Case file · High strangeness
The empty Western Settlement
Around the mid-14th century, the Norwegian priest Ívar Bárðarson sailed to Greenland's Western Settlement and found it abandoned, with only feral cattle and sheep left.
1350 CE · 64.25, -50.20 · status: disputed
The account
His report survives in a 16th-century Danish translation and is one of the few primary sources on medieval Greenland.
The sceptical view
Archaeology points to a cooling climate, failing trade, overgrazing and contact with the Thule Inuit rather than any sudden mystery.