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Palynological research is increasingly revealing the landscape impacts of Norse colonisation in southern Greenland. Typically, although not exclusively, these studies are from depositional environments with highly localised pollen source areas close to fjord-side centres of medieval power. In contrast, this paper presents data from Vatnahverfi, an inland district of the Eastern Settlement, and explores the emergence of a cultural landscape through three pollen sequences at variable distances from Norse farms. Two are from mires with small pollen source areas close to (<100m) and distant from (=1500m) probable farming activities. The other provides a more regional signal of vegetation change, albeit one located close to a Norse settlement. Landnám is marked primarily through an increase in microscopic charcoal and the appearance of pollen from Rumex acetosella, although significant differences between profiles are noted. Close to Norse ruins, pollen productivity from grassland communities increases and woodland and scrub representation declines. Further from archaeological remains, palynologically inferred human activity is primarily characterised by decreased productivity, notably declining influx from woodland and scrub species, reflecting grazing herbivores or coppicing. Abandonment of Vatnahverfi is indicated from the late 14th to early 15th century AD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim This paper integrates pollen-analytical data from sites across southern Greenland to revisit the debate regarding which plants may have been introduced during the Norse colonization or landnám c. ad 985. Location Palynological data are drawn from 14 sites (lakes and mires) located within the former Eastern Settlement of Norse Greenland ( c. 60.9° N, 45.5° W). Methods Maps are presented displaying palynological data for three taxa ( Rumex acetosella, Polygonum aviculare and Achillea millefolium), which earlier scholars have argued are 'Old Norse' anthropochores. The maps display pollen frequencies at regular ( c. 100-year) intervals across a period ( ad 800-1500) encompassing Norse settlement. Results Maps for c. ad 800 and 900 (prior to Norse arrival) display the taxa as locally absent, with the appearance and expansion of their pollen at multiple sites from c. ad 1000 ( landnám) providing support for the assumption that each taxon arrived with the first settlers. A general and widespread decline in pollen frequencies for these 'Old Norse' elements on the c. ad 1500 map (following Norse abandonment) demonstrates a close connection between these plants and a cultural landscape that was shaped and maintained predominantly via animal husbandry. Main conclusions Patterns emerging from this exercise may initiate wider debates related to the pattern and character of the Norse colonization of Greenland. It is suggested that differences in the function or role of farm sites could have led to the creation of greater areas of favourable habitat for ' Old Norse' flora in some locations relative to others, and that uneven patterns of colonization and the spread of ' Old Norse' plants might be explained if their introduction - presumably from Iceland - first occurred at only a few locations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]