Discovery of Greenland. Greenland: historical background Greenland was discovered

On the western coast of the Caspian Sea, where the Caucasian spurs approach the sea quite closely, ancient Derbent lies on the coastal plains and hills. Today it is the second largest city in the Republic of Dagestan, after the capital Makhachkala, which lies 125 km to the north.

Derbent is one of the oldest cities not only in the Caucasus, but throughout Russia. Its history, according to archaeologists, dates back five thousand years - it was then, back in the Bronze Age, that a small settlement arose on this site, which later acquired city fortifications.

However, the documented emergence of Derbent as quite large city associated with the Persian king of the Sassanid dynasty - Yazdegerd II (reigned 435-57 AD), who erected it on the northern border of his possessions, on an elevated and strategically important place - between the mountains and the sea (which is reflected in the name itself : Iranian "derbend" means "mountain pass", or "mountain outpost").

About a century later, i.e. in the 6th century, during the reign of another king of the same dynasty (Khosrow I Anushirvan - ruled in 531-579), a fortified Upper (Old) city was erected on the ruins of previous fortifications, the center of which is impregnable fortress Naryn-Kala. Two stone fortress walls were also erected (they were equipped with powerful towers and majestic entrance gates), which departed from the citadel and ran parallel to each other towards the sea. These walls, now only partially preserved, once reached the very shore, and even went into shallow water, thus enclosing not only the city itself, which seemed to be in a “wall” protected from the enemy, but also the harbor. In addition to the two main walls, there previously existed another fortress wall - Dag-Bary (Mountain Wall), 3 m thick and up to 10 m high, which extended from the southwestern corner of the citadel and went to the side Caucasus Mountains for as much as 40 km! (now the Mountain Wall is almost completely destroyed, only isolated fragments remain).

Subsequently, thanks to the beneficial geographical location, Derbent is turning into one of the largest and most developed medieval cities in the East. True, his story is full of drama: he finds himself at the epicenter of turbulent events, experiences many assaults and destruction, and experiences periods of prosperity and decline. In the 630s. Derbent is captured by the Khazars, from 652 it is part of the Arab Caliphate, in the 10th century. becomes the center of an independent emirate. Further, in 1071 the city was captured by the Seljuk Turks, in the 13th century. it was conquered by the Mongols in the period from the 16th to the beginning of the 18th centuries. Derbent is part of Iran. Since 1743 it has been the center of the Derbent Khanate, and in 1813 Derbent annexed Russia.

The Naryn-Kala citadel, which has been well preserved to this day, is limited by thick (2-4 m) and high (10-12 m) fortress walls, made of two rows of well-processed stone blocks filled with rubble and lime mortar. On its territory you can see the ruins of the palace of the Derbent Khan (2nd half of the 18th century), this is also a special underground structure - a “stone bag” (cellar or prison for the Khan’s prisoners), baths, and a guardhouse. The ruins of palace buildings from earlier periods (starting from ancient times) have also been preserved.

In the area adjacent to the citadel there is a typical Muslim medieval city with a network of narrow crooked streets, onto which the blind facades of 1-2-storey houses open, with mosques, fountains, baths. In this part of the city there are: the Juma Mosque complex, consisting of the mosque itself (VIII century), a madrasah (XV-XIX centuries) and 3 arched gates (XVII-XIX centuries), as well as the Kirkhlyar Mosque (XVII century). ), Minaret-mosque (XVIII century, partially rebuilt in the XIX century) with the only dilapidated minaret in Derbent (XIV century), Chertebe-mosque (XVII-XIX centuries), former Khan's mausoleum (late 18th century). Here you can also see special reservoirs for storing water - underground cisterns (XVII-XIX centuries), which for Derbent, like any other fortified city of those times, was of almost paramount importance. Water was supplied here from mountain springs - through numerous stone and ceramic water pipelines discovered during excavations.

From 1926 to Upper town valid local history museum, and in 1989 the state historical, architectural and art museum-reserve “Ancient Derbent” was organized.

Cultural criteria: iii, iv
Year of inclusion in the List world heritage: 2003

This site is on the UNESCO World Heritage Center website whc.unesco.org/en/list/1070

Mysteries of history. Data. Discoveries. People Zgurskaya Maria Pavlovna

Who discovered Greenland?

Who discovered Greenland?

At the turn of the 15th–16th centuries, the Portuguese sailors brothers Miguel and Gaspar Cortirial set out on three caravels in search of a northwestern route to Asia. One day they came across an island lying at the “intersection” of the Arctic and Atlantic oceans. This is how Europeans discovered Greenland. second time. And in 1721, the colonization of this exotic piece of land began. The Scandinavians, although this time the Danes, were again reclaiming the lands that the Vikings had discovered long before them. Who owns the glory of the discoverer himself? big island in the world?

According to the sagas, it was the Norwegian Gunbjorn. Sometime between the 870s and 920s he sailed to Iceland, but a storm drove him west to the small islands off 65°30? With. w. 36° W d. Behind them was high land covered with snow and ice, which the sailors could not approach due to heavy ice. Today highest point The Arctic, which is located in Greenland, is named after the brave sailor Mount Gunbjorn.

Around 980, a group of Icelanders, sailing to the west, spent the winter on skerries, which they mistook for the islands discovered by Gunbjorn. Returning to their homeland, the Icelanders also talked about the big land beyond the skerries. And in the summer of 982, the fiery hair of Eric Thorvaldson, who went down in history under the nickname Eric the Red, was already looming on the local shores.

Eric was born in Norway, but his father, Torvald, and his family were expelled from there for murder. So Eric ended up in Iceland, but from there he had to go home: this time he was expelled for two murders. According to sources, Eric’s anger was justified: one of the victims was his neighbor, who did not return the boat he borrowed. Eric committed his second crime out of revenge - he punished the Viking who killed his slaves. However, even the cruel laws of that time did not approve of lynching, and now the red-haired brawler had to spend three years in a foreign land. Eric did not lose heart: he decided to get to mysterious land, which in clear weather was visible from mountain peaks western Iceland. Eric decided to try his luck: he bought a ship, gathered a group of friends and rushed towards adventure. He took his family and servants with him. Eric even loaded his cattle onto the ship. The island, most of which is now covered with ice, oddly enough, seemed suitable for life to the Vikings. The thickness of the ice cover reaches three kilometers in some places, and therefore only the most unpretentious plants and animals are able to survive at the border of land and ice. There is practically no summer in these parts - it ends before it even begins, and summer days Greenland is not much warmer than winter. Why did Eric and his companions like this island so much? Why did it receive such an absurd name - “Green Land”? The fact is that at the end of the 10th century, the climate of Greenland was much milder than it is today, and, having rounded the southern tip of the island, the sailors landed near Julianehob (Qaqortoq), where the grass was green near the fjords and the air was filled with the aromas of flowers. There is, however, another version: some researchers believe that the name “Greenland” was primarily an advertisement - Eric wanted to attract as many settlers as possible here. However, the name that Eric gave to these lands initially applied only to the friendly corners of the south- west coast and spread to the entire island only in the 15th century.

During the three years that Eric had to spend in Greenland without going out - this was the period of his exile - the settlers cultivated enough land to feed themselves and raised livestock. They hunted walruses, harvested fat, walrus ivory and narwhal tusks.

One day, as the legend tells, Eric climbed one of the coastal peaks and saw in the west high mountains. Modern researchers suggest that it was Baffin Island: on a clear day it can be seen across Davis Strait. According to Canadian writer F. Mowat, Eric was the first to cross the strait and swim to Cumberland. He explored the entire mountainous eastern coast of this peninsula and entered Cumberland Bay.

In the summer of 983, Eric walked north from the Arctic Circle, discovered Disko Bay, Disko Island, the Nugssuaq and Svartenhoek peninsulas, and possibly reached Melville Bay, at 76° north latitude. He explored another 1,200 km of the western coast of Greenland. The Viking was delighted by the abundance of animals and birds that could be hunted: polar bears, arctic foxes, reindeer, whales, narwhals, walruses, eiders and gyrfalcons. But there were also different types of fish.

After two years of searching, Eric looked at several places - flat, but well protected from cold winds. In 985 he returned to Iceland, not to stay there forever, but to recruit future colonists. There were many people willing - about 700 people. They went to sea on 25 ships, but a storm began and 11 of them sank. Only 400 brave men reached Greenland. They based on south coast The islands are the so-called Eastern Settlement. Within ten years, another settlement appeared - Western. It was built by new colonists who arrived later.

Eric the Red

Of course, the settlers had a hard time: the winters were very harsh. Nevertheless, the Viking colony in Greenland flourished. As archaeologists say, the number of colonists grew steadily and eventually reached a peak of three thousand people.

Viking settlements stretched along the fjords. It was not so easy to build a house on the island - large trees did not grow here. We had to make do with driftwood or turf. Scientists estimate that the construction of one of the large buildings took about a square kilometer of turf - just how much work did the Vikings put in while ripping it off! There were also stone buildings. To keep the building warm, the walls were made very thick - sometimes more than two meters.

Since the summer was very short, grains grew poorly, but the traditional Viking diet included bread and porridge. Grain was also added to stews - fish and meat. The meat of domestic animals - goats, sheep and cows - was highly valued. Cattle were slaughtered extremely rarely, content with milk. The settlers caught fish with nets and hunted seals and deer.

In the 14th century, a cold snap began in Greenland. Glaciers were creeping into the lands of the Vikings, gradually depriving them of pastures. Trade with Scandinavia, which brought considerable income to the colonists, fell into decline - the plague raged in Norway and Iceland. We had to adapt to new conditions: scientists claim that the Vikings were saved by the sea, namely seafood. Their share in the diet was now more than 80%.

Around 1350, all the inhabitants of the Western settlement disappeared somewhere - about 1000 people. This became known because the priest from the Eastern settlement, when he came to the neighbors, did not find anyone. Only wild livestock wandered between the empty houses. He did not see the dead either - as if the Vikings had suddenly disappeared. There is still no solution. If pirates had attacked the settlement, the bodies of the dead would have remained. The same would have happened if the plague had reached the colonists. People could not move somewhere: no one would leave their belongings and animals.

The eastern settlement survived until the beginning of the 16th century. But in 1540, Icelandic sailors landing on the shores of Greenland did not find a single colonist. They found only the body of a man in a cloak with a hood. Who was this man? And where did the rest go? Historians believe that people sailed back to Iceland - after all, the climate became much colder, and there were no more opportunities to engage in farming and cattle breeding. According to Eskimo legends, the inhabitants of the Eastern settlement were attacked by pirates. Archaeological excavations in Greenland do not confirm this version, but it is curious why the Eskimos were so interested in the fate of the Vikings?

At first the island seemed uninhabited to the Vikings. But was it so? The fact is that the first to “master” Greenland were not the Vikings, but the Eskimos. Scientists argue that the history of ancient Greenland is a history of repeated migrations of the Paleo-Eskimos. They sailed here from the Arctic islands North America. The Paleo-Eskimos adapted to an extremely unfavorable climate and survived at the very edge of the habitat suitable for human existence. But even very small climate changes could destroy an insufficiently adapted culture.

Scientists identify four ancient Paleo-Eskimo cultures in Greenland, whose representatives lived on the island long before the appearance of the Vikings. These are the Saqqaq culture, the Independence I culture, the Independence II culture and the early Dorset culture. The last one disappeared later than all others; it existed until about 200 AD.

But who did the Vikings find in Greenland, if the last Eskimo left this land seven hundred years before their arrival? Researchers have different opinions. Some believe that they are still representatives of the Dorset culture. This culture (beginning of the 1st millennium BC - beginning of the 1st millennium AD) was discovered in 1925 on Cape Dorset (Baffin Island). It was distributed in the far northeast of Canada, the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, and western and northeastern Greenland. The Dorset tribes were hunters. Their prey included seals, walruses and reindeer.

Perhaps the Scandinavian colonists who arrived with Eric the Red were not the only inhabitants of the island. A new migration of the Eskimos - representatives of the late Dorset culture - supposedly took place shortly before their appearance. But the Eskimos settled in the far northwest of the island, a very long distance from the Viking settlements. Indeed, during excavations of sites of the Dorset culture, no items of Scandinavian production were found. However, there is indirect evidence of contact, so-called "exotic elements" that are not typical for this culture: screw carvings on bone tools and carvings of people with beards.

Another culture whose representatives the Vikings definitely encountered is called Thule. It existed between the 900s and 1700s on both banks

Bering Strait, Arctic coast and Canadian islands. Some researchers believe that Dorset and Thule were neighbors in Greenland for some time. This was between the 800s and 1200s, after which Thule was replaced by Dorset. The Thule tribes adapted well to local conditions; they were fed by hunting animals, both sea and land. In the central part of the American Arctic, the Tuleans built rounded dwellings from whale bones and stone, and rode dog sleds. The same Thule representatives who lived in the Bering Strait region lived in houses made of driftwood. Archaeologists find sinkers, stone lamps, knives, figurines of people, animals and waterfowl there. The Tuleans were mostly sedentary. They saved up food supplies, and thanks to them they could survive the hungry winter months.

How did the Thule Eskimos get along with their Viking neighbors? There is no clear answer to this question. During excavations at Eskimo sites, archaeologists found many items of Norwegian work. But how did they get to the Thulians?

Due to the colder weather, the Eskimos migrated closer to the territories that belonged to the Vikings. A number of researchers believe that the Vikings not only met with the Eskimos, but even lived among them. But there are few supporters of this version. According to Eskimo legends, the Scandinavians were in conflict with the Tuleans. Sagas also tell about armed clashes with the Eskimos. It is possible that the Thulians interfered with the Vikings, displacing them from the hunting territories of the central part of the west coast.

Fragment of the Carta Marina map (XVI century). Thule is designated as Tile

Did these very different peoples trade with each other? Unknown. Things made by the Scandinavians could have reached the Thulians in another way: from the settlements left by the Vikings. Oddly enough, the colonists did not take advantage of the experience of their neighbors, whose clothing was more adapted to the conditions of the north, and did not even adopt individual elements of their costume. This surprises scientists, but the history of Greenland during the Viking times is generally full of mysteries, and who knows whether science will find the answer to them.

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Who first discovered Greenland??? and got the best answer

Reply from Ђ@nyushka[guru]
The island was first discovered by the Icelandic sailor Gunbjorn around 875 (he did not go ashore).
In 982, an Icelander of Norwegian origin, Eirik Rauda (Red), made the first survey of the island and named it Greenland.
In 983, Norman (Icelandic) colonies were founded in southern Greenland and lasted until the 15th century. In the 11th century, the population of Greenland, including the indigenous Eskimos, adopted Christianity (in 1126 the first bishopric was founded in Greenland). From 1262 until the beginning of the 18th century, Greenland actually belonged to Norway. In 1721, the colonization of the island by Denmark began. In 1744, Denmark established a state monopoly (existed until 1950) on trade with Greenland. In 1814, with the dissolution of the Danish-Norwegian Union of 1380, Greenland remained with Denmark and until 1953 was its colony. In 1953, Greenland was declared part of the territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. In April 1940, after the occupation of Denmark by Nazi Germany, the US government announced the extension of the Monroe Doctrine to Greenland. On April 9, 1941, the Danish envoy in Washington signed the so-called so-called agreement with the American government. agreement for the defense of Greenland (ratified by the Danish Rigsdag on May 16, 1945). The United States has begun creating military bases on Greenland. After Denmark joined NATO (April 4, 1949), a new agreement was signed between the Danish and American governments on April 27, 1951, under which Denmark and the United States jointly defend the island. In 1971, the United States had 2 military bases and other military facilities in Greenland.

Greenland (Grønland, literally - “green country”) is an island in the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, northeast of North America.
State of the Inuit people, autonomous territory Denmark.
Greenland - largest island in the world. Area - 2,166,086 km². Population (2005, estimated) - 56,375 people.

Around 980, the Viking Erik Rauda (Red) was sentenced to three years of exile from Iceland for the murder of his neighbor [. He decided to sail west and reach a land that, in clear weather, can be seen from the mountaintops of western Iceland. It lay 280 km from the Icelandic coast; According to the sagas, the Norwegian Gunbjorn sailed there earlier in the 900s. Eric sailed west in 982 with his family, servants and livestock, but floating ice prevented him from landing; he was forced to go around the southern tip of the island and landed at a place near Julianshob (Qaqortoq). During his three years of exile, Eric did not meet a single person on the island, although during his travels along the coast he reached Disko Island, far northwest of the southern tip of Greenland.
At the end of his exile, Erik the Red returned to Iceland in 986 and began encouraging local Vikings to move to new lands. He named the island Greenland (Norwegian Grønland), which literally means “Green Land”. There is still ongoing debate about the appropriateness of this name; some believe that in those days the climate in these places, thanks to the medieval climatic optimum, was mild, and the coastal areas of the southwest of the island were indeed covered with dense grassy vegetation; others believe that the name was chosen for the sole purpose of attracting more settlers to the island.
Karl Lehmann
Connoisseur
(269)
Fascism was in Italy, Spain...

Answer from Elena Osinskaya (Pestova)[guru]
Vikings

Answer from User deleted[guru]
trust a professional!!

Answer from Albert[guru]
Actually I opened
But out of modesty I gave up the laurels... I don’t remember to whom! :))

Answer from Oras Dorofeev[guru]
The island was first discovered by the Icelandic sailor Gunbjorn around 875 (did not go ashore)
In 982 AD, Icelander Erik Thorvaldson reached the southwestern coast of Greenland. This stern and tough man, better known as Eric the Red, was sentenced to three years of exile in his homeland for murder. He decided to spend these three years exploring the western lands that Icelandic sailors had talked so much about.
Three years later he returned home and told his fellow tribesmen about his discovery. He wanted to arouse in his listeners the desire to go to this new land and therefore gave it an attractive name. Thorvaldson nicknamed the region he discovered “green” - Greenland!
The island belonged to Norway since 1386, after which it passed to Denmark. In 1979, the Danish parliament granted Greenland broad autonomy.
Also:
Archaeologists identify four Paleo-Eskimo cultures in Greenland that existed before the discovery of the island by the Vikings, but the dates of their existence are determined very roughly:
Saqqaq culture: 2500 BC e. - 800 BC e. in southern Greenland;
Independence I culture: 2400 BC e. - 1300 BC e. in northern Greenland;
Independence II culture: 800 BC e. - 1 BC e. mainly in northern Greenland;
Early Dorset culture, Dorset I: 700 BC e. - 200 N. e. in southern Greenland.
These crops were not unique to Greenland. As a rule, they arose and developed in the territories of Arctic Canada and Alaska long before their penetration into Greenland, and could persist in other places in the Arctic after their disappearance from the island.
After the decline of Dorset culture, the island remained uninhabited for centuries. The carriers of the Inuit Thule culture, the ancestors of the modern indigenous inhabitants of Greenland, began to penetrate the north of the island at the beginning of the 13th century.
The capital is Nuk (the old name is Gothob).
Most of Greenland's territory is hidden under ice cover, the thickness of which in some places reaches three kilometers. Only the most unpretentious plants and the strongest animals can survive on the border between land and ice. Winters in this region are harsh and last a very long time, and in summer the temperature rises very slightly, and the summer itself ends as soon as it begins.
Here and there, on small patches of land free of ice, you can find grass and some other low-growing plants, but for the most part, only stones covered with moss and lichens can be seen from under the ice.
Today, only about thirty-five thousand people live in Greenland, which is extremely small for such a vast territory. Most settled on ice-free southwest coast islands. Only two and a half thousand people live in the eastern part and a little more than six hundred people in the northern part.

Between 870 and 920 the Norman, Norwegian sailor Gunbjorn Ulf-Krakason, heading to Iceland, was thrown far to the west by a storm and opened a number small islands at 65°30′ N. w, and 36°w. etc., which in the Icelandic ancestral saga “Landnamabok” are called the skerries of Gunbjorn.

Behind them was visible high ground covered with snow and ice, which he could not approach due to heavy ice. Around 980, a group of Icelanders sailing to the west were forced to spend the winter on skerries, which the winterers mistook for the skerries of Gunbjorn. Returning to their homeland, they confirmed the story about the big land beyond the skerries. This land could only be Greenland.

At this time, Eirik Turvaldson, nicknamed Raudi (“Red”), who was expelled from Norway for murder, lived in Iceland. He did not get along well in his new place and was expelled from there for three years “for his restless character.” With several relatives in 981, he set out in search of the western big land. It is most likely that Eirik went straight west from Iceland between 65-66° N. w. and at this latitude I saw land in the distance. After unsuccessful attempts to break through the ice, Eirik walked along the coast to the southwest for about 650 km until he reached the southern tip of the land he was exploring (Cape Farwell, at 60° N latitude). Eirik and his companions landed on an island 200 km from the northwestern cape and spent the winter there.

In the summer of 982, Eirik went on a reconnaissance expedition, discovered the western coast of a country covered with a giant glacier, cut by deep fjords, for 1000 km - from 60 ° to the Arctic Circle - and outlined locations for farms. From one of the coastal peaks, according to the modern Canadian writer-humanist F. Mowat, Eirik saw high mountains in the west - on a clear day, across the Davis Strait you can see the icy peak (2134 m) of the island. Baffin Island. Eirik, according to Mowat, crossed the strait for the first time and reached the Cumberland Peninsula. He explored the entire mountainous eastern coast of this peninsula and entered Cumberland Bay. The bulk of the summer was spent hunting walruses, storing fat, and collecting walrus bones and narwhal tusks. Upon his return to Greenland, Eirik reported the discovery of the Vestr Obyugdir ("Western Desert Regions"), which played an important role in the life of the Greenlandic settlers.

In the summer of 983, he passed from the Arctic Circle to the north, discovered Disko Bay, o. Disko, Nugssuak Peninsula, Svartenhoek and probably reached Melville Bay, at 76° N. sh., i.e., he followed the western coast of Greenland for another 1200 km and was the first to sail in the Baffin Sea. He was amazed by the abundance of polar bears, arctic foxes, reindeer, whales, narwhals, walruses, eiders, gyrfalcons and all kinds of fish. After two years of searching, Eirik chose several flat places in the southwest, relatively well protected from cold winds, covered in summer time fresh green vegetation. The contrast between the surrounding icy desert and these areas was so great that Eirik christened the coast Greenland (“Green Land”) - an inappropriate name for the largest island on Earth with an area of about 2.2 million km2, of which barely 15% is free from ice. cover. Landnamabok claims that Eirik wanted to attract " beautiful name» Icelanders to convince them to settle there. But the name given by Eirik initially applied only to the really friendly corners of the southwestern coast that he discovered, and only much later (in the 15th century) spread to the entire island.

In 984 Eirik returned to Iceland. The recruitment of colonists was very successful, and in the middle of summer 986 he led a flotilla of 25 Kners to the west. During the passage to Greenland during a storm, some of them died, several turned back, but 14 ships, on which there were more than 500 colonists, reached South Greenland. They settled in the places indicated by Eirik. He himself chose an area for settlement on the southern coast (at 61° N), near the top of Bredefjord, at the mouth of which Julianshob now lies.

From south coast during the X-XI centuries. The Normans advanced along the western coast of Greenland to the Arctic Circle. They settled in small groups in well-protected places - deep in the fjords. The colonists brought livestock with them, but their main occupation was not cattle breeding, but fishing, hunting, and catching gyrfalcons and bears. White gyrfalcons turned out to be not an object of trade, but rather a diplomatic tool for the kings of Norway and other northern monarchs, since their southern neighbors willingly accepted expressions of friendship with these birds. An even more valuable diplomatic “token of attention,” but rarer and more difficult to obtain, were polar bears.

No later than the 11th century. in search of animals and birds, the colonists sailed along the western coast far to the north, again - after Eirik - between 68 and 70 ° N. w. Disco Bay, Nugssuak, Svartenhoek and islands were discovered. Disco. Here they discovered richer hunting grounds with good fishing spots and large stocks of driftwood and called them “northern camps”, or “hunting lands”). Beyond 76° N. w. they completed the opening of Melville Bay, entered the Kane Basin through Smith Strait, and possibly reached Kennedy Strait, 80° N. w. They called the northwestern protrusion of Greenland “Peninsula” (now Hayes Peninsula). Looking for new ones land plots and pastures, as noted by the author of the mid-13th century. in their description of Greenland, The King's Mirror, the colonists “...often tried to penetrate into the interior of the country, climbing to the tops of mountains in different places to look around and find out if there was somewhere land free from ice and suitable for settlement. But nowhere could they find such an area, except for what they had [already] captured—a narrow strip along the water’s edge.”

They also walked along the eastern, almost inaccessible coast of Greenland. Despite the almost continuous ice barrier, voyages were made between the coast and the inner edge of the pack ice. There are numerous indications in the sagas and other written sources that the colonists not only visited these areas, but even spent several years there. They were especially attracted to the area between 65° N. w. and the Arctic Circle, where polar bears were found. They also penetrated into more northern fjords, including Ollumlengri (“The Longest”) - most likely this is Scoresby Bay, near 70° N. latitude, 24°w. etc., i.e. the first ones swam in the Greenland Sea. Thus, the Norman “Greenlanders” discovered at least about 2700 km of the western and about 2000 km east coast Greenland and in these “segments” a huge ice sheet was traced, the surface of which rises inland.

Perhaps they managed to bypass Greenland from the north and prove it island status. Adam of Bremen, writing in the third quarter of the 11th century, already knows about this: “There are a lot of... islands in the Atlantic Ocean, of which Greenland is not the smallest. From the coast of Norway to Greenland, five to seven days of sailing...” His words are illustrated by a map of the North Atlantic created in 1598 by the Jesuits of Trnava University (discovered in 1945). Perhaps it is a copy of a drawing drawn up no earlier than the 12th century. Greenland is shown as an island with a large northwest protrusion and several bays. True, its dimensions are reduced by almost three times compared to the real ones. The cooling did not allow this great geographical discovery to be repeated.

Norman villages on the southern and southwestern coasts of Greenland, between 60 and 65° N. sh., existed for about 400 years. In the 13th century, when the colony reached its greatest prosperity, there were probably about 100 villages on this coast, albeit very small ones - a total of about 270 households. They were divided into two groups: the southern, which in the documents that have reached us for some reason is called Österbygd (“Eastern Settlement”), between 60-61° N. sh., and northwestern - Vesterbygd (“Western Settlement”), between 64-65° N. w. Needing bread, timber and iron products, the colonists maintained constant contact with Europe through Iceland, sending furs, skins of sea animals, walrus tusks, whalebone, eider down and other products of hunting and hunting in exchange for the goods they needed. While Iceland was independent, the Greenland colony developed: in the 13th century. According to various estimates, from 3 to 6 thousand people lived there. After the annexation of Iceland to Norway (1281), the situation of the colonists deteriorated sharply. They often suffered from a lack of essentials, as ships visited them less and less. Probably due to constant skirmishes with the Eskimos advancing from the north and the onset of a sharp cold spell in Vesterbygd already in the middle of the 14th century. was abandoned by the colonists. Their further fate is unknown.

The situation in Österbygda became very difficult at the end of the 14th century, when Norway submitted to Denmark. The Danish kings declared trade with the northwestern islands their monopoly. They allowed only one ship to be sent from Denmark to distant Greenland every year, and even that often did not reach Österbygd. Icelanders were forbidden to sail to Greenland. After 1410 Österbygd was completely abandoned. Without timber and iron, the colonists could not build new ships or repair old ones. Without bread they began to get sick and degenerate. Most of the colonists died out, the rest probably mixed with the Eskimos. But this happened not in the 14th-15th centuries, as previously assumed, but in the 16th or even 17th centuries.

The Norman discoveries in the Northwest Atlantic are reflected in the map of the Dane Claudius Claussen Swart (1427), better known by his Latin nickname Claudius Claus Niger. It shows Greenland as part of Europe. There is no doubt that the remaining lands discovered by the Normans south of Greenland were considered as European islands, and not like the shores of the New World. The idea of a new, western continent, unknown “even to the ancients,” could not have arisen before the era of great discoveries.

Who first discovered Greenland??? and got the best answer

Greenland (Grønland, literally “green country”) is an island in the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, northeast of North America.
State of the Inuit people, autonomous territory of Denmark.
Greenland is the largest island in the world. Area - 2,166,086 km². Population (2005, estimated) - 56,375 people.

Around 980, the Viking Erik Rauda (Red) was sentenced to three years of exile from Iceland for the murder of his neighbor [. He decided to sail west and reach a land that, in clear weather, can be seen from the mountaintops of western Iceland. It lay 280 km from the Icelandic coast; According to the sagas, the Norwegian Gunbjorn sailed there earlier in the 900s. Eric sailed west in 982 with his family, servants and livestock, but floating ice prevented him from landing; he was forced to go around the southern tip of the island and landed at a place near Julianshob (Qaqortoq). During his three years of exile, Eric did not meet a single person on the island, although during his travels along the coast he reached Disko Island, far northwest of the southern tip of Greenland.
At the end of his exile, Erik the Red returned to Iceland in 986 and began encouraging local Vikings to move to new lands. He named the island Greenland (Norwegian Grønland), which literally means “Green Land”. There is still ongoing debate about the appropriateness of this name; some believe that in those days the climate in these places, thanks to the medieval climatic optimum, was mild, and the coastal areas of the southwest of the island were indeed covered with dense grassy vegetation; others believe that the name was chosen for the sole purpose of attracting more settlers to the island.
Karl Lehmann
Connoisseur
(269)
Fascism was in Italy, Spain...

Answer from Elena Osinskaya (Pestova)[guru]
Vikings

Answer from User deleted[guru]
trust a professional!!

Answer from Albert[guru]
Actually I opened
But out of modesty I gave up the laurels... I don’t remember to whom! :))

Answer from Oras Dorofeev[guru]
The island was first discovered by the Icelandic sailor Gunbjorn around 875 (did not go ashore)
In 982 AD, Icelander Erik Thorvaldson reached the southwestern coast of Greenland. This stern and tough man, better known as Eric the Red, was sentenced to three years of exile in his homeland for murder. He decided to spend these three years exploring the western lands that Icelandic sailors had talked so much about.
Three years later he returned home and told his fellow tribesmen about his discovery. He wanted to arouse in his listeners the desire to go to this new land and therefore gave it an attractive name. Thorvaldson nicknamed the region he discovered “green” - Greenland!
The island belonged to Norway since 1386, after which it passed to Denmark. In 1979, the Danish parliament granted Greenland broad autonomy.
Also:
Archaeologists identify four Paleo-Eskimo cultures in Greenland that existed before the discovery of the island by the Vikings, but the dates of their existence are determined very roughly:
Saqqaq culture: 2500 BC e. - 800 BC e. in southern Greenland;
Independence I culture: 2400 BC e. - 1300 BC e. in northern Greenland;
Independence II culture: 800 BC e. - 1 BC e. mainly in northern Greenland;
Early Dorset culture, Dorset I: 700 BC e. - 200 N. e. in southern Greenland.
These crops were not unique to Greenland. As a rule, they arose and developed in the territories of Arctic Canada and Alaska long before their penetration into Greenland, and could persist in other places in the Arctic after their disappearance from the island.
After the decline of Dorset culture, the island remained uninhabited for centuries. The carriers of the Inuit Thule culture, the ancestors of the modern indigenous inhabitants of Greenland, began to penetrate the north of the island at the beginning of the 13th century.
The capital is Nuk (the old name is Gothob).
Most of Greenland's territory is hidden under ice cover, the thickness of which in some places reaches three kilometers. Only the most unpretentious plants and the strongest animals can survive on the border between land and ice. Winters in this region are harsh and last a very long time, and in summer the temperature rises very slightly, and the summer itself ends as soon as it begins.
Here and there, on small patches of land free of ice, you can find grass and some other low-growing plants, but for the most part, only stones covered with moss and lichens can be seen from under the ice.
Today, only about thirty-five thousand people live in Greenland, which is extremely small for such a vast territory. Most settled on the ice-free southwestern coast of the island. Only two and a half thousand people live in the eastern part and a little more than six hundred people in the northern part.

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