Ancient DNA provides insights into 4,000 years of resource economy across Greenland

Frederik V. Seersholm (), Hans Harmsen, Anne Birgitte Gotfredsen, Christian K. Madsen, Jens F. Jensen, Jørgen Hollesen, Morten Meldgaard, Michael Bunce and Anders J. Hansen
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Frederik V. Seersholm: University of Copenhagen
Hans Harmsen: Greenland National Museum and Archives
Anne Birgitte Gotfredsen: University of Copenhagen
Christian K. Madsen: Greenland National Museum and Archives
Jens F. Jensen: National Museum of Denmark
Jørgen Hollesen: National Museum of Denmark
Morten Meldgaard: University of Copenhagen
Michael Bunce: School of Molecular and Life Sciences, Curtin University
Anders J. Hansen: University of Copenhagen

Nature Human Behaviour, 2022, vol. 6, issue 12, 1723-1730

Abstract: Abstract The success and failure of past cultures across the Arctic was tightly coupled to the ability of past peoples to exploit the full range of resources available to them. There is substantial evidence for the hunting of birds, caribou and seals in prehistoric Greenland. However, the extent to which these communities relied on fish and cetaceans is understudied because of taphonomic processes that affect how these taxa are presented in the archaeological record. To address this, we analyse DNA from bulk bone samples from 12 archaeological middens across Greenland covering the Palaeo-Inuit, Norse and Neo-Inuit culture. We identify an assemblage of 42 species, including nine fish species and five whale species, of which the bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus) was the most commonly detected. Furthermore, we identify a new haplotype in caribou (Rangifer tarandus), suggesting the presence of a distinct lineage of (now extinct) dwarfed caribou in Greenland 3,000 years ago.

Date: 2022
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DOI: 10.1038/s41562-022-01454-z

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