ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the Norse settlement of the Northwestern Atlantic and the evidence for culture contacts in the period 1000 onward. It explains the main cultures: the Norse, the Dorset people and the Thule. The story of the Viking-era settlements in the North Atlantic risks being overshadowed by their attempted settlement in North America the farthest limit of their sequence of migration, colonization, and culture contact. Thule culture exploded across the Arctic Circle around the turn of the millennium. The icy waters of southern Greenland were free from Europeans for a time, and safe in Inuit hands. After this hiatus, a new suite of culture contact occurred with European explorers, whalers, traders, and missionaries. The historical records and archaeology in southwest Greenland presumably reflect Inuit decisions regarding affiliations with the Europeans. Colonial Danish policy agreed with the traders people were best making use of available resources and thus in a dispersed pattern of settlement.
