For a long time, popular accounts turned this into a simple war story.

The Vikings fought the Inuit.

The Vikings lost.

The colony vanished.

But archaeology does not provide evidence for a single final war that explains the disappearance.

Medieval written sources contain hostile descriptions and accounts of encounters.

There are also traditions of conflict.

Yet there is no archaeological evidence of a massive extermination event capable of explaining the disappearance of the entire Norse population.