| Part of a series on |
| European colonization of the Americas |
|---|
.svg) |
Theexploration of North America byNorsemen began in the late 10th century. Voyages fromIceland reachedGreenland and founded colonies along its western coast. Norse settlements on Greenland lasted almost 500 years, and the population peaked at around 2,000–3,000 people. The colonies consisted mostly of farms along Greenland's scattered coastalfjords. Colonists relied heavily on hunting, especially of walruses and the harp seal. For lumber, they harvesteddriftwood, imported wood from Europe, and sailed to modern-day Canada.
Archaeological evidence indicates that the Greenland colonists used lumber and possiblyiron ore imported from North America. Archaeologists found remains of one short-term settlement atL'Anse aux Meadows near the northern tip ofNewfoundland. The remains of buildings excavated there in the 1960s dated to approximately 1,000 years ago.[1][2] It was not a permanent settlement and lacked graves and livestock areas. The site was abandoned, seemingly deliberately, by 1145 AD with no valuables or tools left behind.[3] Some wood fragments and nuts in the Norse remains were from plants not found in Newfoundland, but native to the continental mainland across theGulf of St. Lawrence.[4] No other settlements in Canada and no settlements on the North American mainland have been conclusively identified as Norse.
One explanation for why it seems the Norse did not create permanent colonies beyond Greenland is a lack ofpopulation pressure. The Greenland colonies were abandoned gradually during the 14th and 15th centuries, due at least in part to climate change. TheLittle Ice Age brought more storms, longer winters, and shorter springs. It reduced the availability of food at the same time that the value of Greenland's exports to Europe plummeted. The last written record from Norse Greenland was a 1408 marriage. The latest article of clothing from theEastern Settlement was radiocarbon dated to 1430 (±15 years).[5] The reasons for its abandonment have long been debated.
The Norse exploration has been subject to numerous controversies concerning the exploration and settlement of North America by Europeans. The primary sources for descriptions of the Norse voyages beyond Greenland are theVinland Sagas. These heroicsagas were first written down in Iceland centuries after the events they describe. After the European discovery of the Americas, it was debated whether the lands they describe beyond Greenland (Helluland, Markland, andVinland) corresponded to real places in North America. Since the public acknowledgment of Norse expeditions and settlements, pseudoscientific and pseudohistorical theories have emerged.[6]
The twoVinland sagas, theSaga of the Greenlanders and theSaga of Erik the Red, cover Norse explorations into the Western Atlantic within the genre ofIcelandic sagas. They are heroic narratives originally shared orally and written down centuries later in Iceland during the 13th and 14th centuries.[7] Written within the literary tradition of and according to the literary expectations for Icelandic sagas, they portray Greenland as a place at the edge of the world where people were exiled and tested. This limits their reliability as a historical record.[8]
The earliest mention of Greenland in the sagas refers to a group of rocky islands in the Atlantic reported byGunnbjörn Ulfsson when his ship was blown off course from Iceland in the early 900s.[9] Named after him,Gunnbjarnarsker or "Gunnbjörn's skerries", were likely near modern-dayKulusuk just off the eastern coast of Greenland,[10] but their exact location is unknown.[11] According to theLandnámabók,Snæbjörn Galti led the earliest recorded intentional Norse voyage to Greenland and started a failed settlement on the eastern coast of Greenland. The colony struggled, Snæbjörn Galti was murdered, the settlement was abandoned, and only two colonists survived the return to Iceland.[12][13]Ívar Bárðarson, a Catholic priest sent to Greenland in 1341, wrote that theskerries were about "two days and two nights sailing due West" from Iceland and the halfway point on trips to the later more successful colonies on the western coast. After the end of theMedieval Warm Period, the area began to freeze over and became hazardous to ships.[14]
According to the sagas,Erik the Red (Old Norse: Eiríkr rauði) was banished fromIceland formanslaughter, and sailed westward to the lands reported by Gunnbjorn. His crew continued past the skerries, down the coast of Greenland, and settled on an island nearTunulliarfik Fjord; he named thefjordEiriksfjord after himself.[15] He remained for three years, explored the area, and decided to found a settlement.[16][17] He named the area Greenland, and returned to Iceland to recruit settlers, promising tracts of land to his followers. Erik established his estateBrattahlíð along the inner reaches ofEiriksfjord.[18]
Norse Greenland consisted of two main settlements. TheEastern Settlement was at the southwestern tip of Greenland, while theWestern Settlement was about 500 km up the west coast, near present-dayNuuk.[19] A smaller settlement later founded near the Eastern Settlement is sometimes considered theMiddle Settlement.[20] The combined population peaked around 2,000–3,000.[21] At least 400 farms have been identified by archaeologists.[18]
Norse Greenlanders were limited to living along scattered fjords on the island that provided habitable land for their animals (such as cattle, sheep, goats, dogs, and cats) to be kept and farms to be established.[22][23] In these fjords, the farms depended upon stables (byres) to host their livestock in the winter, and routinely culled their herds so that they could survive the season.[22][23][24] With the coming of the warmer season livestock were taken from their byres to pastures, the most fertile being controlled by the most powerful farms and the church.[23][24][25] What was produced by livestock and farming was supplemented with subsistence hunting of mainly seal and caribou as well as walrus for trade.[22][23][24] The Norse mainly relied on theNordrsetur hunt, a communal hunt of migratoryharp seals in the spring.[22][25]
There is evidence of Norse trade with theThule, the ancestors of theInuit, and theBeothuk, related to the Algonquin. The peoples were called theSkrælingjar by the Norse. TheDorset people had withdrawn from Greenland before the Norse settlement of the island. Items such as comb fragments, pieces of iron cooking utensils and chisels, chess pieces, shiprivets, carpenter's planes, and oaken ship fragments used in Inuit boats have been found far beyond the traditional range of Norse colonization. A smallivory figurine that appears to represent a Norseman has also been found among the ruins of an Inuit community house.[26]
Trade was highly important to the Greenland Norse, who relied on imports of lumber due to the barrenness of the land. In turn they exported goods such aswalrus ivory and hide, polar bear skins, and narwhal tusks.[24][25] Ultimately these exchanges were vulnerable as they relied on migratory patterns affected by climate changes as well as on the viability of the few fjords on the island.[23][25] A portion of the time the Greenland settlements existed was during theLittle Ice Age and the climate was, overall, becoming cooler and more humid.[22][23][24] A cooling climate and increasing humidity brought more storms, longer winters and shorter springs, and affected the migratory patterns of the harp seal.[22][23][24][25] Pasture space began to dwindle and fodder yields for the winter became much smaller. This combined with regular herd culling made it hard to maintain livestock, especially for the poorest of the Greenland Norse.[22] Closer to the Eastern Settlement, temperatures remained stable but a prolonged drought reduced fodder production.[27] In spring, the voyages to where migratory harp seals could be found became more dangerous due to more frequent storms, and the lower population of harp seals meant thatNordrsetur hunts became less successful, making subsistence hunting extremely difficult.[22][23] The strain on resources made trade difficult, and as time went on, Greenland exports lost value in the European market due to competing countries and the lack of interest in what was being traded.[25] Trade in elephant ivory began competing with the trade in walrus tusks that provided income to Greenland, and there is evidence that walrus over-hunting, particularly of the males with larger tusks, led to walrus population declines.[28]
%2c_fr%25C3%25A5n_Danmark_-_KMB_-_16000300015527.jpg)
In 1126, the population requested a bishop (headquartered at abishopric established inGarðar), and in 1261, they accepted the overlordship of the Norwegian king. They continued to have their own law and became almost completely politically independent after 1349, the time of theBlack Death. In 1380, the Kingdom of Norway entered intoa personal union with the Kingdom ofDenmark.[26]
The settlements began to decline in the 14th century. The Western Settlement was abandoned around 1350.[26] Less is known about life in the Middle Settlement, but radiocarbon dating indicates that it was likely inhabited for most of the period that the Eastern Settlement was inhabited, and archaeologists have found evidence of one house in use potentially as late as 1409.[20] It is probable that the Eastern Settlement was defunct by the late 15th century. The most recentradiocarbon date found in Norse settlements as of 2002 was 1430 (±15 years).[30] The last bishop at Garðar died in 1377.[26] After a marriage was recorded in 1408, no written records mention the settlers.[31] Several theories have been advanced to explain the decline.[32]
TheLittle Ice Age of this period would have made travel between Greenland and Europe, as well as farming, more difficult. Although the hunting of seal and other animals provided a healthy diet, there was more prestige in cattle farming, and there was increased availability of farms in Scandinavian countries depopulated by famine andplague epidemics.[33] In addition, Greenlandic ivory may have been supplanted in European markets by cheaper ivory from Africa.[34] Despite the loss of contact with the Greenlanders, the Norwegian-Danishcrown continued to consider Greenland adependency.[35]
Not knowing whether the old Norse civilization remained in Greenland or not—and worried that if it did, it would still beCatholic 200 years after the Scandinavian homelands had undergone theReformation—a joint merchant-clerical expedition led by the Norwegian missionaryHans Egede was sent to Greenland in 1721.[36] Though this expedition found no surviving Europeans, it marked the beginning ofDenmark's re-assertion of sovereignty over the island.[37]
To some extent, it seemed that the Norse were unwilling to integrate with theThule people of Greenland, through either marriage or culture. There is evidence of contact as seen through the Thule archaeological record, including ivory depictions of the Norse as well as bronze and steel artifacts. In the 20th century, there was little evidence for Thule artifacts among Norse habitations,[22] however it is now known that Thule artifacts are found among Norse habitations, indicating that both groups acquired material goods from each other.[38] The older research posited that it was not climate change alone that led to Norse decline, but also their unwillingness to adapt.[22] For example, if the Norse had decided to focus their subsistence hunting on theringed seal (which could be hunted year round, though individually), and decided to reduce or do away with their communal hunts, food would have been much less scarce during the winter season.[23][24][25][39] Also, had Norse individuals used skins instead of wool for their clothing, they would have fared better nearer to the coast, and would not have been as confined to the fjords.[23][24][25]
However, more recent research has shown that the Norse did try to adapt in their own ways. This included increased subsistence hunting. A significant number of bones of marine animals can be found at the settlements, suggesting increased hunting with the absence of farmed food. In addition, pollen records show that the Norse did not always devastate the small forests and foliage, as previously thought. Instead they ensured that overgrazed or overused sections were given time to regrow and moved to other areas. Norse farmers also attempted to adapt; with the increased need for winter fodder and smaller pastures, they would self-fertilize their lands to try to keep up with the new demands caused by the changing climate.[40] However, even with these attempts, climate change was not the only thing putting pressure on the Greenland Norse. The economy was changing, and the exports they relied on were losing value.[25] Current research suggests that the Norse were unable to maintain their settlements because of economic and climatic change happening at the same time.[40]
A 2022 study indicates that gravitational effects from a readvance of the Southern Greenland Ice Sheet caused a relative sea level rise of "up to ~3.3 m outside the glaciation zone during Viking settlement, producing shoreline retreat of hundreds of meters. Sea-level rise was progressive and encompassed the entire Eastern Settlement. Moreover, pervasive flooding would have forced abandonment of many coastal sites. These processes likely contributed to the suite of vulnerabilities that led to Viking abandonment of Greenland. Sea-level change thus represents an integral, missing element of the Viking story."[41]
Greenland lacked natural resources like forests and iron ore.[43][44] The Greenlanders' oral history, recorded in theSaga of the Greenlanders andSaga of Erik the Red, mentions several places to the south or west that could supplement what was available on Greenland, notably Markland, Helluland, and Vinland.[45] There is generally believed to be a historical basis for Norse voyages to these places, despite some fantastical elements in the sagas such asGreat Ireland and theuniped who killsThorvald Asvaldsson in Vinland.[46] InAdam of Bremen's 11th-century chronicleGesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum, he briefly mentions Greenland and islands beyond Norway including one "called Vinland".[b][48] Icelandic annals record that, in 1347, a ship arrived from Greenland that had drifted off course while sailing to Markland for wood.[49] A 13th-century Icelandic description of the world gives the rough order of the lands described in the sagas as Greenland, Helluland, Markland, and Vinland, which the author suspected was part of Africa.[c][52] In Europe, several medieval works reproduced this general description in cities as far away asMilan, whereDominican chroniclerGalvano Fiamma mentionedterra que dicitur Marckalada 'the land called Markland' west of Greenland circa 1345.[52] Where these places would correspond to in modern-day Canada is still debated.[53] Greenland colonists used timber for their boats and homes, so they likely made many unrecorded trips south for wood.[43][44] Microscopic analysis of the materials used at 5 Norse sites on Greenland, shows that many families relied on driftwood and the sparse local trees, while the larger farms sourced lumber from Europe and North America.[49]
Bog iron was widely used and smelted inforges on Greenland, but because no ores were present near the Eastern or Western Settlements, the iron had to be shipped from Labrador, Newfoundland, Iceland, or Europe. One indicator that iron was being extracted from North America rather than imported from the east was the usage of porous iron and slagblooms. Iron shipped from the east would have likely been products (tools, nails, axes) or iron bars.[44]
There is one confirmed Norse settlement in modern-day Canada,L'Anse aux Meadows inNewfoundland.[54] A ruined stone and sod building atTanfield Valley onBaffin Island may have been a medieval Norse home. It contained whet stones that had been used to sharpen copper-alloy blades.[55] The Indigenous Dorset cold-hammered copper as well asmeteoric iron, but did not smelt metals.[56] Dating the Tanfield Valley site is complicated by it having been inhabited and abandoned multiple times.[55][57][58] No settlements have been found in mainlandCanada. No Norse materials have been recovered from excavations in mainland Labrador, which implies a lack of trading and a low likelihood for larger Norse sites south of Newfoundland.[59] Surveys in the 1970s and 1980s could find no evidence of Norse settlements on the coasts of modern-dayQuebec.[44]
Historians have found that the Greenlanders had limited incentives and capabilities to expand south into a long-term colony in Canada.[60]Population pressure was one of the factors that affected migrations out of Scandinavia andmedieval Iceland, where as many as 70,000Icelanders competed for limited resources.[61][62] The same pressure never manifested in Greenland. The population gradually rose from a few hundred to a few thousand before populations declined across the North Atlantic due largely to climate change. During the period when temperatures dropped, theBlack Death halved the populations of the colonists' trading partners in Iceland and Europe.[61][62]
Evidence of the Norse west of Greenland came in the 1960s when archaeologistAnne Stine Ingstad and authorHelge Ingstad excavated a Norse site atL'Anse aux Meadows inNewfoundland. They found a bronze, ring-headed pin like those the Norse used to fasten their cloaks inside the cooking pit of one of the larger dwellings. A stone oil lamp and a smallspindle whorl, used to maintain thespindle's speed of rotation while spinning fiber, were found inside another building. A fragment of a bone needle was discovered in the firepit of a third dwelling.[63] It may have been used fornålebinding, aneedlework technique that predated knitting.[64] A small, decorated brass fragment, oncegilded, was also discovered. Muchslag formed as a by-product from the smelting and working of iron was found on the site along with many iron boat nails or rivets.[63]
The site is different from the colonies in Greenland; it was not a permanent continuous settlement.[3][65] Archaeologists have found no burials, no farmland, no stables for livestock, and a near absence ofsoapstone, which was widely used by the Greenlanders for household tools.[65][3]
Birgitta Wallace has said that location of the site and the type of buildings present "suggests that seafaring was the most important function of the settlement."[4] The buildings include several large living halls and specialized workshops including one for boat repair and construction.[4] According to historianEleanor Barraclough, one major purpose of the site was boat repair.[66] The land is bare and open now, but it was forested during the time the Norse were active.[67] The presence of wood and nuts from theJuglans cinerea walnut tree, which grows wild on the continental mainland but not Newfoundland itself, indicates that the site was used as a staging area for further voyages.[4]
It's unlikely that there were any permanent settlements on the scale of L'Anse aux Meadows on Newfoundland or in nearby areas of Canada. The sailing season from Greenland was short, the voyage was long, and Greenland had a limited population for further colonies.[68] L'Anse aux Meadows itself may have drawn 10 to 20 percent of the total Greenland colonists;[69] the communal living halls could hold from 30 to 160 people.[70]Point Rosee was identified by archaeologistSarah Parcak as a possible Norse settlement based onnear-infrared satellite images and high-resolution aerial photographs, but archaeological excavations in 2015 and 2016 showed no signs of Norse occupation.[71] What initially appeard to be a turf wall and bog iron at Point Rosee, were determined to be the result of natural processes.[72][73]
Trees at L'Anse aux Meadows were felled by the Norse in 1021.[74] Chunks of wood from the site were dated in 2021 using the993–994 carbon-14 spike and tree rings.[75] This provided the first certain date for the Norse presence at the site.[76] Although not inhabited for long stretches of time, the site may have been used as late as 1145 AD.[3] When they left, the Norse intentionally and deliberately abandoned the site, leaving behind no tools and mostly waste.[69]
By 2012, Canadian researchers identified possible signs of Norse outposts from several areas on and aroundBaffin Island, notably possible Norse artifacts at the Nanook site inTanfield Valley.[55][77][78] They also suspected yarn from Willows Island and Nunguvik (nearPond Inlet) to be Norse, but these were not corroborated by later dating methods.[79] Despite early theories that the Norse introduced the practice ofspinning thread to the native peoples, a 2018 study demonstrated an Indigenous spinning tradition. The study employed a new dating technique to separate oils that could potentially contaminate the spun fibers and corrupt the results.[80] On Willows Island, archaeological sites contained strands of Dorset yarn spun between 15 BC and 725 AD possibly fromArctic hare ormuskox. This predates all known European arrivals. Unlike European cordage, the Dorset yarn was spun at a consistent diameter and was never woven into fabric.[81]
A team led by archaeologistPatricia Sutherland excavated a ruined stone and sod building in Tanfield Valley and found a range of artifacts that indicate a possible Viking presence on the island. Moreau Maxwell had begun a dig in the 1960s and described the structure as "very difficult to interpret". Due to the presence of artifacts on the island that have a possible Norse origin, Sutherland suspected the building itself was Norse.[55] Spun cordage found on Baffin Island in the 1980s and stored at theCanadian Museum of Civilization led to a more comprehensive exploration of the Tanfield Valley archaeological site for points of contact between Norse Greenlanders and the IndigenousDorset people.[57][58] At the site, Sutherland's team found whet-stones used to sharpen blades. They analyzed the metal fragments still in the whet-stone and found bronze, an alloy used by the Norse but unknown to the native peoples. They also found stones cut in a European fashion, Old World rat fur, and whalebone shovels similar to those used on Greenland.[55] While there are indicators of an early Viking presence, radiocarbon dating could not conclusively identify the site as it had been occupied and abandoned several times, with the earliestmaterial culture dating to before the arrival of the Vikings.[55]
A stonecrucible was found at the Nanook site in 2014. The crucible used very high heat to melt down metal alloys likebronze. Indigenous North Americans did not practice this type of metal-working, but the Norse regularly did. Radiocarbon dating placed it between 754 BC and 1367 AD. Sutherland said, "It may be the earliest evidence of high-temperature nonferrous metalworking in North America to the north of what is now Mexico."[82]
WhenMartin Frobisher exploredLabrador in the 1570s, the native peoples had an oral history of people they calledkablunat ('white men') whose behaviors and customs resembled those of the Norse.[59] The colonists in Greenland regularly used timber for houses and boats,[43] and the most viable logging sites from Greenland were the heavily forested coasts of northern Labrador.[83] Labrador also containedbog iron ore and nearby timber to supply charcoal as fuel for its smelting.[44]
TheDorset culture extended down to the northern edge of Labrador.[84] The Native Americans who inhabited the southern portion were the ancestors of theInnu; they would have spoken one of theAlgonquian languages and were possibly related to the IndigenousBeothuk of Newfoundland.[85][43] Archaeologists refer to them as the "Point Revenge" culture.[86] At theSandnæs farmstead in Greenland, arrowheads were found that resembled nothing in Norse culture but matched the arrows used by the Point Revenge peoples.[83]
On theAvayalik Islands, off the very northern tip of Labrador, Patricia Sutherland found yarn being excavated that was distinct from thesinew-based cordage typically used by Indigenous arctic hunters.[55] Later dating showed that it predated the Norse arrival.[87][79] Analysis of the yarn showed evidence for the Dorset spinning their own cordage and trading in a network that included the Norse, but not for a Norse settlement on the island.[88] Norse materials have not been found in Native American archaeological sites in mainland Labrador, which indicates a lack of trading and a low possibility that Norse sites as large as L'Anse aux Meadows will be found south of Newfoundland.[59] Patrick Plumet led many coastal surveys west of Labrador in theUngava Bay during the 1970s and 1980s but found no evidence of Norse settlements.[44]
According to theIcelandic sagas—Saga of Erik the Red,[89] plus chapters of theHauksbók and theFlatey Book—the Norse started to explore lands to the west of Greenland only a few years after the Greenland settlements were established. In 985, while sailing from Iceland to Greenland with a migration fleet consisting of 400–700 settlers[18] and 25 other ships (14 of which completed the journey), a merchant namedBjarni Herjólfsson was blown off course, and after three days' sailing he sighted land west of the fleet. Bjarni was interested only in finding his father's farm, but he described his findings toLeif Erikson who explored the area in more detail and planted a small settlement fifteen years later.[18]
The sagas describe three areas beyond Greenland:Helluland, "land of the flat stones";Markland, "the land of forests"; andVinland, either "the land of wine" or "the land of meadows".[45] Helluland is generally thought to correspond to Baffin Island but may include northern areas of Labrador.[43] Markland is generally thought to be an area in Labrador.[43] Vinland likely includes Newfoundland and possibly other areas around the Gulf of Saint Lawrence.[43] There has long been debate about identifying any of the three "lands" to actual, known locations in North America. Vinland in particular has been the topic of widely divergent claims and theories.[53]
In 2019 archaeologistBirgitta Wallace wrote:
L'Anse aux Meadows cannot be Vinland. Vinland was a land, the same way Iceland and Greenland are lands, countries. But L'Anse aux Meadows is a place described in the sagas as part of Vinland. It is the Straumfjord of Eric's Saga. It is the same kind of settlement, with the same kind of occupants and type of activities, a winter base from where expeditions went south in the summer. Although artifacts and buildings are typically Norse, the layout, location, and artifacts are different from the sites we know elsewhere in the Norse world. Just such a site is described in the sagas: Straumsfjord. A compelling reason why L'Anse aux Meadows has to be the main site in Vinland lies in demography.[90]
.png)
For centuries, it remained unclear whether the Icelandic stories represented real voyages by the Norse to North America. Although the idea of Norse voyages to, and a colony in, North America was discussed by Swiss scholarPaul Henri Mallet in his bookNorthern Antiquities (English translation 1770),[92] the sagas first gained widespread attention in 1837 when the Danish antiquarianCarl Christian Rafn revived the idea of a Viking presence in North America.[93] North America, by the nameWinland, first appeared in written sources in a work byAdam of Bremen from approximately 1075.[94] The most important works about North America and the early Norse activities there, namely theSagas of Icelanders, were recorded in the 13th and 14th centuries. In 1420, someInuit captives and their kayaks were taken toScandinavia.[95][96] The Norse sites were depicted in theSkálholt Map, made by an Icelandic teacher in 1570 and depicting part of northeastern North America and mentioning Helluland, Markland and Vinland.[97]
| Theorist | Helluland | Markland | Vinland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carl Christian Rafn (1837)[53] | Labrador or Newfoundland | Nova Scotia | Cape Cod |
| Gustav Storm (1887)[53] | Labrador | Newfoundland | Nova Scotia |
| William Henry Babcock (1913)[53] | Labrador | Newfoundland | Nova Scotia[e] |
| William Hovgaard (1914)[53] | Baffin Island or Newfoundland | Labrador or Nova Scotia | Cape Cod area, south shore. |
| Hans Peder Steensby (1918)[53] | Labrador | Labrador | New England or New Brunswick |
| G. M. Gathorne-Hardy (1921)[53] | Labrador or Newfoundland | Nova Scotia | Cape Cod |
| Matthías Þórðarson (1929)[53] | Labrador | Labrador | New England or New Brunswick |
| Halldór Hermansson [sv] (1936)[53][99] | Northern Labrador | Southern Labrador | New England |
| John R. Swanton (1947)[100] | Northern Labrador | Southern Labrador | New England |
Discovery of the L'Anse aux Meadows Viking settlement (1960) | |||
| Tryggvi J. Oleson (1963)[101] | Baffin Island | Labrador | Cape Cod |
| Johannes Kr. Tornoe (1964)[102][103] | Baffin Island | Labrador | Waquoit Bay, Cape Cod |
| M. Magnusson andH. Palsson (1965)[104] | Baffin Island or northern Labrador | Southern Labrador or Newfoundland | New England |
| John R. L. Anderson (1967)[105] | Baffin Island or northern Labrador | Southern Labrador | Martha's Vineyard, Mass. |
| Carl O. Sauer (1968)[106] | Baffin Island | Southern Labrador or Newfoundland | Southern New England, Buzzard Bay or west. |
| Anne Stine Ingstad (1969)[53] | Baffin Island | Labrador | L'Anse aux Meadows |
| Samuel Eliot Morison (1971)[53] | Baffin Island | Labrador | L'Anse aux Meadows |
| Erik Wahlgren (1986)[53] | Baffin Island | Labrador or Newfoundland | Bay of Fundy area |
| Birgitta L. Wallace (1991)[107] | Baffin Island | Labrador | Newfoundland and New Brunswick |
| Pall Bergthorsson [is] (1997)[53] | Baffin Island | Labrador | Saint Lawrence Estuary |
| Robert Kellogg (2000)[108] | Baffin Island or Labrador | Southern Labrador | St. Lawrence Valley or New England |
While there is no physical evidence of a Norse settlements in North America except for the far east of Canada,[109] other so-called discoveries have been proposed and rejected by scholars.[110] Unsubstantiated claims of Norse colonization are especially common in New England.[111]
Supposed physical evidence has been found to be deliberately falsified or historically baseless, often to promote a political agenda. Literary criticAnnette Kolodny criticized attempts to evoke what she termed "plastic vikings". These were fictional characters treated as historical figures, but "depicted variously as heroic warriors and empire builders, barbarous berserker invaders, fighters for freedom, courageous explorers, would-be colonists, seamen and merchants, poets and saga men, glorious ancestors, bloodthirsty pagan pirates, and civilized Christian converts" depending on the speaker or author.[112][113] Purportedrunestones have been found in North America, most famously theKensington Runestone. These are generally considered forgeries or misinterpretations ofNative American petroglyphs.[114]Gordon Campbell's bookNorse America, published in 2021, presents his thesis that the "fleeting and ill-documented" idea that Vikings "discovered America" quickly seduced Americans of northern European Protestant descent, some of whom went on to deliberately manufacture evidence to support it.[115]
Monuments claimed to be Norse include:[116]
In late 1898, Swedish immigrant Olof Öhman said he found a sandstone slab covered in runes inKensington, Minnesota.[117] According to Öhman, the stone was buried face-down and tangled in the roots beneath an aspen tree.[118]Olaus J. Breda (1853–1916), professor of Scandinavian Languages and Literature in the Scandinavian Department at theUniversity of Minnesota analyzed the inscriptions, found the rune-stone to be a forgery, and published a discrediting article inSymra in 1910.[119] Breda also forwarded copies of the inscription to various contemporary Scandinavian linguists and historians, such asOluf Rygh,Sophus Bugge,Gustav Storm,Magnus Olsen andAdolf Noreen. They "unanimously pronounced the Kensington inscription a fraud and forgery of recent date".[120] Modern geological analysis indicates that runes were carved shortly before the stone's "discovery". There is very little weathering to the characters, and it is noticeably less weathered than nineteenth-century tombstones in the area.[118]
The nineteenth-century Harvard chemistEben Norton Horsford connected theCharles River Basin to places described in theNorse sagas and elsewhere, notablyNorumbega.[121] He published several books on the topic and had plaques, monuments, and statues erected in honor of the Norse.[122] His work received little support from mainstream historians and archeologists at the time, and even less today.[123][124]
Other nineteenth-century writers, such as Horsford's friendThomas Gold Appleton, in hisA Sheaf of Papers (1875), andGeorge Perkins Marsh, in hisThe Goths in New England, seized upon such false notions ofViking expansion history also to promote the superiority ofwhite people (as well as to oppose theCatholic Church). Such misuse of Viking history and imagery reemerged in the twentieth century among some groups promotingwhite supremacy.[125]
During the mid-1960s,Yale University announced the acquisition of a map purportedly drawn around 1440 that showedVinland and a legend concerning Norse voyages to the region.[126] However certain experts doubted the authenticity of the map, based on linguistic and cartographic inconsistencies. Chemical analysis of the map's ink later shed further doubts on its authenticity. Scientific debate continued until in 2021 the university finally acknowledged that the Vinland Map is a forgery.[127]
The first winter he was at Eriksey, nearly in the middle of theEastern Settlement; the spring after repaired he to Eriksfjord, and took up there his abode. He removed in summer to the western settlement, and gave to many places names. He was the second winter at Holm in Hrafnsgnipa, but the third summer went he to Iceland, and came with his ship into Breidafjord.
Smelting hut—this small isolated building contained a furnace for producing iron from bog ore. A simple smelter stood in the middle of the floor. A charcoal kiln was nearby. The amount and type of slag found suggests that a single smelt took place. Very little iron was manufactured, only enough for making about 100 to 200 nails.
An archaeological report presented to the provincial government says there are no signs of a Norse presence in the Point Rosee area in the Codroy Valley. The report on the archaeological work carried out in the area in 2015 and 2016 failed to turn up any signs of Norse occupation, with "no clear evidence" of human occupation before 1800.
During a small excavation in 2015, Parcak and her colleagues found what looked like a turf wall [...] But a larger excavation last summer [2016] cast serious doubt on those interpretations, suggesting that the turf wall and accumulation of bog ore were the results of natural processes
Our result of AD 1021 for the cutting year constitutes the only secure calendar date for the presence of Europeans across the Atlantic before the voyages of Columbus. Moreover, the fact that our results, on three different trees, converge on the same year is notable and unexpected. This coincidence strongly suggests Norse activity at L'Anse aux Meadows in AD 1021. In addition, our research demonstrates the potential of the AD 993 anomaly in atmospheric 14C concentrations for pinpointing the ages of past migrations and cultural interactions.
Hitherto we have seen the Norwegians only making slight efforts to establish themselves in Vinland. The year after Thorstein's death proved more favourable to the design of settling a colony.
Translated to English and published on both sides of the Atlantic, Rafn's book, the interpretive translation of the Icelandic sagas originally transcribed by Snorri Sturluson and other Skaldic poets in the fourteenth century, catalyzed a transatlantic fascination with all things Viking. This would encompass more than the expected primordial land-based fantasy of a Norse origin. It also catalyzed a more durable blood-based fabrication that pushed the American appropriation of Gothic Anglo-Saxon identity deeper into the legendary past to its fictional roots in Scandinavian Teutonism by designating Anglo-Saxonism as a subculture of Norse Teutonism.
.svg)
.svg)
.svg)
