Settlement and Land Use in the Inner Fjords of Godthaab District, West Greenland

In June and July, 1981, a small, cooperative Greenlandic-U. S. archaeological survey project investigated parts of the inner fjord zone of Godthaab District, southwest Greenland. The inner fjords of this region hold a distinctive continental-low arctic biome that contrasts strongly, in both climate and resources, with a more widespread oceanic-coastal biome. In addition to preparing a detailed assessment of the very serious threat to sites of all periods posed by ongoing marine erosion, the survey also collected settlement pattern evidence for inner fjord resource use by Paleo-Eskimo, Norse, and historic Inuit. While Paleo-Eskimo settlement is largely erased by erosion, remains of historic Inuit and Norse settlement are adequate to allow comparison with modern patterns of settlement and land use. Both modern and historic Inuit occupations of the inner fjords appear largely seasonal, and the ecological zone itself is merely a peripheral resource space for economies based upon the oceanic outer fjords. By contrast, the rich inner fjord floral communities were central to Norse settlement and economy. The evidence for Norse land use is briefly reviewed and a speculative model for the organization of Norse caribou exploitation is presented. More extensive fieldwork and more precise economic models are urgently needed if the settlement patterns of all periods are to be recovered from the rapidly eroding coastline of southwest Greenland.