Future Perspectives on Greenlandic History

Ever wondered why the Romans were defeated in the Tutterburg forest? what secrets lie buried in prehistoric Ireland? or what made Alexander truly great with a subscription to History hit You can explore our ancient past alongside the world's leading historians and archaeologists. You'll also unlock hundreds of hours of original documentaries with a brand new release every single week covering everything from the ancient world to World War two. Just visit historyhit dot com slash suubbscribe. Hello and welcome to this special episode of the Ancients. Now As I'm sure you' aware Greenland is and has been in the news quite a lot recently Now on the ancients We don't cover events of the modern day, but what we can do is shine a light on the incredible Histories and prehistories of these areas of the world. and Greenland is a fantastic example of that. We want to promote archeology, the prehistory of this massive island in the north of the world pre history that stretches back Thousands of years at a rich tale of archaeology but also Mythology What I loved about this chat is the wealth of archaeology that survives because of the cold conditions. Think of the snow and the cold conditions acting like a natural freezer. so so many organic materials survive and then combining that with mythology to learn more about how these people lived and how they viewed the polar world around them. Our guest for this episode is Dr. Asther Munstel. She is an archaeologist from Greenland. She also specializes in the mythology as well. She was so wonderful to talk to, so warm and lovely. and really shines a light people of Greenland and their long History I really do hope you enjoy Let's go It's eight hundred years ago. High up in the Arctic, a fire burns brightly, nurtured within a building made of stone and bone. Animal skins insulate the interior. The house is well built for the cold climate. The fire's heat does not escape This winter house is home to several families, their wet outdoor clothes drying on racks above Now they come together around the fireplace to eat and tell stories The childildren run around, as they do, until they're finally told to sit and take their place. The storytelling is about to begin Forward steps the shaman, a leading figure in their smaller community, and the deliverer of tonight's tale. What was it to be tonight? Perhaps the story of the heroic hunter who slew the great whale many moons ago that still provides food for this community Or perhaps a myth steeped in survival knowledge, lessons for the young to take heed of in this snowy landscape. Or maybe a story about the spirits that lived in the world around them, in the beaches, atop the mountains, even in their own houses. Or maybe, just maybe. The shaman will talk about the majestic beast that crosses land and sea, covered in white fur, able to stand on two legs, protective of its young, with razor sharp teeth and claws that could easily end the life of a human. The dangerous yet fascinating bear That calls this polar world its domain. The children hoped for an exciting story, but tonight their luck is out. As the shaman begins, it's soon clear that tonight's tale is not one of their favorites. Slowly their eyes begin to close. Soon, they are fast asleep. Perhaps tomorrow the shaman will treat them with a more thrilling tale of valiant heroes Welcome to the Ancients and our brand new episode about prehistoric Greenland About the people who have called this great Arctic island their home for centuries, who learnnt to thrive in this cold climate, and about whom we know a remarkable amount This is a story of incredible archaeology Of prehistoric stimments preserved along the coastlines of Greenland, of organic materials, clothing, food, human remains that have survived in the permafrost But this is also a story about mythology tales passed down for centuries that reveal more about what these communities believed in Tether These fields help tell the fascinating story of Greenland's prehistoric populations how they lived. and how they viewed the Arctic world around them I'm Tristan Hughes, your host And this is the story of prehistoric Greenland Our guest is Dr. Asther Munstrum Visiting researcher at the University of Copenhagen Asther, it is such a pleasure to have you on the podcast today. Yeah, thank you for having me. You're more than welcome and to explore prehistoric story of Greenland. I mean, A, with everything that's going on in the world at the moment, it feels very important to highlight the long history the people of this land have that does stretch back hundreds and hundreds of years into prehistoric times. Yes, it does. And do we have a lot of archaeology surviving, which has been pieced together by archaeologists like yourselves over the years to learn more about these people and how they lived Yeah I mean, I actually first want to go a little bit back to what you said just before why it's important to understand that there is a long history because I think Greenland has often been sort of talked about today as if it was empty or if it was remote or just newly discovered, right? But in reality, it has been inhabited for Thousands of years, hundreds of years by people with Deep knowledge of the land eice, the animals and also the climate. So understanding that long history helps sort of counter the idea that Greenland is just A strategic space or a research Front here It is a homeland for people And they know that land and they know it with their memory and they have a deep culture of that space. And yes, to answer your First real question. sururprisingly actually we do have a lots of archaeological remains to uncover in Greenland We have many sites along the coast. So if you look up Greenland on a map, you will see a big ice sheet in the middle. And of course, people don people have never lived there until we go back to the dinosaurs, but people have always lived along the coast of Greenland and all the archaeological sites that we have along the coast of all of Greenland actually And the archaeological remains that we have, we find settlements with house remains, dwellings. We find cases, so people's sort of freezers in the landscape Carnes I can can can of bury your mouound s of thing. Yeah. I always pronounce it wrong sorry. And then All of this has mainly been preserved because of permafrost preserving many items that would usually decay. So we have many organic materials such as wooden pieces, for example. You don't find a lot of wood, but what we have might sometimes have been preserved We have Bone pieces, sometimes ballen Tusks, antler sometometimes even fur and hair can be preserved in those I see frozen layers. So excavating an archaeological site can be really interesting and really intriguing because it is sort of these freezers that have just frozen things in time. And then of course also in layers, so we can see this is not only one incidence, but also there is a deep history at various sites, for example. And then of course we also have stone tools. but The more excoting stuff as organic materials. We also find that. No, But I mean that is the incredible fact, isn't it? And you can look at other places that are very cold, whether it's in the Altai mountains or high up in the Alps where know they do get those rare discoveries of organic material preserved and as you say, these natural freezers to think that there is so much of that surviving in Greenland that you have this invaluable record to learn more about how these people lived all along the coastline. As you say, all around Greenland, so not just like the southern tip further north as well, that's amazing Oh and I forgot textiles. I mean, oftentimes we had skin clothing, but we also find fragments of textiles from the Norsemen, for example. You also mentioned in passing one of the things that survives is Balen. Now is that whale blubber? Is that where they should be? No, it's the whale with this sifting Is's not their teeth So it's called Bllen. Yeah. so and I forgotten the name of that specific whale right is it the bowhead? Is is it the bowhead wh? It the bowhead Yes the bowhead whale. It The bowhead whale. and it has this sort of sifting system in its mouth. so it swallows up a lot of water and then All the food is sort of sifted and stay inside the mouth while all the water is being sifted out And benine could be used for because they come in these sort of strings and you can sort of pull them apart. and then you can make fishing lines that goes hundreds and hundreds of meters into the sea ice. but you can also carve it out The hardart bit can also be carved. I've got to ask for that straight away. So have there been have they Have people like yourself have you discovered prehistoric fishing lines made out of Belin that went hundreds of meters into the sea? Not me, but some of my colleagues have and it's you can see it exhibited at the National Museum of Denmar And it looks amazing. It does. But I have been with modern lines. I have been ice fishing with my father in Greland. So sort of going in their steps. Anasta, we were talking about this just before we began recording. Whereabouts in Greenland do you come from? Because it's not once again, it's not the southern tip. it is quite high up in the well, in the scheme of things in Greenlands is it is. It is called Umbana and there are several places in Greenland called Umbanap because oftentimes you named places after what they look like. So you can recognize this in the landscape or you could the name could implement what function like is it a natural hub or something like that? This is where we hide our meat or this is our hunting grounds for hunting reindeer. So the place name could often hint of those of those functions, but also of what they look like And Umana means a hot light or heart shaped light because of that mountain that you saw earlier There's a mount which overlooks the settlement. sort of this exactly. I had a look on Google Maps of Uanak and I noticed that they also had a football pitch as well and like a football team which is like a just amazing, even though it' absolutely striking. But back to the story of prehistoric Greenland So it sounds like you have this rich array of archaeology to learn more about these people But ask to tell us also about Mythology, how important a source can mythology be also for learning more about these people? It is a rich, rich source that we cannot overlook U mythology be and in many, many cultures, right across the globe. But mythology would explain how the world sort of worked and also how humans should behave within it according to the social norms agreed upon and so sort of spirits animals and also the weather And people were deeply interconnected in these stories. And it was explained sort of how humans can fit into this world, but they are not the rulers of this world. So it doesn't have this anthropocentric idea that humans, they can just do whatever they want. No humans are just a part of that chain And so and it goes to show even today, for example, so when you have killed your first seal as a young hunter. It was believed that it is the same seal that you will hunt for the rest of your life if you treat that seal with respect and if you treat it well, So you need to serve with some fresh water because Just as any other creature, it is thirsty Just like when you get guests over, you ask them do you want something to drink, right? But you do that with the hunting game as well And you show that respect to the animal and then it will sort of be reincarnated and you are gonna to hunt that seal for the rest of your life that's going to create a sort of relationship between you and the hunting game So there was this belief that Animals were not killed because of your Y skills only. You needed to train on your skills, but you also needed to treat the animals and the rest of nature with respect So when you would go out hunting For whale, for example, the whale was quite hicky in a way or you know, it likes fine things the whale. So you need to put on your best suit or if you can, a new a new set of clothing when you go hunting for it. to pay its respect for that hunting animal and to attract the animal to you So there is something about you, what you put into the world is going to come back to you, right Yeah How much of this mythology, how many stories like that have survived to the present day that have their origins back in prehistoric times? Is it quite a rich library of information In a way, it really is, it really is. We have stories I mean, because they are stories that were hand it over from generation to generation, they could be hundreds of years old. And within archaeology, we like to date things, but it is difficult to date stories, right? especially when they needed to be handed over for dayca in Dcaad can never be changed, for example But in When the colonizers came then, the missionaries in seventeen twenty one they started to write down or make some notes on some of these stories that they had heard from the local people And We today when we look at those sources, we need to sort of peel feel it just like an onion because they write down, I have heard this ridiculous story told by the locals, of course. So we need to take away the layers to find out what did the locals actually tell them from that time. So Already from seventeen thirty five, we have stories being written down about what the locals were telling each other and what they believed And then we have all the way up until nineteen eighty one thoseose stories were recorded. So today we have a database containing two thousand two hundred and eighty stories. that were all collected over that times span of two hundred and fifty years And u Of course the question for us is is there anything missing and there probably is? becausecause there is also something about Might there be stories that you tell the outsiders that come and ask you, if the priests come and ask you, hey What stories do you believe in, right? Do you give it all away or do pull some of the stories back And That is difficult for us to answer, of course. but Even if some of the stories have been held back it is still a rich source for us today because what we can do as archaeologists is sort of consult, but even do more than just consulting these oral stories We can also see how archaeology can be challenged by those stories. So What I tried to do in my PhD thesis, for example, was to learn from the oral history and take it Take the stories as seriously as possible And what I learned was when we go to A site. we see a beach, we observe the beach And we often think of it as the natural harbor That is the entryway from the sea or the sea ice in the winter timee to a settlement either by boat or kayak, or buy your dog switch What I didn't know but what I figured out or what I learned from the oral stories was that Beach could also be an ally So If The worse a murderous person out there who wanted to harm you or someone who had sent Tubilac. so an evil spirit to harm you You could go down to that beach rightight in front of your settlement and pour out some blood A or some urine, you could recite a spell to protect yourself And then when that dubel like wood arrived to the beach the beach would rise up and become large stones and rocks that would crush that hurtful creature, right? And it's not for me to say no, that never happened because it tells me a lot about the way of thinking about the world that I cannot excavate b I know it through the sources of the old stories But I guess it's one of those wonderful things you mentioned earlier, like the importance of spirits in the natural world in the mythology that then when you go, as I'm sure we'll delve into some examples as we go along, you go to a particular archeological site, maybe a house you find certain objects within a house which maybe if you didn't know the mythological context, you know would look rather strange, but maybe certain objects, if you know the mythology stories, might explain why you find them in a house for some reason or another. You know It may give more context into as you say, what they believe, which gives so much more value to the things that you're finding certainly. But we also need to remember that in the Greenlandic context, we Sometimes see everyday objects being used for ritual activities So of course, when we excavate, let's say we excavate a house, we find a sk or a nice flying on the grass. And you think, oh, this is just for cooking You know, And we cannot really say was it also used for ritual activity? And we cannot take a sample from that knife, it's not going to tell us, but it just gives a different or a new way of interpreting some of these objects that we encounter Let's go through Some key themes in the archaeology now. First off, I must ask about arrival dates roughly when we know about when people first reach Greenland. So mean Asta, how far back can we go? I mean, when do people first reach Greenland that we know of from archaeology? Well, Greenland is more or less one of the last places on Earth to be inhabited by humans So the first people reaching Greenland that happened four thousand five hundred years. Okay Yeah. So it's not that long history compared to other parts of this earth But that is the long history we have here in Greenland Do we know how they reached Greenland? presumably it's It's from the West, It's from North America. It's from Canada. Yeah. so the first people entering Greenland, they came all the way from Alaska or southeast Siberia across Alaska and then cross Canada and into Greenland. Do we know much about these people? I mean, I have my is it like the Dorset culture that it's called or do they have much that survives? The oldest culture is archaeologically called the Saka culture And then we have the dorser culture, which is sort of in between and then we have what is archaeologically called the Tula culture to the culture also called the Inuit culture which are the ancestors of modern day Greenlanders. And do they follow directly after those ones you mentioned previously? or are the earliest people who reach Greenland? Are their migrations successful? Or is it the ancestors of indigenous Greenlanders today. Do they actually arrive a little later the tool, as you say Yeah, the t they arrive the latest. So the first waves, we don't see connections genealogically between the different cultures And when we excavate at the sort of gate into Greenland, which is considered to be northwest part of Greenland, where I think it's only forty kilometers to Canada. So you can walk that when there is ice. When we excavate in that area, we see remnants of even cultures or waves in between those three that I just mentioned, but they never really went any further than just into the land and then for whatever reason they turn back into Canada. Right. Yeah. And when did the Tuller inuart arrive and I guess then start being a bit bolder and settling more and more of the coast of Greenland? Yeah, we see a difference from the Dorset culture and Tuller culture. The Dorset and also the Sakaki donon't find remains of sledgers or them having dogs, for example, or kayaks But we see that with the Tula culture. We see remains of them having dog straps and sledges and they also have kayaks and the big boat for multiple people, which is called the Omiak. Omiak o. So we know much about the Omniac and like how it functioned Well We often see historic paintings or depictions of mainly women sitting inside those umiaks and then the men would be sitting in the small kayaks And the women would be rowing it with all their gear, like their skins for their tents and the kids and the dogs. So the women were really tough. I can imagine. Yes And so Is it naturally therefore, that we have the earliest Tula settlements? Are they from that northwestern part of Greenland where they first arrived? Yeah, yeah, they are. We see the first Tula people arriving that gate as we have seen before, and then they spread across the country. And some of the items that we see, for example, when you think about Greenlandic culture many people think of the Iglu, right? Yes. And' ask about the Iclu. Yes. And an glu that we understand it today as this sort of snow house Of course We cannot excavate ues today because they melt, but we do find snow knives And we find them from that gate in Greenland at the northwest part of Greenland, but we also find them all the way down to Disco Bay. So they have been using this snow knives and probablyro therefore also made gloous But Iklo in itself. actually comes from the Greenlandic word isue And Iu simply means house So when we think about the turf houses and the stone houses that we see also later on all the way up until nineteen thirtty, some places in Greenland These turf and stone houses should actually also be called isues Right, Well, I'm going to get straight onto houses now, but you mentioned Disco Bay in passing there and I've just got it on my maps and that looks two thirds of the way down or maybe three quarters of the way down there. so it's really far south of the the original entry point. And I have in my notes here is one of those early settlements up that far Northwest. Is it Ruin Island, which sounds an incredible name for a settlement for a place It is. Yeah. so at Ruin Island, we find some of the earliest remains from the T culture, the Inuit culture. and they date all the way back to eleven fifty Eddie U so that's some of the earliest size that we have. And I think it's only six houses on that ruin On that island sorry And then later on we also see much larger sites, for example, when you go to Nuuchchid, which is close to Today's Boic space bace There we have a side withid around I think it's at least thirty houses and dwellings on that site And that is because It's close to really good hunting grounds. So In Greenland, we have winter sightes from the toooler culture approximately about two thousand five hundred sites W on those sites that have been registered, sometimes we have one or two winter houses But Other times we have up to around thirty houses on one s And then we also need to remember that house could be reused. So when we excavate the houses, sometimes we find twow or seven layers of people who had inhabited that house Well, you mentioned winter houses there, so I feel it's time that we moved on So the housing of these prehistoric people And yes, take it away, Asta, with these winter houses. I mean, what do we know about the structure of these houses? Because looking at them online, they look absolutely incredible They do. They are amazing and well structured for the environment that they were buildilt in And the winter houses was only one type of house. So in Greenland, because it's such a large area and also the seasons vary a lot The winter house is only one dwelling In the summertime, people would be staying in summer tents. That makes sense. That was much more mobile And in between those two sort of extreme climates or seasons, you would say' something that is called a karma. So it is a construction that is a sort of hybrid between the summer tent and the winter house. So the winter house is built from the ground up or actually it's dug around forty, fifty centimeters into the turf layer And then you build your walls up from stones and turf. that you cut in the area. Then you have an entry tunnels an entrance tunnel and it's around It can be one and a half meter all the way up to six meters And the entrance tunnel is going to work as a sort of cold trap So because it is dug into the ground, All that cold air is gonna to stay in that entryway And then you climb up, you crawl through that long inter. It's crawling is it? It is crawling to get in. It really is. You need to crawl and then you come up into the raised floor area And from that floor area, you can go to a raised sleeping platform So because it is those layers The cold trap works really well and the warmest space inside the house is on the sleeping platform where the kids are running around probably naked. So it's really well structured for that extreme environment. It's really good of keeping the cold out and the warmth thin and Could they have made a fire in there or would have smoked out the whole house or was was it adept for having a fire as well To begin with, for example, at Ruin Island We see fires inside in a small sort of kitchen niche And then at some point they figure out Oh, this land that we have just moved to, wood is not abundant. So we need to figure out another way of doing things. So they start cutting into stone, soap stone, for example, and they make these soap stone lamps And in the soapstone land, you can put some seal blubber, wellale blubber, whatever blubber you have And then you put some dried mosses that you sort of roll into small sausages along the side. and there you have a huge Uh Campbell. And this candle, so to say, is gonna give you some light but it also provides the house with much needed warmth So you can also cook above that lamp So it's also your sort of cooking area And then even raace over your cooking pot, you could have a drying rack to dry your skins and your mittens and all of that from being outside So it was really well structured And u O sometimes we see houses that was meant for only one family But we also see houses that could be for multiple families So to begin with, they are often rounded And then the houses could also be sort of clover shaped depending on If you have two, three or four families staying under the same roof Its almost little niches for each family kind of idea, right?. And then that niche is for your sleeping platform. And then when you imagine you have that cold trap And you have your lamp going on, but you also have people's body heat And you could also insulate the walls with skins on the inside. So it could be really warm inside those winter houses Where these also very communal places as well? Could you imagine, you know several of these families in one of those houses gathered around a fire, you know retelling their myths, you know, what their beliefs are. so you know, you, part to the story as well. We to begin with, we actually see a sort of assembly house. people have their own houses or maybe for two families. And then you have an assembly house where people can meet. It's called R That's where you meet, you could dance, you could sing, you could tell your stories and entertain one another. you could laugh and probably also spook one another because that's also a way of connecting with people And later on we see and now we're in the sixteen hundreds, the middle of the sixteen hundreds we start seeing what we call congunal houses And they are more elongated and sort of rectangular in shape But you still have that entrance tunnel that you need to crawl through, and then you enter a space that's more rectangular And instead of having small niches for your families, they all have one long sleeping platform and then you have sort of curtains dividing the different family compartments. So there you could then then you didn't have to go outside to the assembly house, you could just simply meet inside there to tell your stories But the Angakok, the shaman of the settlement could also do his siances right there It's' good to see I'd like to ask a bit more about shamans as we go on. But it almost sounds a bit like a Dare I say going too much into medieval territory here, but like a Viking Longhouse or something similar to that? Yeah ye And so do we have so it sounds like what you were saying earlier, we've you know, got the summer houses as well and the Iglues, but to survive in the archaeology, to be seen today, to be recorded today Do we have more examples of the winterhouses surviving because they are more You know, they're more sturdy. they have survived the test of time better. they have survived better. I mean, we register summer tens as well, which They only leave remains in the landscape as sort of rings of stone. But the winter houses because you dug into the turf area and they are much sturdier. They need to be built to last a whole winter. And sometimes the winterhouse was probably even Hm. not falsifed Hm sort of made stronger be the right word for that. Oh yes, no yeah, protected, you know, ye, they in regards Yeah you at least maintain you maintain the house even if it has sort of fallen a bit down. Oh repaired. Okay, so you rep. For example, if a wall is almost sliding in, you of course need to repair it. But the idea in Greenland was also that Once you have built a house, There you gonna stay during that winter But once you leave the house, it's not yours So whoever reaches that house in the next autumn to occupied during that winter. They're right It's everyone's rights So you need to be there first So just because you helped to build it and you had sweat and tears and all of that building that house, it doesn't matter. It's not yours So we can also see where the good hunting grounds were depending on how many times did families stay there Well we'll going to hunting then after this, but I'd like to ask one more question on the houses. In regards to mythology surviving mythology, do we have Archeological evidence as well to show that these were places you know of spiritual and ritual belief. wasas there a lot of mythology linked to the houses that they lived in We see sort of traces, linguistic traces connected to the house So you have the that entryway that I told you about that could be really long, that is called and the doothook means Throats So the Dhk is the entrance tunnel as well itself and the Dothg is throat on any animal When you are inside the house, the winter house has and issue software And it means the house's nostrils That is theent ventilation hole So you get fresh air inside, especially when you're cooking inside So the house also needs to breathe And then you have the Ikiv Iskivik means a view. That of course, is very close to You sit with your eyes And where do you see the view, you see that through your window? So The house also had eyes And what is really interesting about this is that all of those three elements. So the throat the nostrils and the eyes They are all three placed on the front wall of the house So you don't have eyes in the back of the house. You have all of it in the front wall. So the house actually has a face And that phase was oftentimes Facing the ocean And the ocean in Greenlantic U worldorview is oftentimes where you get your food from You get your food from marine animals. You can also hunt musks and reindeer, but you oftentimes get food from the sea And we also find it linguistically in how you would communicate where you would go. So if I asked you Where you going for hunting? and you're gonna tell me I'm going to go west along the coast And in order to understand that I need to have that compass of yours as well. So I need to have my back against the inland ice I need to have my nose and my eyes towards the sea So when you tell me, I'm gonna go west along the coast, If we are in West Greenland, that means you're going south And if you are in East Gcreenland You are going north Right. This sort of before we have North, south, west, east You have this inner compass that is also more or less depicted in the houses goodness. Don't have this in numbers But when I have talked to colleagues of mine, we sort of agree that Many of the houses, they are facing the ocean That is incredible. I love that fact right there. I would also point out that if I was sent out to go and hunt up there, I would certainly not return alive. So thank goodness I search and rescue right? Exactly, search and rescue, I would have to go there very, very fast. But that's amazing. that kind of layout of the hous is that you can see in the archaeology. And do you see that all the way back to some of the earliest Tulla winter houses that surviveed? so you can see that tradition continuing for centuries It's difficult to say. I mean, because some of the knowledge we have from the oral stories And it's difficult for us to I mean, we haven't yet looked into is this a regional phenomenon O is it really widespread in Greenland? And how far back in time does it go So we do see indications of this Um, but it's difficult for us to know yet how common and idea it was but we also need to think about What because we have the same some of the same mythology coming from, Alaska and Canada. What is interesting in Alaskan mythology is, for example that The raaven plays such a huge part in their cosmology and They have a story from Alaska where the raven is one day flying over the the sea, the ocean and He sees a whale. He sees this splash coming out and he gets closer and he allows himself to be swallowed up by this whale And when the raven comes inside the whale He finds out there is a woman sitting inside the whale and keeping a lamp And the raven asks her What are you doing? And she says, I am The Keper of the whale, I am the spirit of the whale And if I don't tend to this lamp The whale is going to die And What is really interesting about that is that some of the houses, for example they they did look very organic and roundish So are they supposed to be representations of a whale? And then you have the soapstone lamb inside that needs to be kept Oftentimes by a woman, most times by a woman And That might be an idea that was very common at the time, but it's really difficult for us to prove it. but it's just to say that there are ways of interpreting this and understanding it Let's talk on something which kind of links in with what you were saying because you mentioned whales there and you also mentioned muskulkks. So A her, how much variety was there in the types of animals that they hunted you centuries ago? Do we know much about their hunting techniques and what they hunted we can find some of the bones, for example, on the mittens that were place right outside of the houses. so in those mittens we can find some of the bones after what meals they have had So we do find moscos and reindeer seal, a lot of seal differentifferent types of birds Also fish bones, if they were preserved, also sometimes fish bones foxes and hares and walrus.rus wow. Walrus and Narwal and different parts of whales. Yeah, so different types of animals that would also tell us What part of the season Did they occupy this house, for example One time we were excavating and there was ten meters away from us where we were excavating. There was a bone from the neck, a neck bone from a whale. o, yep ye. Yeah. a spine bone a neck bone. no, it's not a mantle, is it? So okay, from that part of the way. The whale was lying very close to and we were excavating. this was in twenty fifteen, and we were excavating the midden of an old pasis. So this assembly house dated back to the thirteen hundreds And u It was fun for us to think Maybe they hunted that whale because of course, whales are really difficult to date because of the marine effect But we were excavating Toe heads mainly for Walrus and also we excavated a lot of tusks from the Nar wall as well. But one of my colleagues, he managed to find this Huge a harpoon head measuring around twenty centimeters. Wow. okay. That's a big one. Yeah. And that is definitely not for Walrus. That is for whale for that bow ahead whale So the people that live there might have hunted that whale, which remains we saw right there Firstly, I love that M We're now exploring like midden heaps, you know kind of the prehistoric rubbish heaps that they are and how much information they can reveal about diets and so on. And secondly of all Asther, you mentioning them using harpoons and massive harpoons there. So do we have a good sense of the types of gadgets that they use to help them when they're taking down like a garold or as you say, a walrus or one of these great whales? you know they had the tools with them and they had the expertise to use them to the best they could We of course have the tools that you mentioned, but we also know from historic times that and also from Canada that you would go hunting for whales in sort of crews. So you had an inuit whaling crew led by an Umiak And Uma Lk means someone who owns this boat. this large boat because you need that when you go hunting for a whale. And then they would sail out in those umiaks And they will search for a whale and one person will have The amazing job of being either the bravest of the bravest or the dumbest of the dumb because he would need to wear this suit made from And I probably need to check up on this, but made from skins Sal skins, I'm just wondering if it was actually Walrro skin, but some skins You have removed the hair and then it's sewn together to be sort of like a wetsuit And then you would do the amazing thing to Be jumping from that boat of safety. onto that whale that you want to surprise attack. Okay. you throw you have your friends throwing some harpoons into it ways fladders that will Keep it from diving? Diving, yeep And then you need to find the breathing hole on that whale And then you need to put your lands into it. Kill it So just imagine being Yes Tom, you are that person. You have been chosen. We like you so much or I don't know if I don't know if you've watched aord of the Rings at all last time, but there's like Legolasses on top of one of the big elephants, you know, kind of thing like that. it's that mind boggling bravery slash stupidity or like that heroism, isn't it? that one person Yeahow. So but then if you manage to kill the whale, my gosh, you have food for months and pper And bones and yeah, Ballen Yeah yeah. the bally, and as we mentioned, the fishing tackle and all of that. Well, I mean As you mentioned You know, so much food from one whale And I can imagine There must have been mythologically stories of great heroes, right? taking down the whale and doing that exact thing going on the whale and, you know experaring it You can imagine so many tales being told around the fires in these settlements about these great heroes of old who accomplished it and brought in a great whale for their community, can't you? With that scene that you've just pictured for us. Yeah. ye I mean, definitely, we have stories like that and We also need to remember that today when I read bedtime stories for my kids. I have a book and have I read out loud from this, but in the stories The settings of the stories is very social and sort of a relational situation. So you could be sitting around forty people gathered together and then you have the great storyteller entering beinging really good at remembering all of it. and also being R with mimics and gestures and When to lower your voice and when to be really loud Right? So it was almost a show before we had TV even through all of that entertaining. It's also teaching us what to do, what not to do. Oh, look, he did this stupid thing, Don't ever do that, or he did this amazing thing. So let's all aspire to work on our skills and stuff like that. So definitely inspiring stories to keep people awake and we also have stories that were supposed to put people to sleep and be boring differenterent sort of functions for different stories. It's amazing. it's like, you know Yes, as you say, like the Tula Inuit version of Heracles tackling the great you know, se beast or Lambbeast as well. I mean, do we hear of Let's say are they interactions is perhaps a neutral word, but is there great combat against Beast of the land up there, polar bears Yes, that definitely is. And I mean, what a creature to be hunting down, right? So there are stories, but also we see it on ornamentation in some of the we see polar bears, but we also see other animals being depicted as small figurines so small boys and girls could play with them or throw their miniature harpoon after them, practicing, right? But the polar bear had a special place in the heart of the Inuit because sort of As humans, it can walk on land and it can also swim in the water. So we sort of are in the same realms and also because it can probably look very human like in a way and You see mother polar bears taking care of its cups and it can stand on two feet just like humans. So the polar bear also had a close relationship And we see that in depictions and in figurines. They are also in some of the stories of an Angerk. So when you train to become a shamman of the settlement, there are ome stories about what you need to endure to become the right set of minds to be sort of able to negotiate and see the other invincible world with a spirits But you had to be Eaten up Heo. by a polar bear Goodness, no, no, thank you. Yeah that's just the partart of the training. And if you could do that and still be alive and sane, then maybe you could become an angarcho. Well hang on. But you have to be eaten by a polar bear and survive it. I don't think that works. So it's probably symbolic. how that really works That's still up for questions, but It just tells it how important a role the polar bear plays we see it as this animal of strength and also intelligence, even though other animals just like the raven was also intelligent. So yeah A I could ask so many more questions about so many different things, I think I I'll skip over asking more about the shamans, but they sound a bit kind of like the Druids or or maybe not Druids, but youve got a link to nature, but you know who can talk with the supernatural and have a lot of we can presume, you know back even centuries and centuries ago when the two Lineuits arrived, they hold a big place in societies and that's kind of what we can imagine from them Yeah, so the Angerkok was the sort of spiritual adviser. of a settlement. Sometimes he was the same he or she, it could be a man or woman. Sometimes this person would also be the leader of the pack, so to say, but other times it could be another hunter who was just respectful and he had authority. and then he would be the leader. So sometimes it would be two different roles, the Agerop and then the leader. And going quickly also onto art. you mentioned earlier like miniature. polar bear figurines that had be discovered is most of the arts that you find in these settlements Is it animalistic? Is it always depicting animals? or what types of art should we be thinking of We also sometimes have figures looking like humans. but actually in the Tula culture, the Inuit culture don't see so many carvings and so much ornamentation as we see in the Dorset culture. So the Dorset culture we see the pictures of humans and it's much more such a rich material to look into. So why the Inuit culture later on. We're too lazy to do it. I don't know, but the Dorsic culture have amazing source material to look into the ornamentations and what they depict and how lifelike they are. but we also have amazing find from actually from my hometown. It's eight mummies and they are called the Pkitk mummies And they are dated back to fourteen the mid fourteen hundreds And what is amazing here is how well preserved they are so we find All their skin clothing inner clothes and the outer clothes And they got some extra clothing So you have a handful of women and then two boys And u They have been put to rest with the skin clothing, but on some of the women, at least one of the women, she has facial tattoos Tattoos o. Because their skin is so well preserved, you can see their nails I believe you can even see the lashes on some of their eyes. It's amazing. And there you really feel like you are staring into people of the past. Okay, yeah, we've got to talk about this then. You need to look that up even though it might look a little scary, but It's such an amazing find and such a rich find. And it tells us a lot about what sort of diseases could they have at the time It's amazing Well, let's talk about that quickly as well because We did an episode last year on the Siberian ice mummies and they did recent research on with the skin surviving on those mummies high up in the Alti mountains, they were able to figure out how they were tattooed and actually the method they probably used to get you know the pictures on their skin. So do we know a lot then, you use that example from your hometown just then Do we have quite a rich corpus of understanding about how The tula inuit how they buried their dead, how they looked after their deceased relatives We have Stone graves burials in the landscape. and oftentimes they are connected to settlements that we have already registered So You have a settlement and then around the periphery Of course, depending on the landscape itself, if it's very rocky or if it's very flat, that will tell us where the periphery is. And also depending on is it a very stony area But then we find the graves and oftentimes they would be Varing one person within one grave, but we also see examples from Cimute when they were clearing out to make the new airport, well newew back then airport, they found a grave where You had buried one person, but then you had reused it. so you had pushed the bones a little aside and then buried a new person. And I believe it was six or seven times you had done that Then we find the graves are often also sometimes up in the mountain or in the back and they have Oftentimes really beautiful views And when when you look at the oral stories, you can also see this close connection to some of their favorite sites. So there is no doubt in my mind that sometimes before you died, you could say, I really want to be buried here or there, but then you could be buried behind the settlement. And you could be buried with the clothes that you were wearing of course but also your hunting gear if you were a man. your sewing kit if you were a woman and also your cooking pot So that soapstone land, for example, or cooking pot itself We also see small children being buried with dog for example, so maybe it was a favorite animal or friend or maybe this dog was supposed to help you to the next world to the realm of death. and accompany the child on that journey. I like that mentioned that the dog at the end, you know, once again, Mudy you know that they also had pets with them as well for their day to day lives and how similar they are to us today I also love this idea maybe, as you say of Of course, as you mentioned, the settlements have been along the coast, human habitation is along the coast as it is today you know, someone from one of those communities seeing the snowy wilderness like the center of Greenland, thinking like I'd like to be buried up there in the wildness in the wild landsw myths of people who went into the snowy wastelands and you know did great deeds. It' it's an amazing landscape to think about and how they survived and how they viewed, as you've highlighted their worldview of the natural world around them. I wish I could ask so many more questions. We may well have to get you back on in the future for another one But is there any message that you would like to closing remarks for this episode that you'd like to leave us with with the story of prehistoric Greenland Well, the pre history of Greenland is so rich in its material, but also on the different perspectives that it teaches us about humans that entered that part of the world. So I think It's u It's a good chance to get to know more about U Ringland and the history there. that u all of a sudden became The eye of the storm. What is it actually? what What kind of a home is it to to what kind of people And when we look closely, we often find out or rediscover that We are not so different We can recognize you like the idea of the dog being buried with a child, right And we oftentimes see those things evenven in The forest culture that we imagine,, I'm never going to be able to recognize myself in this But then again, we are just humans and we have just made homes on different parts of the same worlds And We have different conditions, but someome of the same feelings and problems Yeah Asta absolutely. and it's been wonderful to shine a light on the prehistoric story of Greenland. the amazing archaeological sites and artifacts that survive entwined with mythology. What a rich area of the world to learn more about its distant past in the years ahead. It must be so exciting for you and everyone else. us Finally about yourself, you're currently in Copenhagen and you're doing your own particular work on this at the moment. Yes, I am a prehistoric archeologist and I am working on a new project called liquidice So We will be looking into the climate changes in Greenland and what effect it has on The communities there but also for the potentials of hydropower, for example So We want to be engaging with people on the ground and seeing into kind of future do they want or do they see? And As an archaeologist, it's really enriching to knowing so much about the past, but also to be asking people today, not in this project, but in other projects that I'm in what do you want to revive or what do you want to discuss from our past And what we want to takeake with us into the future So I'm also talking with architects, for example U Do you want to do they want to be inspired by prehistoric A archaeological House models, for example, or by the stories, it can be intangible cultural heritage as well that the architects could be inspired by so that the houses in Greenland or the buildings in Greenland. aren't just houses that could have been built anywhere on this planet They could be more cultural specific and people could mirror themselves in that architecture. I think that would be amazing bring back the winter houses. Asta, it just goes for me to say thank you so much for taking the time to come on the show. Thank you for having me Well, there you go. There was the fantastic Dr. Asta Munstel talking you through The remarkable archaeology, the pre history of Greenland and the people who have lived there for centuries. It's such a remarkable story. I hope you enjoyed listening to this episode just as much as I did recording it alongside my producer, Joseph. We were both. Listening intensely to Asta telling the story and yeah, what a story it is. I can't praise Asta enough So once again, really hope you enjoyed this episode and thank you for listening If you did enjoy the episode, if you do enjoy the ancients, please make sure that you're following the show on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. That really helps us and you'll be doing us a big favour. so please do that. If you'd also be kind enough to leave us a rating as well, well we'd also really appreciate that. All of those things really, really helpful to us and allow us to keep doing what we do, sharing these incredible