Archaeologists may have discovered additional Viking settlements in the New World

Joel Hruska

For centuries, most scholars believed Christopher Columbus was the first European explorer to reach the New World. While Norse sagas were known to describe the Viking’s colonization of lands west and south of Greenland, these sagas were based on oral traditions written down centuries after the events they purported to describe. The 1960 discovery of a ~1000 AD Viking settlement at L’Anse aux Meadows on the island of Newfoundland proved the two Icelandic sagas (the Saga of Eric the Red and the Saga of the Greenlanders) were at least partly based in fact.
Until now, L’Anse aux Meadows was the only known Viking settlement in what the Norse called Vinland, and it isn’t believed to have existed for very long. Unlike Greenland, which the Norse settled for roughly 500 years, the Viking expeditions to Vinland appear to have been relatively short. A new archaeological expedition has found evidence of additional Viking settlements in the south of Newfoundland — a discovery with significant implications for our understanding of Norse exploration of the North American continent.
National Geographic has the details of a recent expedition to Point Rosee, Newfoundland, as well as a map showing the two settlement locations in relation to each other. This specific site was chosen by Sarah Parcak, a self-titled “space archaeologist” who combs satellite images hunting for clues to lost cities, monuments, and even long-buried Viking ruins (a TED talk given by Parcak is available here).

Image by National Geographic

Archaeologists can use a variety of technologies to look for evidence of ancient settlements or hidden chambers within known structures, including LIDAR, ground-penetrating radar, and infrared cameras. In this case, Parcak used satellite imagery to measure the difference in plant life growth across the Point Rosee site. Buried ruins may not be visible from the ground’s surface, but they still impact the amount of water held within the soil and, by extension, the growth of plant life. By charting these differences, Parcak was able to identify artificial features that wouldn’t have been present otherwise. A magnetometer also indicated a hot spot in one specific location; the archaeologists who excavated there found 28 pounds of iron slag, indicating the spot was used to dry the bog iron the Vikings relied on for making iron weapons (I recommend reading the full Nat Geo article, which has additional details on this).

The southern question

Even after L’Anse aux Meadows was definitively established as a Viking settlement, there were questions about how far to the south the Vikings had traveled. Erik the Red describes finding wine-grapes on the island, but there’s considerable debate over whether “Vinland” referred to one specific locations, multiple locations, or anywhere where the Norse found berries (vinber) that could be made into wine. There are no extant maps from the period when the colony was founded. Modern research suggests that L’Anse aux Meadows was a ship repair facility and launch point for additional expeditions, rather than a major settlement. The discovery of significant iron smelting at Point Rosee could be a sign the location was another industry-specific settlement (this time for smelting iron, rather than repairing vessels and launching expeditions), or it could mean that the main Viking settlement for the entire expedition is nearby.

Part of what complicates the search is that the Norse relied on perishable materials for building. Stone buildings can last millennia; wood, fur, and cloth decay fairly quickly over archaeological timescales. Researchers have tried for years to map the most likely locations of both Vinland and its settlers based on the various descriptions of flora and fauna within the Icelandic sagas, but changing climate conditions and uncertainty over exact details make precise location difficult. There have been a handful of Norse relics recovered far south of where the Vikings were believed to have lived, which points to either established trade networks that moved goods across indigenous populations, long-ranged Norse trading expeditions, or a simple hoax.

The Vikings were prolific explorers — a 2012 expedition to Baffin Island, above the Arctic Circle, found evidence of multiple Viking expeditions and extensive trade with the Dorset, a population of hunter-gatherers known to have lived in the area. If the Vikings settled as far south as Point Rosee, it could mean they reached other areas of the Canadian coast, possibly including the mainland of Canada itself.