Wooden artifacts which were found at the Norse settlement L’Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland, Canada have shown that the Vikings were living in the Americas by at least circa 1021. For many years, scholars and archaeologists had only guessed when the Vikings had first arrived in the Americas. However, a new study that used wood artifacts and the knowledge of solar storms has provided a definite date. According to this study, Vikings lived in Newfoundland exactly 1,000 years from today in the year 1021. According to the study published in the magazine ‘Nature’, this new date of 1021 AD is a new marker for the European recognition of the Americas. It also represents the first time in recorded history when the earth was circumnavigated by humanity.
To determine the date when the Vikings first settled in the Americas, the scientists went to L’Anse aux Meadows at the northern tip of the island of Newfoundland in the North Atlantic Ocean near the coast of mainland Canada. It is the only conclusively identified Viking settlement in the Americas and contains artifacts dating from the eighth to the eleventh century. The author of the new study, Michael Dee, a geoscientist at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands believes that the settlement may also contain more clues about how the Vikings first came to the Americas. The team examined wooden pieces from L’Anse aux Meadows which had been gathered in the 1970s and which bore clear marks of a metallic tool. According to a member of the study team, the local peoples of the Americas during the period when the markings were made on the wood pieces, didn’t use metallic tools. So, it is logical to assume that it was the Vikings who had made the settlement that had made the markings using the metallic instruments which they had already invented or come to make use of.
Then, the scientists began searching for an unusual clue which was the evidence of solar storms. The scientists were aware that such storms known as Miyake events had occurred between 992 and 993. During these storms, the earth was bombarded with cosmic rays which left unusually high levels of radioactive carbon in trees. This increase in radiocarbon production had been observed in tree archives from across the world according to the study team. The researchers found similar carbon upticks in the pieces of wood which had been found in the Viking settlement. The wood pieces showed evidence of a solar storm around 29 rings from the tree bark’s edge. This allowed them to conclude that the cutting activity took place in 1021 AD i.e., the Vikings had arrived in the settlement shortly after the solar storm.
Scientists believe that the Vikings lived there for about 13 years before abandoning the settlement and returning to Greenland from where they had come. It is the first time that the presence of Vikings in the Americas has been scientifically established. It was previously known based on sagas or oral histories which were written in the 13th century some 200 years after the events they described had already transpired. These stories, which are referred to in history as the Icelandic Sagas, described fantastical events as well as contacts with the native Americans, whom they referred to as ‘Skraeling’, meaning the ‘wearers of animal skins’. According to one account, the Native Americans were short in stature and had threatening features and tangled hair on their heads. It also says that their eyes were large and their cheeks were broad. Another account depicts a native American attack on Vikings who had arrived in the Americas by ship and their deaths in these attacks.
According to the study authors, the study will help to balance the Icelandic Sagas and add credibility to the theories of the discovery and exploration of the Americas before Columbus by the Vikings and their interaction with the indigenous Americans. However, the team felt that the date of circa 1021 is somewhat later than the expected date of Viking settlements in the Americas. However, there are many mysteries when it comes to the Vikings and their expeditions into North America. Though some of the answers remain unanswered, the study team is hopeful that the technique of using solar storm data can answer many of the other dating questions from all over the world. According to them, this method will provide new insights into human history.