Ancient Apocalypse

Led by Erik the Red, in 985 AD, an initial wave of Vikings from Scandinavia establish two successful outposts along the fjords of Southern Greenland – the ‘Eastern’ and ‘Western’ settlements. Numbering around 4,000 at their peak, they construct manor house and work the harsh terrain, to make it suitable for their European pastoralist life. They raise sheep, goats, and cattle; they trade furs, walrus-tusk ivory, and other arctic goods with Europe. For hundreds of years, they hold a quasi-monopoly on the European ivory trade, and almost all of it comes from walruses hunted by the Norsemen in Greenland. However, despite their commercial success, the Norse suddenly and mysteriously disappear from historical record at the start of the 15th century. The fate of the Norse will continue to bewilder archaeologists for centuries to come.

The Aztec Empire was the last great civilisation and dominant power of Mesoamerica in the 15th and 16th centuries. By the time the Spanish arrived in 1519, the Aztecs had built an empire covering an area of about 200km2. Its capital city of Tenochtitlan was a huge trading centre and it supported up to 140,000 people, making it the largest city in the Pre-Columbian Americas. Underpinning this empire was its military power of conscripted adult males. Aztec cities boasted temples, palaces and artwork displaying devotion to many gods. They developed sophisticated writing systems, calendars, and a religion that required human sacrifice. Yet their powerful empire would soon be decimated by their encounters with European colonisers and their demise does not just lie in the technological advantages their conquerors had against them.

The Minoans, considered by many as the first European civilisation, flourished in the islands of the Aegean in the 3rd and 2nd millennia BCE before eventually disappearing around 1100 BC. A sophisticated people, both artistically and technologically, they are described as the first literate society in Europe, having left behind an unmatched legacy of unique art and architecture, incredible labyrinth-like palace complexes and fine artefacts. Their mercantile culture led to their presiding over a vast trade network and the grandeur of their civilisation is immortalised in the myth of King Minos and the Minotaur trapped beneath his palace at Knossos. But despite an extended period of cultural growth, Minoan civilisation is abruptly ended around 1550 BC as a result of a powerful explosive event.