Map of the Western settlement of the
Norse in medieval
Greenland. The area is approximately the modern Municipality of
Nuuk. The known farms and churches are identified on the map as well as some probable geographical names spelled as modern English versions of the
old Norse names. The red dots indicate known farm ruins. ''The farm under the sand'' is more commonly known by archaeologists by the Danish name ''Gården under sandet - GUS''
The 'Western Settlement' () was the smaller of the two areas of
Greenland settled in around 1000 AD by
Norse farmers from
Iceland (the other settlement being the
Eastern Settlement). Much less is known about the Western settlement than the Eastern settlement, very little mention in the written sources and no direct descriptions in any of the medieval sources on Greenland. The Norse settlement is last mentioned in mid 14th century, when a traveller from the
Eastern Settlement found only vacant farms. At its peak, the Western settlement probably had under 1000 inhabitants. Its smaller size was due to the shorter growing season.
Despite its name, the Western Settlement was more north than west of its companion and, like the Eastern Settlement, was located on the southwestern coast of Greenland at the head of a long fjord (farther inland than
Nuuk, Danish:
Godthåb). The largest of the Western Settlement farms was Sandnes.
See also
★
History of Greenland
★
Eastern Settlement
Source
★
Diamond, J. (2005). ''
Collapse: How societies choose to fail or succeed''. New York: Penguin.
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