(ORDO NEWS) — Anthropologists from the University of Copenhagen have analyzed the DNA of bone fragments that were once the food of Saqqaq (one of the ancient Paleo-Eskimo cultures of Greenland that existed from about 2500 to 800 BC) and established the diet of the ancient inhabitants of Greenland.
Scientists have long been studying how ancient people survived in the cold climate of Greenland. In ancient times, four peoples lived on the island: Saqqaq, Dorset, Norwegians and Thule.
Saqqaq arrived on the island about 4.5 thousand years ago and remained in Greenland until, after 1,700 years, a severe cooling forced them out of there.
Previously, it was believed that the diet of the inhabitants of the island was quite meager: they ate fish, seals, and possibly some species of whales.
In a new study, scientists analyzed 2,500 bone fragments and identified 42 species of creatures eaten by early humans.
It turned out that in ancient times the inhabitants of Greenland ate 20 species of mammals, nine species of fish and 13 species of birds.
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