Settlers and no vitamins: Joris Delanghe, Marijn Speeckaert, Marc De Buyzere, ‘Climate change, vitamin D and the Viking abandonment in Greenland’, Hormone Molecular Biology and Clinical Investigation, 2024 | settler colonial studies blog

Settlers and no vitamins: Joris Delanghe, Marijn Speeckaert, Marc De Buyzere, ‘Climate change, vitamin D and the Viking abandonment in Greenland’, Hormone Molecular Biology and Clinical Investigation, 2024

18Nov24

Excerpt: Recent interest in climate change has fostered researchregarding the role of dietary vitamin D and the rise in sea-level rise in Southwest Greenland as a contributor to Vikingabandonment. Even in Scandinavian populations withpreexisting advanced adaptation to living at high latitudes,the availability of vitamin D is an important factor deter-mining the possibility of successful migration. Long-termmortality due to vitamin D deficiency and inbreedingeventually led to the discontinuation of the Viking settle-ments in Greenland. The skeletons which have beenunearthed in the Brattahlíð Viking settlement (Greenland)are very informative in this respect. Initially, many settlerswere taller than 1.80 m. Vikings hardly changed during thefirst few generations after their arrival. However, later, theeffects of inbreeding began to manifest at increasing rates.Skeletons from the late 14th to early 15th century demon-strated that men were 1.55–1.70 m tall, and the averageheight of women was only 1.40 m. Spine curvature, defor-mation of the limbs, narrowed pelvis, rickets, and osteo-malacia, and pathological fractures were found in manyskeletons. Women with pelvis pathology were destined to diein childbirth. High infant mortality and short lifespanwere characteristic of that time. Norlund stated:“Powerless handful of individuals debilitated by diseases,scrubby and ugly, that’s all that was left of them”.

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