Archaeological Investigations in Vatnahverfi, Greenland 2008 Season Preliminary Report

July and August 2008 was the fourth season of the collaborative Norse Settlement in the Vatnahverfi Region, South Greenland ca. AD 985 – 1450 Project. The Danish Middle Ages & Renaissance Department at The Danish National Museum and the Greenland National Museum and Archives (NKA) collaborated with the Northern Science and Education Center at City University of New York (NORSEC/CUNY) to complete an archaeological project in Southwestern Greenland, in the Qaqortoq Municipality. The project is part of a larger NABO (North Atlantic Biocultural Organization) and IPY (International Polar Year) program Human Ecodynamics in the North Atlantic, which works to coordinate international interdisciplinary projects in the Shetlands, Faroes, Iceland, and Greenland (see www.nabohome.org). The overall main objectives for this field season were to continue excavations of human burials (started in 2007) in the churchyard of a middle-sized Norse farm, Ø64 – Innoqquasaq, and take ancient DNA soil samples from multiple sites by the Danish team. The main objective of the CUNY crew was to test organic preservation, locate datable patches of cultural deposit, and recover a sample of ecofacts and artifacts from the midden layers at the same site. The field participants were Dr. Jette Arneborg (Project director), Dr. Martin Applet, Christian Koch Madsen, and Caroline Paulsen from The Danish National Museum, and Konrad Śmiarowski (CUNY team supervisor), Francis Feeley, Aaron Kendall from CUNY. Dr. Martin Hebsgaard, a biologist worked, with us part of the time while taking ancient animal DNA samples.

Greenland Innoqquasaq International Polar Year Ø64 Vatnahverfi

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