When elephant ivory became more available in European networks, walrus ivory faced competition.

Changing taste, changing supply routes and changing political connections could all reduce demand.

A remote exporter is especially vulnerable when its product becomes less important to the buyers who live thousands of kilometers away.

THE CLIMATE WAS NEVER JUST ‘COLD’

One of the oldest explanations for the disappearance of the Norse is simple: Greenland became too cold.

There is truth in the idea that climate mattered, but the simple version is no longer adequate.

The Norse established their Greenland settlements during the Medieval Climate Anomaly, a period when parts of the North Atlantic experienced relatively favorable conditions compared with later centuries.