VI
EN
About 60 years ago, a team of archaeologists discovered the remains of a settlement on the northern tip of Newfoundland, Canada. Eight timber-framed structures from the remains resembled the structures found in Viking homes in Greenland.
Scientists believed this was the home of Vikings from Greenland and called it "L'Anse aux Meadows" (The Anse of the Meadows). To this day, it remains the only identified Viking landing site in the Americas.
A timber-framed house built in the Viking style in L'Anse aux Meadows.
Initially, determining the exact time when the Vikings began settling at L'Anse aux Meadows was a major challenge for scientists; they only knew that the artifacts found there existed throughout the Viking Age – a period when the Vikings undertook numerous large-scale expeditions and conquests in European countries and Southwest Asia, while also beginning their exploration of the North Atlantic and Northeast America (from the late 18th to the 11th centuries).
However, in results published in the journal Nature on October 20th, scientists have provided an answer to this mystery.
Construction of a Viking-era church in Norstead (Newfoundland), near the Viking settlement of L'Anse aux Meadows.
After analyzing the traces left behind by a solar storm.(a rare phenomenon where magnetic energy accumulated in the Sun's atmosphere is released, causing a burst of light in the Solar System)By studying radiocarbon dating from three pieces of wood collected at L'Anse aux Meadows in the 1970s, scientists were able to determine that the Norse explorers arrived in Newfoundland in 1021 AD, exactly 1,000 years ago.
Each piece of wood originated from a different tree species, still retaining its outer bark, and was cut with a metal tool, possibly an axe. Researchers used radiocarbon dating to count the annual growth rings on the wood's cross-sections. Accordingly, all three pieces of wood had 28 growth rings identified as dating back to 993 AD; however, the growth rings on these three pieces had not increased since 1021, meaning the trees that produced them were felled in 1021.
An image of a piece of wood as seen through a microscope.
Margot Kuitems, a member of the research team and an archaeologist at the University of Groningen, said that the sawn pieces of wood could be a "gift" left by the Vikings in this land, because the local people here did not use metal tools.
Michael Dee, a geologist at the University of Groningen (Netherlands) and author of the study, said that accurately determining when the Vikings lived in L'Anse aux Meadows is crucial. He stated that this provides evidence that Vikings first crossed the Atlantic to reach the Americas before Christopher Columbus, marking a major turning point in all migrations and explorations in human history.
Prior to this, Vikings in Northern Europe had also expanded their explorations into the western lands of the Earth before reaching L'Anse aux Meadows.
"The Vikings ventured westward in search of new raw materials, especially wood," added Dr. Michael Dee. "Traveling to new continents for resources was the first step in humanity's globalization process."
