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Dr. Thomas McGovern Interviewed for AP article on Decline of Medieval Norse Settlements in Greenland

Professor Thomas McGovern, of the Anthropology Department, was recently interviewed for an article, widely distributed by the Associated Press, on "the mystery of why Viking colonies in Greenland flourished and fell." Clues to this mystery "have been found in the DNA of medieval walrus bones housed in more than a dozen European museums." This new study, of which McGovern was not a part, "revealed that during the height of the Norse settlement – from about 1120 to 1400 – at least 80 percent of the walrus samples were directly sourced from Greenland...if walrus ivory was the key to Greenland’s medieval wealth, experts now suspect a collapsing market for the ivory may have helped doom the outposts."  According to McGovern, the new research "is changing the story we've been telling for years."  

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