A team of archaeologists say they’ve made a potentially “seismic” discovery in Canada that could “rewrite the history of Vikings in the New World” — and they did it with the help of medieval sagas and the latest satellite technology.
Medieval sagas, considered to be masterpieces of literature from the Middle Ages, capture the stories of the intrepid Vikings — the master seafarers and warriors who, starting around the 8th century, ventured beyond their Scandinavian homelands to raid and trade in foreign lands.
According to these stories, many of them featuring “larger-than-life heroes,” the Vikings had made the first European voyage to North America — at least 500 years before Christopher Columbus.
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Archaeologists have since been searching for clues of other Viking expeditions in North America; but in the past half-century, nothing concrete has been found.
Until now.
Thanks largely to the work of Sarah Parcak, a leading space archaeologist, evidence has been unearthed of a possible second Viking site in North America — and it’s located about 300 miles further south than L’Anse aux Meadows.
The site at Point Rosee, which Parcak pinpointed after analyzing satellite imagery, is located on the southwest coast of Newfoundland
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Last summer, Parcak and a team of archaeologists conducted a test excavation at Point Rosee, and uncovered an “iron-working hearth [and some cooked bog iron] partially surrounded by the remains of what appears to have been a turf wall,” The National Geographic reports.
The team said they can’t yet say for certain that the Vikings built the hearth, but the signs are encouraging.
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Parcak’s Point Rosee findings will be explored in greater detail in the two-hour television documentary, “Vikings Unearthed,” that will premier next week on PBS in the U.S. and BBC One in the U.K.
TV Show links:
1) Vikings Unearthed
2) BBC - BBC uncovers new find that may be first Viking site discovered in North America in 55 years, in co-production with PBS science series NOVA - Media Centre
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Article source: Possible Viking Find Could Rewrite North American History
Medieval sagas, considered to be masterpieces of literature from the Middle Ages, capture the stories of the intrepid Vikings — the master seafarers and warriors who, starting around the 8th century, ventured beyond their Scandinavian homelands to raid and trade in foreign lands.
According to these stories, many of them featuring “larger-than-life heroes,” the Vikings had made the first European voyage to North America — at least 500 years before Christopher Columbus.
.
.
Archaeologists have since been searching for clues of other Viking expeditions in North America; but in the past half-century, nothing concrete has been found.
Until now.
Thanks largely to the work of Sarah Parcak, a leading space archaeologist, evidence has been unearthed of a possible second Viking site in North America — and it’s located about 300 miles further south than L’Anse aux Meadows.
The site at Point Rosee, which Parcak pinpointed after analyzing satellite imagery, is located on the southwest coast of Newfoundland
.
.
Last summer, Parcak and a team of archaeologists conducted a test excavation at Point Rosee, and uncovered an “iron-working hearth [and some cooked bog iron] partially surrounded by the remains of what appears to have been a turf wall,” The National Geographic reports.
The team said they can’t yet say for certain that the Vikings built the hearth, but the signs are encouraging.
----------------------------------------------------------
Parcak’s Point Rosee findings will be explored in greater detail in the two-hour television documentary, “Vikings Unearthed,” that will premier next week on PBS in the U.S. and BBC One in the U.K.
TV Show links:
1) Vikings Unearthed
2) BBC - BBC uncovers new find that may be first Viking site discovered in North America in 55 years, in co-production with PBS science series NOVA - Media Centre
-----------------------------------------------------------
Article source: Possible Viking Find Could Rewrite North American History
