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The main idea is that a norse settlement and their surrounding is teleported to a late cretaceous north america; around 67 million years ago.

  1. This settlement is large enough to have people of various trades and craft inside of it.

  2. their technologies is medieval-scandinavian level.

  3. they brought with them farmland with various crops and animals. So there is agriculture.

  4. let's say thorough handwavium there is no some kind of virus/bacteria that would endanger the settlement nor the life around them.

the question:

how would the presence of dinosaurs impact their future architecture and settlement building ?

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    $\begingroup$ Medieval tech facing dinosaurs? Everybody would die before new architectural tech could be developed. More to the point, though, questions of the form, "X happens, what next?" are high concept questions and off-topic. If you tell us about the settlement (trades, population, buildings, etc.) and explain the geography the town teleports to (local mines and other resources) and tell us what dinosaurs are in the area (all dinos were not in all areas), then we could answer the question, (*Continued*) $\endgroup$
    – JBH
    Commented Jan 14, 2023 at 7:26
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    $\begingroup$ ... "how could the town be strengthened to defend against dinos?" But as-is, this is too opinion-based. (It might be anyway. Depending on how many and exactly which dinos are present, there may not be a believable solution. Architecture takes time. If you're running for your lives and scavenging food as you go, you don't have a lot of time In other words, the only viable answer might be, "they quickly find caves and stay there fore generations.") $\endgroup$
    – JBH
    Commented Jan 14, 2023 at 7:29
  • $\begingroup$ How big of a settlement? You've got to worry about inbreeding not only in the human population, but also the livestock. And there might not be any bees in the area which like to pollinate. $\endgroup$
    – RonJohn
    Commented Jan 14, 2023 at 16:23
  • $\begingroup$ WHICH dinosaurs? $\endgroup$
    – Mary
    Commented Jan 14, 2023 at 17:25
  • $\begingroup$ @Mary the OP does specify 67 Mya, although a location would help. $\endgroup$
    – John
    Commented Jan 15, 2023 at 12:26

4 Answers 4

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Dinosaurs are big and scary. So are mammoths, hippos, and tigers.

Sentient, tool-using humans are even scarier. At first they would be surprised by the dinos, and some might get munched by a tyrannosaurus or apatoraptor. Within a couple of centuries, the last wild apex predators would be eradicated.

I expect that the initial reaction would be a palisade around the settlement, combined with armed guards for work parties working outside. That's what they know, and it will work well enough. In addition, offensive patrols will go after the big predators in the area. The hunt might involve pit traps and fire to direct them into the traps.

Within a couple of years, there will be an improved understanding of the various dinosaur species and their behaviour. Villages would be moved out of the migration path of alamosaurus herds instead of trying to divert them, time and again. Warriors will make it a point of honor to decorate their longhall with the largest possible theropod skull. Possibly some of the smaller herbivores get domesticated, unless cows and pigs are more useful.

There will be fewer, larger settlements than without dinosaurs, which might have serious consequences for the social development. Strengthening the nobility at the expense of freemen?

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Not as much as you think.

Obviously, they need to keep dinosaurs out of their crops, but hunting usually takes care of that. Viking means bows, spears, and traps, which means dinos don't stand a chance in the long run.

Settlements will likely be build defensively, but they did that often anyway. Log walls keep out dinosaurs as well as clever monkeys. Islands, bluffs and other defensively positions are chosen for defense from humans but work just as well against dinosaurs.

Dinosaurs are not movie monsters. They will be driven off by humans just as well as any other animals. Humans are really really good at killing large slow armored animals. Small dinosaurs are the only thing that will a consistent bother but then no more than wolves or bears are. Anything big wandering too close is just a feast waiting to happen. Do expect livestock to take a big hit at first, and still run into occasion attacks for long time afterwards.

Far outside settlements is a different story. Out in the wilderness, running into a a large dinosaur predator will be a real danger -- more than running into a bear since humans are large enough to give bears pause, but a t-rex may just see an easy meal. That said a group of humans acting together can kill just about anything, so that will be less of a problem as time goes on. A t-rex will cause problems until they get a team together to hunt it, but humans should quickly whittle down their numbers.

Worse as egg layers, dinosaurs will be vulnerable to humans wiping them out, since they can't really move the eggs away. Only if you have migratory dinosaur herds will humans settlements suffer any significant disruption. Large herd can literally overwhelm the ability to hunt them, but that is onlyan issue if they migrate directly through the settlement. Otherwise, back to easy meat.

Now the water will be a bigger problem. There are several large predators who might see a Viking ship as prey. worse from below they would even resemble prey.

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  • $\begingroup$ "dinosaurs will be vulnerable to humans wiping them out, since they can't really move the eggs away" elephant birds RIP. $\endgroup$ Commented Jan 14, 2023 at 21:37
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Stockades

Openings are guarded. And they will be painted, to show giant eyes. These will scare away the reptiles.

[1]: https://i.sstatic.net/EAzG8.png

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    $\begingroup$ Hard to check if this would work, but +1 for the simplicity of it :) $\endgroup$
    – Joachim
    Commented Jan 14, 2023 at 12:39
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    $\begingroup$ Just put a Viking reenactment village in the middle of Jurassic Park and we'll know :p :p $\endgroup$
    – Goodies
    Commented Jan 14, 2023 at 14:42
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"COME BROTHERS! ODIN HAS HONORED US TO FIGHT IN RAGNAROK AMONGST THESE ICE GIANTS AND TROLLS! GLORY TO THE FIRST MAN TO DIE, FOR HE SHALL SIT AT THE RIGHT HAND OF THOR IN VALHALLA!"

That's pretty much it. In terms of architecture, perhaps a shift towards archery and more usage of stakes on the settlements - but I don't think a whole lot would change.

They would probably think that being in this strange place with magical beasts to slay was the best thing ever.

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