,-0.001245,0.011797,0.000275
Greenland_Norse_avg12_all,0.130138,0.131173,0.071339,0.055314,0.041238,0.021521,0.007089,0.008192,0.003630,-0.003462,-0.004723,0.005133,-0.012649,-0.009232,0.022179,0.000619,-0.012386,0.003579,0.002964,0.005211,0.008641,0.003164,-0.001592,0.011457,-0.000459
Greenland_EarlyNorse_VK1,0.129758,0.135065,0.075801,0.056848,0.047701,0.025937,0.003290,0.009692,0.007158,-0.001640,-0.002436,0.007343,-0.010406,-0.005230,0.020629,-0.002917,-0.016428,0.003167,-0.005154,0.000250,0.012228,0.001360,-0.006039,0.005784,-0.004431
Greenland_EarlyNorse_VK6,0.135449,0.140143,0.063356,0.041990,0.047086,0.017849,0.011986,0.008307,0.008385,0.004009,0.000325,0.004496,-0.009068,-0.006744,0.016015,0.010607,-0.005737,0.008488,0.001634,0.014382,0.006114,-0.003215,-0.006162,0.013375,0.002275
Greenland_LateNorse_VK75,0.135449,0.128972,0.074293,0.059432,0.046778,0.020080,0.008225,0.009230,0.000409,-0.009659,0.001786,0.015286,-0.018285,-0.008257,0.016151,-0.011005,-0.026207,0.002027,-0.000251,0.005127,0.006738,0.005193,-0.003328,0.005784,0.002515
Greenland_EarlyNorse_VK179,0.127482,0.121864,0.075424,0.058786,0.035391,0.025379,0.006110,0.012461,0.002250,0.001276,-0.010555,0.002847,-0.018731,-0.011285,0.022394,0.020551,0.013038,0.004307,0.002388,0.013506,0.013227,-0.006430,-0.000123,0.018918,0.004191
Greenland_EarlyNorse_VK183,0.134311,0.133034,0.071653,0.052003,0.044316,0.023706,-0.000705,0.004154,0.004909,-0.006743,-0.010880,0.009741,-0.016799,-0.007982,0.027551,-0.004773,-0.014994,0.001267,0.002011,0.006378,-0.001996,0.008285,0.001109,0.013375,-0.005508
Greenland_EarlyNorse_VK184,0.121791,0.121864,0.071276,0.058463,0.036930,0.017291,0.003760,0.003000,0.003681,-0.002005,-0.008282,0.008992,-0.016799,-0.004954,0.019408,-0.005171,-0.024121,0.002027,0.006536,0.006628,0.013851,0.012242,-0.004930,0.008073,0.001317
Greenland_EarlyNorse_VK186,0.127482,0.132019,0.075424,0.053941,0.048009,0.019522,0.003055,0.013153,0.008795,-0.000364,-0.000974,0.005095,-0.012636,-0.014726,0.026601,0.006232,-0.012517,0.003294,0.002765,0.001751,0.016471,0.006554,-0.007148,0.005422,0.009101
Greenland_EarlyNorse_VK187,0.124067,0.123895,0.071653,0.046512,0.039392,0.011156,0.009870,0.009461,0.006954,-0.007289,0.000325,0.009741,-0.011447,-0.010597,0.017372,-0.009281,-0.017993,-0.003547,0.000880,-0.000875,0.011230,0.002597,0.008751,0.010122,0.002634
Greenland_LateNorse_VK190,0.133173,0.137096,0.059962,0.054587,0.035699,0.025937,0.006815,0.006692,-0.000205,-0.012574,0.000162,0.001649,-0.012042,-0.003303,0.025515,-0.000530,-0.023860,0.008615,0.008799,0.000375,0.006239,0.009892,-0.000493,0.013978,-0.007185
Greenland_EarlyNorse_VK513,0.129758,0.124910,0.066750,0.060724,0.032621,0.024821,-0.002115,0.010384,0.004909,-0.011116,-0.003248,-0.004646,-0.006244,-0.006744,0.020358,-0.012066,-0.022165,0.002914,0.004902,0.001626,0.001248,-0.000618,0.005916,0.023136,-0.002155
Iceland_settlement_era_avg39,0.127715,0.128816,0.067940,0.055664,0.037530,0.019015,0.003362,0.007000,0.005239,-0.001458,-0.003535,0.004350,-0.010357,-0.012735,0.020170,0.007571,-0.004888,0.002229,0.003381,0.004582,0.005570,0.003805,-0.000547,0.013144,-0.001277
Norway_Viking_avg27,0.129590,0.125249,0.070438,0.059755,0.042914,0.022570,0.003673,0.007854,0.002068,-0.004569,-0.003019,0.004824,-0.007967,-0.011158,0.020152,0.010121,-0.001700,0.001947,0.004013,0.007212,0.005841,0.004094,-0.000023,0.013362,0.001273
Norway_IronAge_avg44,0.127508,0.120317,0.073033,0.062611,0.038832,0.020784,0.004449,0.008119,0.004230,-0.006507,-0.002945,0.002159,-0.005903,-0.006894,0.019272,0.004936,-0.012173,0.002940,0.003565,0.005602,0.009205,0.004230,-0.000395,0.010070,0.000114
Ireland_medieval_Roscommon_avg32,0.130399,0.133320,0.060681,0.050812,0.037055,0.018851,0.002600,0.005488,0.004327,0.003052,-0.006749,0.006529,-0.015837,-0.017672,0.024671,0.008096,-0.008463,0.001948,0.003791,0.004229,0.004270,0.004679,0.001610,0.010973,-0.000210
Scotland_LIA_avg11,0.127792,0.132111,0.061916,0.057024,0.034496,0.022742,0.002606,0.004279,0.004500,-0.000083,-0.004872,0.005259,-0.013812,-0.016740,0.025984,0.002784,-0.014378,0.002753,0.002251,0.006014,0.006579,0.007824,-0.004336,0.006956,0.001067
Faroes_EarlyModern_avg15,0.129910,0.134117,0.064337,0.051895,0.042469,0.017812,0.003572,0.006830,0.003313,-0.000887,-0.002869,0.004047,-0.010436,-0.010670,0.023787,0.003836,-0.014655,0.003733,0.002556,0.002384,0.008094,0.004245,0.000920,0.013439,-0.002930
Greenlander_East_unadmixed_n4,0.050936,-0.346803,0.118133,0.047562,-0.117330,-0.037093,-0.120678,-0.137590,0.003272,-0.016219,0.023221,-0.006594,0.011336,-0.024394,-0.037764,-0.015911,-0.000847,0.016375,0.037866,0.018540,0.028356,-0.050018,0.010630,0.032655,0.044277
Greenlander_East_EuropeanMixed_n5,0.085367,-0.147252,0.094733,0.051228,-0.049671,-0.014558,-0.068811,-0.078412,0.002659,-0.009586,0.008347,-0.001888,-0.001011,-0.014285,-0.014142,-0.007451,-0.004876,0.009780,0.025592,0.014507,0.020040,-0.027278,0.006064,0.029330,0.026321
Icelandic_today,0.132698,0.133626,0.067819,0.056310,0.039366,0.022962,0.003349,0.008519,0.002642,0.000061,-0.005481,0.005170,-0.006368,-0.009083,0.023072,0.005293,-0.011691,0.001911,0.001739,0.003887,0.009255,0.002803,-0.000842,0.014018,0.000828
Norwegian_today,0.132092,0.129455,0.068051,0.054531,0.040323,0.019871,0.004160,0.006092,0.006151,-0.002287,-0.004644,0.004275,-0.009236,-0.010150,0.020253,0.006557,-0.007200,0.003310,0.002976,0.004108,0.005681,0.004090,0.000887,0.014107,-0.000069
Danish_today,0.131248,0.135065,0.066378,0.052438,0.041303,0.019457,0.005159,0.007401,0.003436,-0.002558,-0.005359,0.003480,-0.008507,-0.007093,0.018669,0.006117,-0.006519,0.002047,0.003240,0.004346,0.005640,0.002435,0.000692,0.013774,0.000201
Irish_today,0.133361,0.134098,0.061169,0.048864,0.037788,0.019352,0.003293,0.004713,0.003568,0.002927,-0.006971,0.005840,-0.014189,-0.014076,0.025935,0.005215,-0.011145,0.001894,0.000597,0.001776,0.005114,0.001279,0.000293,0.014407,0.000661
Orcadian_today,0.130669,0.134253,0.062979,0.048450,0.038715,0.017542,0.001786,0.003923,0.005031,0.001786,-0.006837,0.004811,-0.011908,-0.010831,0.022353,0.003036,-0.012386,0.003471,0.002677,0.000300,0.004954,0.002250,-0.002157,0.010038,-0.000599

References

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  3. Genomics Moltke I, Fumagalli M, Korneliussen TS, Crawford JE, Bjerregaard P, et al., Albrechtsen A (2015). Uncovering the genetic history of the present-day Greenlandic population. American Journal of Human Genetics 96(1): 54 to 69. doi.org/10.1016/j.ajhg.2014.11.012
  4. Genomics Waples RK, Hauptmann AL, Seiding I, Jorsboe E, Jorgensen ME, et al., Albrechtsen A, Moltke I (2021). The genetic history of Greenlandic-European contact. Current Biology 31(10): 2214 to 2219. doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2021.02.041
  5. Bioarchaeology Plomp KA, Dobney K, Gestsdottir H, Collard M (2023). Mixed ancestry of Europeans who settled Iceland and Greenland: 3D geometric-morphometric analyses of cranial base shape. Antiquity 97(395): 1249 to 1261. doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2023.131
  6. Ancient DNA Star B, Barrett JH, Gondek AT, Boessenkool S (2018). Ancient DNA reveals the chronology of walrus ivory trade from Norse Greenland. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 285(1884): 20180978. doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2018.0978
  7. Climate Zhao B, Castaneda IS, Salacup JM, Thomas EK, Daniels WC, Schneider T, de Wet GA, Bradley RS (2022). Prolonged drying trend coincident with the demise of Norse settlement in southern Greenland. Science Advances 8(12): eabm4346. doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abm4346
  8. Climate Borreggine M, Latychev K, Coulson S, Powell EM, Mitrovica JX, Milne GA, Alley RB (2023). Sea-level rise in Southwest Greenland as a contributor to Viking abandonment. PNAS 120(17): e2209615120. doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2209615120
  9. Bioarchaeology Arneborg J, Lynnerup N, Heinemeier J (2012). Human diet and subsistence patterns in Norse Greenland AD c.980 to AD c.1450: archaeological interpretations. Journal of the North Atlantic Special Volume 3: 119 to 133.
  10. Archaeology Kuitems M, Wallace BL, Lindsay C, Scifo A, Doeve P, et al., Dee MW (2022). Evidence for European presence in the Americas in AD 1021. Nature 601: 388 to 391. doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03972-8
  11. Data Global25 coordinates by Davidski (Eurogenes), and the Moriopoulos Collection 2026 of averages. Admixture models and figures: ExploreYourDNA.