During the MWP
Figure 14: Sedges, grasses, and dwarf woodlands of birch and willow. (Source: McGovern and Perdikaris, 2000)
Animal bones and other materials collected from archaeological sites reveal Icelandic Vikings had large farmsteads with dairy cattle (a source of meat), pigs, and sheep and goats (for wool, hair, milk, and meat.) Farmsteads also had ample pastures and fields of barley used for the making of beer and these farms were located near bird cliffs (providing meat, eggs, and eiderdown) and inshore fishing grounds. Fishing was primarily done with hand lines or from small boats that did not venture across the horizon
Today
By “milder” do you mean less strident demands for additional funding? 😉
That does not match the modeled virtual world being studied by the NSIDC. The ice was substantial and relatively constant since the Holocene Optimum until we started throwing CO2 into the atmosphere. That was when the ice started receding. Real of fantasy? What world do the researchers of today live in?
By the way, how did the Harvest go this year? Did they pick the Tomato yet? 🙂
Fish (Cod) were closer to Greenland and Iceland at that time. As the climate cooled the fish moved farther south in the ocean making it more difficult for Vikings to fish. The Portuguese had better fishing boat technology and dominated the market after that.
“The archaeobotanical remains are excellently preserved because the site was sealed by alluvium and permafrost.” ….from the thesis of a University of Alberta researcher about a Norse settlement in Greenland. Large file, 205 pages:
http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/ftp04/mq22551.pdf
Warm enough for farming in 1000 AD, but permafrost preserved a village for the researchers working in 1995 and 1996.