Medieval History
New research has revealed that when the Vikings sailed across the North Atlantic to places like Iceland, Greenland and Newfoundland, they brought with them the common house mouse. An international team of researchers from the UK, USA, Iceland, Denmark and Sweden examined the mitochondrial DNA of these mice to see where their origins were from. Their article, ?Fellow travellers: a concordance of colonization patterns between mice and men in the North Atlantic region? was published in BMC Evolutionary Biology.
During the Viking age (late 8th to mid 10th century) Vikings from Norway established colonies across Scotland, the Scottish islands, Ireland, and Isle of Man. They also explored the north Atlantic, settling in the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Newfoundland and Greenland. While the Norse settlers took with them domestic animals such as horses, sheep, goats and chickens they also inadvertently carried pests like mice.
The researchers used techniques designed to characterize genetic similarity, and hence the relatedness of one population, or one individual, with another, to determine a mouse colonisation timeline.
Click here to read this article from Medievalists.net
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- Did Elephants Doom The Norse In Greenland?
A new article is examining the theory that Greenland's medieval Norse settlements were ruined by the collapse of the trade in walrus tusks, after ivory from elephants became more easily accessible for artisans in Europe. In her article, "Desirable...
- Schulman Reviews Hudson, Ed., Studies In The Medieval Atlantic
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- 10th Annual Comitatus Conference On Medieval Studies: "north Atlantic Connections: Texts And Interpretations Of The Medieval North"
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Medieval History
Vikings not alone when they crossed the North Atlantic ? mice hitched a ride too
New research has revealed that when the Vikings sailed across the North Atlantic to places like Iceland, Greenland and Newfoundland, they brought with them the common house mouse. An international team of researchers from the UK, USA, Iceland, Denmark and Sweden examined the mitochondrial DNA of these mice to see where their origins were from. Their article, ?Fellow travellers: a concordance of colonization patterns between mice and men in the North Atlantic region? was published in BMC Evolutionary Biology.
During the Viking age (late 8th to mid 10th century) Vikings from Norway established colonies across Scotland, the Scottish islands, Ireland, and Isle of Man. They also explored the north Atlantic, settling in the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Newfoundland and Greenland. While the Norse settlers took with them domestic animals such as horses, sheep, goats and chickens they also inadvertently carried pests like mice.
The researchers used techniques designed to characterize genetic similarity, and hence the relatedness of one population, or one individual, with another, to determine a mouse colonisation timeline.
Click here to read this article from Medievalists.net
- Greenland?s Viking Settlers Gorged On Seals
Greenland?s Viking settlers, the Norse, disappeared suddenly and mysteriously from Greenland about 500 years ago. Natural disasters, climate change and the inability to adapt have all been proposed as theories to explain their disappearance. But now a...
- Viking Navigation Secrets Explained?
Was it the hammer of the Gods that drove Viking ships to new lands, or the light-polarizing qualities of a crystal called Iceland Spar? Ancient Viking mariners may have been able to navigate the high seas from Norway to North America centuries before...
- Did Elephants Doom The Norse In Greenland?
A new article is examining the theory that Greenland's medieval Norse settlements were ruined by the collapse of the trade in walrus tusks, after ivory from elephants became more easily accessible for artisans in Europe. In her article, "Desirable...
- Schulman Reviews Hudson, Ed., Studies In The Medieval Atlantic
Jana Schulman recently reviewed Benjamin Hudson, ed., Studies in the Medieval Atlantic. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012. This collection of seven essays originated at a conference, Sailing the Western Sea: The Atlantic Ocean in a Medieval...
- 10th Annual Comitatus Conference On Medieval Studies: "north Atlantic Connections: Texts And Interpretations Of The Medieval North"
10th Annual Comitatus Conference on Medieval Studies: "North Atlantic Connections: Texts and Interpretations of the Medieval North" Purdue University West Lafayette, IN Feb. 24?25, 2012 Keynote Speaker: Marianne E. Kalinke CAS Professor Emerita of Germanic...