Sagas written between the 12th and 14th centuries told of Eric the Red and Leif Erikson reaching Vinland. In 1960 Helge and Anne Stine Ingstad excavated L'Anse aux Meadows at the northern tip of Newfoundland, the sagas' landing place, and found buildings and tools unlike anything local Native Americans used — with clean low-angle cuts showing metal working. Radiocarbon dating of those metal-cutting artifacts, helped by a spike in atmospheric cosmic rays, pins Norse activity in the New World to 1021. ⚔️🛖
Norse metal tools and cut-marked wood confirm Viking presence in North America in 1021
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Key facts
- Viking sagas, written down between the 12th and 14th centuries, told of Eric the Red and Leif Erikson reaching a land they called Vinland west of Greenland
- In 1960 Helge and Anne Stine Ingstad excavated L'Anse aux Meadows at the northern tip of Newfoundland, where the sagas place the Viking arrival
- They found architecture and tools unlike anything local Native Americans used, with clean low-angle cuts indicating metal manufacture
- Carbon-14 dating of metal-cutting artifacts, including an upsurge in atmospheric cosmic rays at the time, fixed Norse activity in the New World to the year 1021
Sources
hnn.us
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time.com
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perseus.tufts.edu
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link.springer.com
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dailysabah.com
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The First Conclusive Proof that Norsemen Reached North ...historyofinformation.com
"L'Anse aux Meadows remains the only widely accepted instance of pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact and is notable for its possible connection with the ...
Vinland and L'Anse aux Meadowsfredolsencruises.com
Helge Marcus Ingstad was a Norwegian lawyer and bureaucrat turned huntsman, explorer and archaeologist, is best known for his significant ...
Top of the World: L'Anse aux Meadows Viking Settlementadventurecanada.com
L'Anse aux Meadows was forgotten for centuries outside of the pages of the Icelandic sagas. Nearly a millennium later, Helge Ingstad and Anne Stine Ingstad
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