It also changes the social structure of a farming community.

Hunting large marine mammals is not the same economic activity as tending cattle.

Among the most important animals in the story are walruses.

Their tusks were valuable in medieval Europe.

Walrus ivory was used for luxury objects and other high-status goods.

Recent research has strengthened the argument that Greenland’s position in the walrus-ivory trade was central to the colony’s economic system.

This changes the way we imagine the settlement.