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There was also almost certainly trade between the New and Old World by way of the Norse settlements in Greenland and Iceland, which knew about the North America

There was also almost certainly trade between the New and Old World by way of the Norse settlements in Greenland and Iceland, which knew about the North American mainland, and very likely visited the Labrador region for lumber. The short-lived Norse colony built in L'Ance aux Meadows, Newfoundland in 1000 AD had an iron forge [1], which would have produced items in high demand among the indigenous people of that region. It seems unlikely that there wouldn't have been sustained trade once demand for these types of items had been established. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27Anse_aux_Meadows https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27Anse_aux_Meadows

hn_throwaway_99 6y ago
To Alaska???
- CryptoPunk 6y ago
  No, it seems the beads came across the Bering Strait. I don't see why Venetian beads entering North America from the Maritimes would head north west across the tundra to Alaska instead of south and south west toward more populated regions. Plus by the 13th and 14th century, when Venetian trade was rising, the population of the Norse colony in Greenland was dwindling and the colony was approaching its end, due to cooling climate.
  - technicalbard 6y ago
    If the Vikings had brought the beads to Greenland or Labrador and trader with the Inuit, the Inuit could have traded those beads across the arctic of Canada in a couple of hundred years - EASILY. Remember that the Inuit of North America only entered from Asia in the last 4000 years or so, and speak a language that is closely related to languages in Siberia... So these beads could have come to Alaska from east OR west. We will probably never know for sure.
    - yongjik 6y ago
      I'm not so sure about the "easily" part: from [1], most part of Greenland was colonized after Vikings settled on Iceland. So I'd imagine it wasn't exactly a leisurely trip from there to Alaska. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thule_people https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thule_people
      - aksss 6y ago
        It would have been a series of trade network hops, not an express route by one guy. So traded from one village to the next over and over westwards. Going from Venice over the Silk Road and up through Siberia and into Alaska, or up through Eastern Europe into northern Asia and across Siberia, probably would have involved fewer exchanges though, I’d guess. Either way, that bead is a looong way from Venice. :D
    - aksss 6y ago
      Alaska was peopled in the Holocene (>10k years ago). But yeah, i think you’re right: I tend to think of the particularly coastal Arctic people’s across AK/Canada as having more consistent inter-tribal contact and periodic aggregation than between Arctic and more Southerly tribes. Not crazy to think trade goods could flow between the indigenous people of the east and west coasts of the Arctic, albeit slowly. I think far, far more likely that this item would have come to Alaska via Siberia though, if for no other reason than proximity. Fascinating to think of the story of that bead. Blows the mind.

hn_throwaway_99 6y ago

To Alaska???

CryptoPunk 6y ago
No, it seems the beads came across the Bering Strait. I don't see why Venetian beads entering North America from the Maritimes would head north west across the tundra to Alaska instead of south and south west toward more populated regions. Plus by the 13th and 14th century, when Venetian trade was rising, the population of the Norse colony in Greenland was dwindling and the colony was approaching its end, due to cooling climate.
- technicalbard 6y ago
  If the Vikings had brought the beads to Greenland or Labrador and trader with the Inuit, the Inuit could have traded those beads across the arctic of Canada in a couple of hundred years - EASILY. Remember that the Inuit of North America only entered from Asia in the last 4000 years or so, and speak a language that is closely related to languages in Siberia... So these beads could have come to Alaska from east OR west. We will probably never know for sure.
  - yongjik 6y ago
    I'm not so sure about the "easily" part: from [1], most part of Greenland was colonized after Vikings settled on Iceland. So I'd imagine it wasn't exactly a leisurely trip from there to Alaska. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thule_people https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thule_people
    - aksss 6y ago
      It would have been a series of trade network hops, not an express route by one guy. So traded from one village to the next over and over westwards. Going from Venice over the Silk Road and up through Siberia and into Alaska, or up through Eastern Europe into northern Asia and across Siberia, probably would have involved fewer exchanges though, I’d guess. Either way, that bead is a looong way from Venice. :D
  - aksss 6y ago
    Alaska was peopled in the Holocene (>10k years ago). But yeah, i think you’re right: I tend to think of the particularly coastal Arctic people’s across AK/Canada as having more consistent inter-tribal contact and periodic aggregation than between Arctic and more Southerly tribes. Not crazy to think trade goods could flow between the indigenous people of the east and west coasts of the Arctic, albeit slowly. I think far, far more likely that this item would have come to Alaska via Siberia though, if for no other reason than proximity. Fascinating to think of the story of that bead. Blows the mind.