The earliest known archeological remains from Kujataa date from the 3rd millennium BC, beginning with the
Arctic small tool tradition and continuing with the
Saqqaq and
Dorset cultures, before vanishing from southern Greenland. Finding deep fjords suitable for agriculture in the Kujataa region, they quickly established small farming settlements, naming the area
Eystribyggð (Eastern Settlement). However, the Norse farming practices on Greenland differed from those elsewhere with a greater emphasis on hunting than cereal production (possibly due to the abundance of walruses and seals in the region) and raising goats rather than sheep. Irrigation systems were also built in order to feed the livestock, some of which remain as the only surviving medieval irrigation systems in the North Atlantic. At its peak in the 13th century, Eystribyggð had its own bishop and contained 200-300 farms. During that time, the
Thule people migrated to Greenland and came into contact with the Norse settlers. This period of coexistence may have lasted for up to 250 years. By the 15th century, the Norse villages in Kujataa had disappeared, and there is little sign of agriculture in Greenland for the next few centuries, until the 1780s, when an Inuk woman, Tuperna, and her Norwegian husband,
Anders Olsen, began a farm at the former medieval bishop's residence at Igaliku. This area has been continually farmed since then. ==References==