New Viking Discovery Could Rewrite History of the New World (Video)
Guided by ancient Norse sagas and modern satellite images, searchers discover what may be North America’s second Viking site.
PUBLISHED March 31, 2016
POINT ROSEE, CanadaIt’s a two-mile trudge through forested, swampy ground to reach Point Rosee, a narrow, windswept peninsula stretching from southern Newfoundland into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Last June, a team of archaeologists was drawn to this remote part of Canada by a modern-day treasure map: satellite imagery revealing ground features that could be evidence of past human activity.
The treasure they discovered here—a stone hearth used for working iron—could rewrite the early history of North America and aid the search for lost Viking settlements described in Norse sagas centuries ago.
To date, the only confirmed Viking site in the New World is L’Anse aux Meadows, a thousand-year-old way station discovered in 1960 on the northern tip of Newfoundland. It was a temporary settlement, abandoned after just a few years, and archaeologists have spent the past half-century searching for elusive signs of other Norse expeditions.
“The sagas suggest a short period of activity and a very brief and failed colonization attempt,” says Douglas Bolender, an archaeologist specializing in Norse settlements. “L’Anse aux Meadows fits well with that story but is only one site. Point Rosee could reinforce that story or completely change it if the dating is different from L’Anse aux Meadows. We could end up with a much longer period of Norse activity in the New World.”
The site of the discovery, hundreds of miles south of L’Anse aux Meadows, was located by archaeologist Sarah Parcak, a National Geographic Fellow and “space archaeologist” who has used satellite imagery to locate lost Egyptian cities, temples, and tombs.
Parcak led a team of archaeologists to Point Rosee last summer to conduct a “test excavation,” a small-scale dig to search for initial evidence that the site merits further study. The scientists unearthed an iron-working hearth partially surrounded by the remains of what appears to have been a turf wall.
The archaeologists don’t yet have enough evidence to confirm that Vikings built the hearth. Other peoples lived in Newfoundland centuries ago, including Native Americans and Basque fisherman. But experts are cautiously optimistic.
“A site like Point Rosee has the potential to reveal what that initial wave of Norse colonization looked like not only for Newfoundland but for the rest of the North Atlantic,” says Bolender.
Location, Location, Location
“Who’s your daddy?!?” Parcak shouts at the ground as her muddy boot pushes down on a shovel, cutting its way through thick turf to the soil beneath. It’s a joyous sound, the primal yell of an archaeologist in her natural habitat, doing fieldwork. “Digging makes us better people,” she tells me.
Parcak is far afield of her usual stomping grounds in Egypt. But this project has clearly captivated her imagination, drawing her into Viking history and lore.
Sarah Parcak, a “space archaeologist,” has used satellite imagery to locate lost Egyptian cities, temples, and tombs. And now, her eyes in the sky are searching for Viking settlements in Canada.
One afternoon, we cautiously make our way down a steep path—created by a small landslide and gully—to a narrow beach. As we stroll along the shoreline, Parcak speculates on why this tiny peninsula would have made an ideal Norse outpost.
“They were quite nervous about their safety, threats by locals,” she says. “They needed to be in a place where they could have good access to the beaches but also a good vantage point. This spot is ideally situated—you can see to the north, west, and south.”
After studying the area and researching prior land surveys, the archaeologists have identified other characteristics that would have made Point Rosee an optimum site for Norse settlers: The southern coastline of the peninsula has relatively few submerged rocks, allowing for anchoring or even beaching ships; the climate and soil in the region is especially well-suited for growing crops; there’s ample fishing on the coast and game animals inland; and there are lots of useful natural resources, such as chert for making stone tools and turf for building housing.
Iron Men
And then, of course, there was the most valuable resource of all: bog iron. It’s a type of ore that forms when rivers carry dissolved particles of iron down from mountains and into wetlands, where bacteria leach the iron from the water, leaving behind metal deposits.
The Norse didn’t do much mining. Most of their iron was harvested from peat bogs, and their very way of life depended upon it. Metal nails held their ships together as they sailed west—expanding their realm across the North Atlantic—and south, establishing trade routes throughout Europe and the Far East. A modern-day reconstruction of a Norse longship, built by the Viking Ship Museum in Denmark, required 7,000 nails made from 880 pounds (400 kg) of iron—which means that a blacksmith would have had to heat and process 30 tons of raw bog iron ore.
Bog iron prospectors knew what telltale signs to look for, such as an oily looking microbial slick on the surface of stagnant water. In fact, three historians authored a study making the case that iron was a prerequisite for Viking settlements. L’Anse aux Meadows, they observe, was a site used for iron production and ship maintenance, providing evidence “that the explorers, knowing their ships needed repair, actively sought out a location where they could acquire bog iron and produce new nails.”
Searching For Signs
Up until now, Parcak has predominantly used her eyes in the sky to gaze upon Egypt, where she has been able to spot geological anomalies that indicate the presence of ruins beneath the barren, mostly undisturbed sands.
A satellite image of Point Rosee used by archaeologist Sarah Parcak in her search for Viking settlements. Dark straight lines indicate the remains of possible structures.
But, whereas the ancient Egyptians left behind stone edifices that have endured for thousands of years, Viking structures were hewn mostly from wood and earth. So when Parcak uses satellite imagery to search for signs of Norse settlers, she’s not looking for actual ruins. Instead, she’s scrutinizing the plant life.
The remnants of structures buried at Point Rosee alter the surrounding soil, changing the amount of moisture it retains. This, in turn, affects the vegetation growing directly over it. Using remote sensing, variations in plant growth form a spectral outline of what was there centuries earlier. The Point Rosee images were taken during the fall, when the grasses in the area were particularly high, making it easier to see which plants were healthier, drinking more water from the soil.
In one area, a magnetometer survey reveals a hot spot that, according to the satellite imagery, is partially surrounded by straight lines indicating the possible ruins of a small structure. Excavation reveals the remains of what appear to be turf walls and an iron-working hearth.
To an untrained eye, the hearth doesn’t look like much: a boulder in front of a shallow pit, surrounded by smaller stones. But traces of charcoal and 28 pounds of slag found in the pit suggest to the archaeologists that this hearth was used for roasting ore.
Enlarge
The archaeologists found 28 pounds of slag in a hearth that they believe was used to roast iron ore prior to smelting it in a furnace.
Photograph by Robert Clark, National Geographic
This was the first step in the iron-working process. Before the metal could be smelted and forged by a blacksmith, the ore needed to be dried out—otherwise, it would explode when placed inside a furnace. The roasting process also removed some of the impurities, in the form of discarded metal slag.
The discovery of this hearth makes Point Rosee the southernmost and westernmost known iron-working site in pre-Columbian North America.
The Stuff of Legends
Was Point Rosee a Viking outpost a thousand or so years ago? The evidence thus far is promising. The turf structure that partially surrounds the hearth is nothing like the shelters built by indigenous peoples who lived in Newfoundland at the time, nor by Basque fishermen and whalers who arrived in the 16th century. And, while iron slag may be fairly generic, “there aren’t any known cultures—prehistoric or modern—that would have been mining and roasting bog iron ore in Newfoundland other than the Norse,” says Bolender.
Very few artifacts have been found at Point Rosee, but that’s actually a good sign. Most Norse possessions haven’t preserved well; they were typically made from wood, which decayed, or iron, which either decayed or was melted down to make something else. Archaeologists conducted seven excavations at L’Anse aux Meadows, from 1961 to 1968, before they had sufficient evidence to confirm it was a Norse outpost. And even then they found only a handful of personal items, such as a bronze pin, a needle hone, and a stone lamp. If the archaeologists had found many artifacts at Point Rosee, then it probably wouldn’t be a Viking site.
Archaeologists conducted a “test excavation” in Newfoundland—a small-scale dig to search for initial evidence that the site merits further study. They were successful.
One theory is that Point Rosee was primarily an iron-working camp, a temporary facility supporting exploration and exploitation of resources within the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Bolender, however, believes it might have been part of a more substantial settlement somewhere in the vicinity.
If so, then how does this discovery fit into history’s bigger picture?
Much of what we know about the Norse exploration of North America is gleaned from the Viking sagas, oral stories passed down across generations that were eventually transcribed.
“We’re looking here because of the sagas,” says Bolender. “Nobody would have ever found L’Anse aux Meadows if it weren’t for the sagas. But, the flipside is that we have no idea how reliable they are.”
Archaeologists have found sporadic evidence suggestive of Viking explorers who traveled beyond their settlements in Greenland. Artifacts from the 11th century, including a copper coin, were discovered in Maine, possibly obtained by Native Americans who traded with the Norse. Canadian archaeologist Patricia Sutherland has found ruins on Baffin Island, far above the Arctic Circle, which she claims were a trading outpost—though the evidence remains inconclusive.
The confirmed discovery of a Norse camp at L’Anse aux Meadows proved that the Viking sagas weren’t entirely fiction. A second settlement at Point Rosee would suggest that the Norse exploration of the region wasn’t a limited undertaking, and that archaeologists should expand their search for evidence of other settlements, built 500 years before the arrival of Christopher Columbus.
“For a long time, serious North Atlantic archaeologists have largely ignored the idea of looking for Norse sites in coastal Canada because there was no real method for doing so,” says Bolender. “If Sarah Parcak can find one Norse site using satellites, then there’s a reasonable chance that you can use the same method to find more, if they exist. If Point Rosee is Norse, it may open up coastal Canada to a whole new era of research.”
“Vikings Unearthed” premiers on Monday, April 4, on BBC One (at 8:30 p.m. in the U.K.) and streams online at 3:30 p.m. ET at pbs.org/nova.
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Source NATGEO via Mark Strauss
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Check out the Heavner Rune Stone outside Heavner, Oklahoma.
I will do no such thing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_runestones
There has been evidence of the Vikings being here long before Leif Erikson or Columbus being here. Everyone knows Columbus was a killer and evil person but they have a celebration day for him. We all know leif Erickson was in the Americas long before Columbus. However, everything that is new evidence will not be rewritten. It is sad that school STILL teach the wrong history of things and no one cares about it.
Case and Point.
Columbus never set foot in North America.
(the Americas – great phrasing!) Central and South would be accurate.
djfxw
Correct.
History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon
Napoleon Bonaparte.
They came to “Plunder and Pillage” the village and were probably really only here for the beer (and the good looking , wild women) !!!
And what’s wrong with that!
touche!
/religion/2016/04/cern-666-key-the-opening-of-the-gates-to-hell-2505271.html
Love your info. How you gonna wake your PSY-CHICKS up? and where is the annointed Christ?
Hi Cobra, I missed you. Glad you’re back!
The annointed Christ had an amber necklace which he made and was able to psychically connect to some of the angels. I was one of them. Using secret messages which have been placed all over the internet, Father, Mother and the Heavenly Angels are psychically guiding all fellow love pinks and warrior souls to read these messages and wake up and to psychically connect with each other.
The annointed Christ is being imprisoned at Denver Airport bunker. we need to free him as he is being mind controlled by the evil elites and they are imputting evil thoughts into his mind so he will create evil for them on heaven on earth.
Love you my Guardian Angel.
Cobra xxx
This vulgar display of foolishness is really beginning to make my skin crawl, Jon.
Is this really who you are?
Who the hell do you think you’re bamboozling with this noise?
Love missives to yourself? Pretending to be a woman?
This is public masturbation and nothing more.
You’d be better off doing absolutely nothing with your time.
BWAAAAAAHAHAHAHAA NOW ALL MY BUDS WILL UNDERSTAND THE JOKE AND THE JOY! OF SHOUTING!!!
NO MORE DIGGING PEAT BOG!!! YAAAAY!!! omy stuff that used to suck. NOW, NOW we have LANDCRUISER LEAFSPRINGS!! finest steel in the world, forged by the computers of japan! to the microdegree! 5160 highcarbon springsteel! takes 80 HOURS to grind one into shape, because the steel is so hard!!! This modern day is wonderfull! SWORDS SWORDS EVERYWHERE! for 2c a KILO at the scrapyard! hahahahaaa you drive around, bouncing, on leafsprings, they make the finests swords, if your strong enought to work it, cause only FAGGOTS forge an soften the steel for working, NAY, keep it cool, while grinding, keep the 5160 temper, no human can forge as precisely as the computers of toyota japan. my swords, can chop a street light down. like it was tree, not in one whack of course, but you can literally chop it down in about 20-30 whacks, and the sword will still be sharp, mild steel is NO match. i have also made spears with this steel as head, on a 25mm steel rebar shaft, i intend to kill darpa robots with them. o and guns are gay, btw. you cannot ever get into Valhalla if you die gun in hand, so id rather die, than die with gun in hand. ja.
The ancient Finns raised bog ore at the same times as the Vikings did it, but the Finns raised lake ore also from the lake floors, because there are thousands upon thousands of shallow lakes in Finland, to make steel and to forge different kinds of weapons, tools, nails and other steel artifacts. That still happened as late as in 19th century, even in the beginning of the 20th century. I think that the Vikings have known the lake ore also but their lakes were mostly too deep to raise iron ore from. The archeologists should search for shallow lakes where lake ore has been raised and remnants of home steads near such lakes. Well, the latter should be found first, because naturally, the ancient raising places of the lake ore are under water.
the vikings,the egyptians and the phonecians were all great sea-faring civilisations.
it would be more astonishing that they had’nt discovered the new world.
the kings and pharoahs must have sent expeditions out in every direction possible.
it’s just human nature to explore.
it’s not surprising that small expeditions did not leave large obvious evidence behind.
this maybe explains why the odd artefacts,which seem out of place,keep cropping up.
That Mayhem sure doesn’t like women Cobra.
katerina xxx
Don’t worry about him LOVE. We just have to get FATHERS message out. We’ll deal with the tongue branding lol after it is all over. Can’t wait to see you again!
Love Cobra your warrior soul.
Are you still going to brand him my Angel love?
No MWHAHAHA! that was just i and Gunther having a laugh. But we might give him a military drill in the nude if we can be bothered. Yes that guy is very old-fashioned and his views are from the dark ages, but he believes in FATHER and that makes him ok.
Cobra x
Bring it.
brinG IT on!
Bring what, ya git, you’re the one telling everybody you’re gonna do this-n-that. Or is passive aggressive whimpering all you have?
Now then; about this desire, of yours, to have folk perform robotic and demeaning acts while naked?
Fair enough; i can’t fault you for getting right to the point, cobra, and we’ll talk more about your unnatural fixation with my behind when you bring it. In the mean time, if it helps you sleep at night, colour me frightened.
You really didn’t answer my question love. If you want to do this privately i will understand.
Here is my e-mail address [email protected]
katerina.
p.s I love you
Yes, I want to marry you, because i love you madly and i want to be the father of your children.
I LOVE YOU XXX
Jed.
I’m really not interested in your opinion. Why do you have to be such a Jerk Beef. You say you love Father so prove it and start showing some respect and stop calling yourself Supreme.
The Evils are trying to use occult black magic to link man (6) to the Bible (66 chapters) and therefore put the mark of the Beast on the Bible and eliminate Father. So why don’t you stop p***ing in the wind on BIN, and get off your a**e and do something about it.
There’s little time left and all you can do is come up with complete false allegations containing no substance whatsoever and you have INSULTED MY FUTURE WIFE. She was in tears over what you said and her Father is very angry and DEMANDS an apology.
SHAME ON YOU if you do not apologise. HER FATHER HAS GIVEN YOU THREE DAYS to issue a public apology or there will be severe consequences. WE KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE, so be a man and do the right thing, and then lets END this SILLY dispute of ours.
Lets try and get on and hopefully we can be friends again.
Jon
“…WE KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE…”
Ooooh.
Just let me know when you’re ‘coming.’
I’ll put up coffee.
And any thing else I have to say to you will have to wait until then, your three day timetable notwithstanding.
These will be the last words I ever write to you.
LAST WORDS ? CAN WE HAVE THAT IN WRITING?
Ooooh. Have you NOTHING to say to cobra. KAT GOT YOUR TONGUE?
How GOOD is your COFFEE? we WON’T BE LONG until we’re LOCKING HORNS.
KATERINA XXX
Oh, for Christ’s sake… I take a couple months off, and this silliness is still dragging on? I thought the admins were getting a handle on the sock puppet thing.
Hey, Beef. Hope all’s well, in your neck of the woods.
Hiya Bill, or MAY I CALL YOU BEEF
and you kinow he lives on a farm not in the WOODS.
THE GAMES UP LIAL, TELL ME WILLIAM HOW SUPREME IS YOUR COFFEE?
Wow. Paranoid? What game? Last I checked, Gunther, you weren’t writing love notes to yourself, publicly. You were just spouting off gibberish. At least you found yourself a girlfriend, even if she’s you… Sorry. Future wife…
Can’t speak for Beef’s choice in coffee. Mine’s awesome. Nothin but the best…
Ha Ha..B LIAL.. (sorry Bill, but that was funny.)
Rather presumptuous, Princess, perhaps you can quote where i’ve expressed a dislike for women.
Hmm?
YOU really LOVE yourself.I will link you the ThREAD. Please STOP HARRASSING me. May help you to know pRIDe cOMEs bEFORe a fAIl.
LOVE ONE ANOTHER NOT HATE MAYHAM
PRINCESS XXX
And while you’re pretending to look for the example that i requested would you be so kind as to quote where i’ve expressed hatred toward anyone? Any one! I hate certain institutions/ideologies and i hate how you twist scripture but about you personally i could give a flying rat’s arse.
You’re merely the latest anonymous online persona with the mistaken idea that you can control conversation with quasi “trigger warnings” and vacant appeals toward common ground couched in politically correct rhetoric.
Are you threatening to post…
/religion/2016/04/cern-666-key-the-opening-of-the-gates-to-hell-2505271.html#comment_246586
… this link?
Oh and rather rich that i’m harassing you in a thread where you singled me out. Here let me give you the quote…
“That Mayhem sure doesn’t like women Cobra.”
… so everyone can see, in bold print, double standards in action.
don’t you hate yourself? i would if i was you!
Lets be friends and quit this silliness. And what exactly am i threatening to post?
kat xxx
You tell me…
“I will link you the ThREAD”
… you made the threat.
Here’s something you might be able to help me with. After singling me out you proceeded to whine when i turned up. “Harassment” is what you called it but yet you seem to be fine with how your betrothed, or alter ego, cobra has spoken to me.
Yes, Princess, i can tell you’re hate-centric but why do you feel the need to project that onto me? Last time you accused me of something similar i requested proof and got ning. Is that all i can expect?
Kat got your tongue, Princess, huh?
Maybe Boy
I’d guess this is about your moronic as***le views on women preachers.
You mean Paul’s “moronic as***le views on women preachers.
Come now Meidan you normally troll with aplomb.
Lost your nerve?
Maybe Gal
Paul is a MONOSEXUALIST.
I’m not at all sure what Paul’s romantic or sexual attraction to members of one sex has to do with women preachers, Meidan, but scripture does not speak on the subject and i’m not in the least bit interested in addressing conjecture.
Maybe Twit
I’m saying for Paul there is ONLY one sex: HIS sex. Christs.
I’m not at all sure what Paul’s romantic …. attraction to members of one sex has to do with women preachers, Meidan, but scripture does not speak on the subject and i’m not in the least bit interested in addressing conjecture.
============
No scripture is actually VERY EXPLICIT about this BEING beings exist in.
It basically IS scripture.
Yet again, Meidan, the slayer of sensible thought streams, has rendered a conversation desolate before the third lap…
/spirit/2016/04/what-is-the-reward-of-the-saved-2500956.html?currentSplittedPage=2
… Which Bible translations have you been reading, exactly? And how much merlot do you imbibe when you read?
Maybe Saved One Day
Which Bible translations have you been reading, exactly?
=================
Poor poor sad little Maybe One Day, TroothyTits etc
Always the bridesmaid
Never the bride
Still
Keep reading them magazines and translations and checklists and and and and ……
Poor poor sad little Maybe One Day, TroothyTits etc
Always the bridesmaids
Never the bride
You’re starting to sound a little Westboro Baptist, Meidan, or a skipping record at least.
ha.. go figure – titles denote but what’s in a name
mind-number
http://www.gematrix.org/?word=titles+denote+but+whats+in+a+name+
” A White Crow is now a metaphor. It means, if a hypothesis or theory is falsifiable, the search for its falsification is a valid scientiic endeavor. ”
“A single poem, or a part of a poem or play written by someone other than Shakespeare, forever falsifies the “Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare” statement. All anyone has to do is find a “White Crow”. ”
https://drferris68.wordpress.com/the-allegory-of-the-cave/white-crow-black-swan/
“Who crafted such ‘verses?…. Most intriguing… haha..
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x11we9_jimi-hendrix-crosstown-traffic_music
Oh Yes! haha..
Iron Man Lives Again.. Oh Yes…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5s7_WbiR79E
Pardon the intrusions.. I “appropriated” some space and time here to talk to a Good Friend.. and now, some crosstown traffic, all the way downtown.
/spirit/2013/11/was-it-only-the-ceremonial-law-that-was-nailed-to-the-cross-2482504.html