Tristan Hughes

But back to the story of prehistoric Greenland.

So it sounds like you have this rich array of archaeology to learn more about these people.

But Asta, tell us also about mythology.

How important a source can mythology be also for learning more about these people?

Yeah.

How much of this mythology, how many stories like that have survived to the present day that have their origins back in prehistoric times?

Is it quite a rich library of information?

And I guess it's one of those wonderful things you mentioned earlier, like the importance of spirits in the natural world, in the mythology, that then when you go, as I'm sure we'll delve into some examples as we go along, you go to a particular archaeological site, maybe a house somewhere,

You find certain objects within a house which maybe, if you didn't know the mythological context, would look rather strange.

But maybe certain objects, if you know the mythology stories, might explain why you find them in a house for some reason or another.

It may give more context into, as you say, what they believe, which gives so much more value to the things that you're finding.

Let's go through some key themes in the archaeology now.

First off, I must ask about arrival dates, roughly, when we know about when people first reach Greenland.

Asta, how far back can we go?

When do people first reach Greenland that we know of from archaeology?

And do we know how they reached Greenland?

Presumably it's from the West.

It's from North America.

Do we know much about these people?

I mean, I have my, is it like the Dorset culture that it's called or do they have much that survives?