Continuity and Change: The Dwellings of the Greenland Norse

Abstract

In his 1941 thesis, Aage Roussell established a typology for the dwellings of the Greenland Norse. While some of his conclusions have since been dismissed, Roussell's typology itself has not been subject to a fundamental review, although there are problems with it. This paper reviews Roussell's typology for the dwellings of the Greenland Norse and suggests a revised typology and terminology. It argues that the medieval architecture of the Greenlanders may have been more inspired by contemporary Scandinavian architecture than Roussell imagined, and that the so-called passage house is very sparsely represented in Greenland.