CULTURES AT THE MERCY OF MOTHER NATURE
People have lived in Greenland for more than 4500 years although there have been long periods when the country has been completely uninhabited because conditions made it impossible.
This could have been due to a lack of animals to hunt or in the event of a change of climate that made conditions too harsh for survival.
Excavations from throughout Greenland and finds of ruins, tools, bones and clothing bear witness to highly developed cultures that immigrated in several separate waves.
FIRST WAVE OF IMMIGRATION: INDEPENDENCE I
The first people in Greenland came from Northern Canada around 2500 BC. The Independence I culture spread along the northern coastline of Greenland to the southern parts of the present day National Park in Northeast Greenland.
These early hunters were dependent on relatively stationary animal populations and primarily lived of musk oxen and ringed seals. The latest finds from Independence I has been dated approx. 1730 BC.