Description: After our city tour, we had our guide drop us off at the Greenland National Museum. We only had an hour before the museum closed for the day.
There are displays that explain Greenland's history of the Inuit who migrated from Asia through northern Canada and into Greenland 4,500 years ago. The far northwest edge of Greenland is only 15 miles from Canada.
The Norse showed up in the south in 982 AD when the Viking, Erik the Red was exiled from Iceland for murder. He named the island Greenland to encourage his fellow Vikings to settle there. His trick worked but the Norse population in Greenland mysteriously vanished 500 years later.
The Danes began coming to Greenland in the 17th century for trading and to do Christian missionary work. Although the museum contains exhibits of all three cultures, most of the exhibits deal with the historical aspects of the Inuit culture. Their clothing, homes, tools, and craftwork are on display. The postings describing the museum exhibits are in Greenlandic, Danish, and English.
The most famous exhibit in Greenland National Museum is the Qilakitsoq Mummies. These are the remains of Inuit women and a child who died in Northern Greenland in the 15th century. Because of the cold climate and other factors, their bodies, clothing, and other belongings remained fairly well intact. The mummies were featured on the cover of
National Geographic magazine. They are located in a dimly-lit room in the rear of the museum. We were allowed to take pictures as long as we did not use flash. This exhibit might seem creepy to some since the skeletons of two of the mummies are visible. On the other hand, some may find the baby disturbing since it is very well preserved – skin and all. The child seems to stare blankly through the glass case in which it is enclosed with an adult mummy. If you can get past the creepiness, it is actually interesting to take a close look at the clothing worn by the Inuit back then.
We were able to make it through the entire museum in 45 minutes. It is definitely worth a visit when in Nuuk.
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