Great news for fans of the Vikings — not the football team, but the actual Norse pillaging-explorer variety of a millennium ago. Newfoundland may be home to a second Viking settlement!
Researchers have found evidence suggesting that another Viking site is located at Point Rosee on the southwest coast of Newfoundland. The first site, L’Anse aux Meadows, is near the northern-most tip of Newfoundland some 600 kilometers away. L’Anse aux Meadows has been restored and currently is the only authenticated Norse settlement in North America. Parks Canada operates it as a National Historic Site.
Archeologist Sarah Parcak and her team are digging in Point Rosee looking for evidence of Norse artifacts in the area. They are said to have found Viking-like walls and bog iron, both suggestive of a settlement. More evidence is needed before the site is considered conclusive for Norse habitation. A PBS documentary scheduled for this Wednesday outlines the search, including how high-power satellite imagery was used to find potential Viking sites in Newfoundland.
Vikings were the first Europeans to build settlements in Newfoundland and Labrador. The thousand-year-old L’Anse aux Meadows settlement was discovered in the 1960s. Archeologists have suggested that Vikings used their L’Anse aux Meadows as a “base camp for expeditions further south.” This type of exploration is certainly in keeping with the Viking character. It is not know why or how long ago the Vikings abandoned their settlement in Newfoundland.
More on this story at this link.
Photo © CBC. The L’Anse aux Meadows site on the northern peninsula of Newfoundland.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they made their way up the St. Lawrence River some, and down the coast past New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and to the Northeastern state regions of the USA. It seems their earlier explorations were at a time of warmer weather and that what might have limited their travels and caused them to pull back was the beginning of a spell of cold weathers, perhaps even a mini-ice age. Iceland used to be a forested country, but it didn’t take but 200 years or so until the Vikings had cut down all the trees. We know so little about the history of climate on this planet, but there’s little doubt it might have succeeded in limiting the Vikings where armies failed.
History tells us that the first English settlers in North America would not have survived the first winter without food from the indigenous tribes. The winters in England and Europe are warmer than what was waiting for them in Newfoundland.
There is a weather history from about the year 1150. If you look at records kept by French wine makers it notes the date the first shoots appear. The date when the grapes are set, then harvested and the quality and size of the fruit.
All good indicators to drought – temperature – long winters – short summers (crop fails – early frosts).
The Vikings inhabited Greenland a thousand years ago. They wrote of green meadows and cows. Quite different to the land we see today. As the Vikings were explorers I’m sure they progressed into Canada.