Ancient DNA reveals the chronology of walrus ivory trade from Norse Greenland.
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Publication Date
2018-08-08Journal Title
Proceedings. Biological sciences
ISSN
0962-8452
Publisher
The Royal Society
Volume
285
Issue
1884
Language
eng
Type
Article
Physical Medium
Electronic
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Star, B., Barrett, J., Gondek, A. T., & Boessenkool, S. (2018). Ancient DNA reveals the chronology of walrus ivory trade from Norse Greenland.. Proceedings. Biological sciences, 285 (1884)https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2018.0978
Abstract
The importance of the Atlantic walrus ivory trade for the colonization, peak, and collapse of the medieval Norse colonies on Greenland has been extensively debated. Nevertheless, no studies have directly traced medieval European ivory back to distinct Arctic populations of walrus. Analysing the entire mitogenomes of 37 archaeological specimens from Europe, Svalbard, and Greenland, we here discover that Atlantic walrus comprises two monophyletic mitochondrial (MT) clades, which diverged between 23400and 251120 years ago. Our improved genomic resolution allows us to reinterpret the geographical distribution of partial MT data from 306 modern and nineteenth-century specimens, finding that one of these clades was exclusively accessible to Greenlanders. With this discovery, we ascertain the biological origin of 23 archaeological specimens from Europe (most dated between 900 and 1400 CE). These results reveal a significant shift int rade from an early, predominantly eastern source towards a near exclusive representation of Greenland ivory. Our study provides empirical evidence for how this remote Arctic resource was progressively integrated into a medieval pan-European trade network, contributing to both the resilience and vulnerability of Norse Greenland society.
Keywords
Cuspid, Animals, Walruses, DNA, Mitochondrial, Commerce, History, Medieval, Greenland, DNA, Ancient
Sponsorship
This work was supported by the Nansenfondet, the Research Council of Norway projects 262777 and 230821, and the Leverhulme Trust project ‘Northern Journeys’ MRF-2013-065.
Funder references
Leverhulme Trust (MRF-2013-065)
Research Council of Norway (via University of Oslo) (230821)
Research Council of Norway (via University of Oslo) (262777/STBR)
Identifiers
External DOI: https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2018.0978
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/284761