Approximately 985 CE, parts of Greenland were settled by Norse exiles, adventurers and migrants from Iceland. They established a new society based on pastoralism and hunting that thrived for almost 500 years, but ultimately faced insurmountable challenges and was abandoned. The medieval Norse settlements were focused on two areas. In modern terminology, they are in south and west Greenland. In the Middle Ages, they were known as the Eastern and Western settlements respectively. Both consisted of farms dispersed among patches of good pasture in the inner fjords. The Western Settlement was probably abandoned at the end of the 1300s. The last well recorded event in the Eastern Settlement was a wedding held at Hvalsey Church in 1408. Radiocarbon dates indicate that settlement here endured to the middle of the century.