Date established for Newfoundland Viking site
Carbon dating and dendrochronology have revealed an occupation date for the Viking site at L’Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland.
Scientists say a new dating technique analysing tree rings has provided evidence that Vikings occupied a site in Newfoundland, Canada, in 1021AD, some 500 years before Columbus ‘discovered’ North America.
It has long been known that Europeans reached the Americas before Columbus’s arrival in the New World in 1492.
But this is the first time researchers have suggested an exact date.
Writing in the journal Nature, scientists said they had analysed the tree rings of three pieces of wood cut for the Norse settlement at L’Anse aux Meadows.
They said that using an atmospheric radiocarbon signal produced by a dated solar storm as a reference, they were able to pin the “exact felling year of the tree” to 1021.
Such a solar storm – a huge blast of radiation from the Sun that hits Earth – was known to have taken place in the year 992AD, the scientists said. This enabled them to determine a more accurate date than previous estimates for the camp of about 1000AD.
“The association of these pieces with the Norse is based on detailed research previously conducted by Parks Canada,” the study says, adding that there was clear evidence the sampled wood had been modified by metal tools.
It adds that the L’Anse aux Meadows camp was a base from which other locations, including regions further south, were explored.
The authors say the discovery represents a definitive point for future research into the initial consequences of transatlantic activity, such as the transfer of knowledge and the potential exchange of genetic information and pathologies.
Dr Colleen Batey, a Viking specialist associated with the Institute for Northern Studies in Scotland, says the study does not necessarily suggest Vikings were not in the area in 1000AD.
“It suggests that the short-lived settlement was active in about 1021 when wood was being worked at the site, probably related to either building or ship repair,” she says.
“As an archaeologist, I might interpret this as one stage of the occupation activity, not necessarily the first or indeed the last.”
L’Anse aux Meadows, a Unesco world heritage site on the northernmost tip of the island of Newfoundland, is the first and only known site established by Vikings in North America and the earliest evidence of European settlement in the New World.
See more here: bbc.co.uk
Header images: Getty Images
Editor’s note: In 2012, a second possible Viking site in Newfoundland was identified at Point Rosee. It was excavated in 2015-16 with inconclusive results. Other probable Viking sites have been identified at Nanook on Baffin Island and Nunguvik in the Avayalik Islands.
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Jerry Krause
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Hi PSI Readers,
[Dr Colleen Batey, a Viking specialist associated with the Institute for Northern Studies in Scotland, says the study does not necessarily suggest Vikings were not in the area in 1000AD.
“It suggests that the short-lived settlement was active in about 1021 when wood was being worked at the site, probably related to either building or ship repair,” she says.
“As an archaeologist, I might interpret this as one stage of the occupation activity, not necessarily the first or indeed the last.”]
As I read this it is not clear there was a ‘settlement’ if there might not have been one 21 years earlier. This suggests CLIMATES might change quite rapidly.
Why does this ‘archaeologist’ seem to not know that Newfoundland was probably settled by Europeans, or Asians, at a much earlier time than 1021 AD???
Have a good day, Jerry
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Andy
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This article refers specifically to Viking visits, not to those who crossed the Bering Strait thousands of years before.
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Jerry Krause
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Hi Andy, Very Old White Guy and PSI Readers,
Andy, I ask you and PSI Readers: What is so STUPENDOUS about this NATURE ARTICLE??? For many years NATURE and SCIENCE were GENERAL SCIENCE JOURNALS in which the latest significant breakthroughs in SCIENCE were brought to the attention of a GENERAL READER. To get one’s SPECIFIC SCIENCE ARTICLE published in either journal was almost the equivalent of being awarded a NOBEL PRIZE.
In a recent PSI article (https://principia-scientific.com/nobel-prize-awarded-for-mirror-image-molecules/) I read: “A total of 187 individuals have received the chemistry prize since it was first awarded in 1901. Only seven of these laureates have been women.” As a scientist I am aware there are those who promote the idea in that SCIENCE is SEXIST dominated by MALES.
To this author’s credit recent winners of the prize in CHEMISTRY are listed and I am reasonably sure that Jennifer Doudna (2020) is female. I was not sure what the sex of her co-winner, Emmanuelle Charpentier, is. So I looked her up and she is a she. Hence, these two are two of the seven.
What amazes me about this SEXIST CLAIM is that I know the names of two more of the seven. Marie Curie (physics 1903, chemistry 1911) and Marie’s daughter, Irene Joliot-Curie (chemistry 1935). I am amazed because I seldom read about these HISTORICAL FACTS.
Finally, Very Old White Guy, we know that our numbers, who remember HISTORY, are decreasing rapidly.
Have a good day, Jerry
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