Population and settlement
Plant and animal domestication is the most important development in the past 13,000 years of human history. It provides most of our food today and it was crucial to the rise of civilization. Domestication of plants and animals transformed the world’s demography. Early civilization settled where there was the most plant domestication. The book Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond explains that domestication produced people who were actively on a conquest to find the best places to survive. There were only a few areas of the world that were the best to live; grow crops and raise animals. The people who, through bio-geographic luck, first had domesticates had many advantages over other people in the world and expanded. Domesticating plants was a major turning point for settlement. It started a way of agriculture that made civilizations more permanent; humans no longer had to wander or hunt animals and gather plants for their food supplies. About 10,000 years ago, people to start the domestication of plants, around 8,000 BCE. The most popular locations of food production was the Fertile Crescent, China, New Guinea, Sahel, West Africa, Ethiopia, Eastern United States, Mesoamerica, and the Andes and Amazonia. This meant that settlement took place in these locations first. When looking at a map of the origin of food production, one can see that Iceland is nowhere near to where food production started. This caused Iceland’s settlement to happen much later than other places.
The earliest people to settle in Iceland were the Norse settlers in search of new farmland; they settled in Iceland between 870 and 930 AD. The Norse people were a group of people who spoke what is now called the Old Norse language between the 8th and 11th centuries. They are also be known as Vikings. The term Viking is a word used to refer to the natives of Nordic countries during the Middle Ages (800-1100 AD) who led the Scandinavian Expansion. At that time Iceland was a little warmer than it is today and settlers thought they had found the perfect place to grow crops and raise animals; they started to divide the land amongst themselves.
There were complexities that came with the expansion of the Viking Age. Some of the more principle reasons were land scarcity in Scandinavia, the need for new markets, and improvements of the production of steel. In 793 AD there was the first recorded Viking raid, an assault that took place overseas on the island of Lindisfarne, off the coast of northeast England. This event shows that long before this assault, there was considerable migration of Vikings west across the North Sea and east across the Baltic. During the Viking Age many men traveled the open sea, reaching many places and unseen locations. But the Vikings did not have the ability to stay in one place and settle. The Vikings lacked wealth, political experience, and were not able to achieve structure in Europe.
The first Viking to ever see Iceland was Gardar Svavarsson. He found Iceland by changing his traveling direction after facing harsh weather conditions. He switched his course from Norway to the Faroe Islands, which led him to an unseen island that would later be called Iceland. Scacarsson’s reports on the island led to the first attempts to settle there. The first settler who formed permanent settlement on the island was the Norwegian chief, Ingólfur Arnarson. At around 874 AD he settled with his family at a place called Reykjavik, now the capital of Iceland. Following the Norwegian chief, another group of Norwegians left for Iceland that same year with their families, livestock, and possessions. The Icelandic Age of Settlement is known to have lasted from 874-930 AD, in that time the world’s oldest parliamentary body was founded.
The book Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond focused on different layers of history in order to discover fundamental and environmental factors that have and will continue to shape humanity. Iceland is a great example of settlers moving into an uninhabited land, starting a new society, and using the land to grow crops and raise animals. Although written sources are helpful for this information, there is still not much information about the dispersal of land, animals, and trade goods. Unlike other locations, the Icelandic environment is not helpful with archaeology, so there is not much left to study in-order to understand the inner workings of their early society.
Televison, L. (2005, January 1). Guns, Germs, and Steel, Overview. Retrieved January 31, 2015, from http://www.pbs.org/gunsgermssteel/show/
Iceland 24 - Iceland Travel and Info Guide. (2014, June 1). Retrieved January 31, 2015, from http://www.iceland24blog.com/2014/06/iceland-and-viking-settlement.html
Steinberg, J., & Byocl, J. (1999, January 1). Tracing Viking Settlers In Iceland. Retrieved January 31, 2015, from http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/ioa/backdirt/Fall99/viking.html
Domestication. (n.d.). Retrieved January 31, 2015, from http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/encyclopedia/domestication/?ar_a=1
Evolution, consequences and future of plant and animal domestication. (2002, August 8). Retrieved January 31, 2015, from http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v418/n6898/full/nature01019.html
The earliest people to settle in Iceland were the Norse settlers in search of new farmland; they settled in Iceland between 870 and 930 AD. The Norse people were a group of people who spoke what is now called the Old Norse language between the 8th and 11th centuries. They are also be known as Vikings. The term Viking is a word used to refer to the natives of Nordic countries during the Middle Ages (800-1100 AD) who led the Scandinavian Expansion. At that time Iceland was a little warmer than it is today and settlers thought they had found the perfect place to grow crops and raise animals; they started to divide the land amongst themselves.
There were complexities that came with the expansion of the Viking Age. Some of the more principle reasons were land scarcity in Scandinavia, the need for new markets, and improvements of the production of steel. In 793 AD there was the first recorded Viking raid, an assault that took place overseas on the island of Lindisfarne, off the coast of northeast England. This event shows that long before this assault, there was considerable migration of Vikings west across the North Sea and east across the Baltic. During the Viking Age many men traveled the open sea, reaching many places and unseen locations. But the Vikings did not have the ability to stay in one place and settle. The Vikings lacked wealth, political experience, and were not able to achieve structure in Europe.
The first Viking to ever see Iceland was Gardar Svavarsson. He found Iceland by changing his traveling direction after facing harsh weather conditions. He switched his course from Norway to the Faroe Islands, which led him to an unseen island that would later be called Iceland. Scacarsson’s reports on the island led to the first attempts to settle there. The first settler who formed permanent settlement on the island was the Norwegian chief, Ingólfur Arnarson. At around 874 AD he settled with his family at a place called Reykjavik, now the capital of Iceland. Following the Norwegian chief, another group of Norwegians left for Iceland that same year with their families, livestock, and possessions. The Icelandic Age of Settlement is known to have lasted from 874-930 AD, in that time the world’s oldest parliamentary body was founded.
The book Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond focused on different layers of history in order to discover fundamental and environmental factors that have and will continue to shape humanity. Iceland is a great example of settlers moving into an uninhabited land, starting a new society, and using the land to grow crops and raise animals. Although written sources are helpful for this information, there is still not much information about the dispersal of land, animals, and trade goods. Unlike other locations, the Icelandic environment is not helpful with archaeology, so there is not much left to study in-order to understand the inner workings of their early society.
Televison, L. (2005, January 1). Guns, Germs, and Steel, Overview. Retrieved January 31, 2015, from http://www.pbs.org/gunsgermssteel/show/
Iceland 24 - Iceland Travel and Info Guide. (2014, June 1). Retrieved January 31, 2015, from http://www.iceland24blog.com/2014/06/iceland-and-viking-settlement.html
Steinberg, J., & Byocl, J. (1999, January 1). Tracing Viking Settlers In Iceland. Retrieved January 31, 2015, from http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/ioa/backdirt/Fall99/viking.html
Domestication. (n.d.). Retrieved January 31, 2015, from http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/encyclopedia/domestication/?ar_a=1
Evolution, consequences and future of plant and animal domestication. (2002, August 8). Retrieved January 31, 2015, from http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v418/n6898/full/nature01019.html
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This map shows the settlement of Iceland from c. 870-1263. The blue arrows represent the earliest settlement in Iceland from the late 860’s. Norwegian chief, Ingólfur Arnarson first settled in Reykjavik in c. 873. - Peterson, N. (2007, December 4). DARC - Introduction. Retrieved January 31, 2015, from http://www.darkcompany.ca/intro.php This map was drawn by the Nomads. The Nomads were also known as Vikings and came from Nordic countries. Their style of mapping consist of relations between space and consciousness that brings about the dynamic expression of one’s freedom. Freedom is the primary and only vocation of real nomads. -Nomads, Knowmads, Noumads. (2009, April 24). Retrieved January 31, 2015, from http://spacecollective.org/Spaceweaver |
Extra information
- Iceland Archeology. (n.d.). Retrieved January 31, 2015, from http://www.mnh.si.edu/vikings/voyage/subset/iceland/archeo.html
- Fun Iceland Facts for Kids. (2014, July 24). Retrieved January 31, 2015, from http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/sciencefacts/countries/iceland.html
Population Pyramids
These pyramids show that the population of Iceland has grown by 45% over the past 60 years. It also shows the population of males to females and the age of the population. In 1950 the age of men and women peaked at age 85. In the past 60 years, the death rate has decreased, the population is now living into their late 90’s. From these pyramids, you can also notice that the birth rate has decreased as well. In 1950, about 14% of the population was infants. In 2010, that percent changed to about 8%.