I have always taught my students that Europeans arrived to the New World prior to Columbus. Vikings, through exploration, landed in Newfoundland (eastern Canada) in 1000 CE. They tried to settle for a while, but had issues with the “Skraelings” (natives) and abandoned the settlement.
There is new evidence that shows that they not only had the settlement in Vinland (Newfoundland) but elsewhere. 
According to History.Com (“The Viking Explorer Who Beat Columbus to America”, 8 Oct 2013), “Exploration was a family business for the expedition’s leader, Leif Eriksoon (variations of his last name include Erickson, Ericson, Erikson, Ericsson, and Eiriksson). His father, erike the Red, founded the first European settlement of Greenland after being expelled from Iceland around A.D. 985 for killing a neighbor. (Erik the Red’s father, himself, had been banished from Norway for committing manslaughter.) Eriksson, who is believed to have been born in Iceland around A.D. 970, spent his formative years in desolate Greenland. Around A.D. 1000, Eriksson sailed east to his ancestral homeland of Norway. There, King Olaf I Tryggvason converted him to Christianity and charged him with proselytizing the religion to the pagan settlers of Greenland. Eriksson converted his mother, who built Greenland’s first Christian church, but not his outlaw father.” The article continues to discuss the Norse stories from the 12th and 13th centuries that discuss his arrival to North America after sailing off course on his return voyage from Norway after he converted to Christianity. The “Saga of the Greenlanders”, describes his voyage to North America as not being a mistake. Eriksson’s account tells of a strange land wet from Icelandic trader Bjarni Herjolfsson who had ventured west of Greenland to North America a decade prior, but did not set foot on the land. When he purchased a trader’s ship and raised a crew of 35 men, he retraced the route in reverse to find the land discovered by Herjolfsson. What he found was a rocky, barren land in modern Canada that he named “Helluland” which means “Stone Slab Land.” Historians and archaeologists believed that this location was possibly Baffin Island. The Norsemen traveled south to Markland (Forestland), which was most likely located in modern Labrador, prior to establishing a final destination on the northern tip of Newfoundland.
The Norsemen spent the winter there and reaped the rewards of having milder weather, as opposed to what they experience in their homeland. They explored the surrounding region and found abundant meadows, rivers overflowing with salmon as well as wild grapes that they turned into wine. As a result, Eriksson named this region Vinland (“Wineland”). After winter ended, Eriksson and his crew returned home to Greenland with necessary timber and an abundance of grapes. After his father’s death, he succeeded him as chief of the Greenland settlement and never returned to North America. Conversely, other Viking crews sailed westward to Vinland for a decade and despite the abundance of natural resources, the Vikings remained in the more desolate Greenland. This is most likely because of violent encounters that lead to the violent death of Eriksson’s brother, Thorwald with the indigenous peoples they called the “Skraelings”.
Memorial in Oslo, Norway
Evidence uncovered by archaeologists determine that the saga is in fact true. Norwegian explorer Helge Ingstad ventured along the coasts of Labrador and Newfoundland in 1960 looking for a possible settlement site and found one at L’Anse aux Meadows (northernmost tip of Newfoundland). Then, an international archaeology team that included Ingstad’s wife, Anne, excavated Viking artifacts from around 1000 CE and the remains of a Norse village. These remains are now protected by UNESCO and declared a World Heritage site.
Additional research agrees with the information relayed on the History Channel that states that remains of buildings such as workshops for woodworking and an old iron forge, iron smelter, and a charcoal kiln were also discovered. The archaeologists at the site also found a number of cut iron rivets that most likely belonged to a ship and were removed. Furthermore, newer iron rivets were found, probably used to repair the ship. In turn, pieces of worked wood were also found as well as wood debris. Some pieces of wood were carved into shapes for use on a Norse ship. Other items that were uncovered at the site included a bronze cloak pin, a Norse stone oil lamp, a spindle whorl (spinning thread), a bone needle (indicating women where here, too), and other items such as butternuts. What was not found was garbage, refuse discarded from the settlers. The buildings’ remains show no stone footings, which shows they were meant to be temporary. The fact that no burial sites have been located tells us that no one died at this site (perhaps they were buried elsewhere? Time will tell if they uncover anything on the outskirts of this site). In turn, nothing has been uncovered that shows they had domesticated animals or participated in agriculture, so they either brought food sources wit them or they hunted and gathered in the area.
KENSINGTON STONE
There has been rumors that further excavations inland and west from this original settlement have yielded artifacts that tie the Vikings to further explorations. For instance, there are stories about Viking settlements in Minnesota (not the football team though) about 1000 years ago. A 200-pound rune-covered stone slab, 31 inches high, 16 inches wide and 6 inches thick, weighing about 202 pounds was uncovered in 1898 by Swedish-American farmer Olof Ohman and his son while they were clearing stumps near Kensington. On the stone is an inscription that claimed Vikings were led there by Paul Knutson, who arrived about 1362 in search of Leif Eriksson’s Vinland colony. The validity of this rune stone has been questioned multiple times– is it real? is it a hoax? According to the Kensington Runestone site, there were multiple witnesses who saw the runestone tangled in tree roots when it was discovered, and shows extensive root leaching on the back that would confirm this find. At the time, the tree was believed to be 25 to 30 years of age and the stone had been tangled in the roots since it was a sapling. Moreover, Olof had no knowledge of runes, and neither owned boons about runes or obtain books to understand them after the runestone was found. Moreover, the stone was cut from a larger stone before it was carved and the “split side” is equally aged to the carved side. As a significant feature, the stone is carved from greywacke, a dark course-grained sandstone that is more than 15% clay and very hard which would have been difficult to carve.
Currently, this is what we do know…
In 2016, researchers found a Norse site at Point Rosee (southern Newfoundland), where a lump of bog iron was found (the type found in bogs or swamps that would’ve been roasted by the Vikings before smelting and made into something usable). When analyzed, it was determined that it could not be connected to any one group living in the area (undetermined?).
Why is this relevant? Because a) Columbus was not the first European in the Western Hemisphere, b) Europeans were aware of the Viking explorations and many knew of the Newfoundland settlement, and c) Why shouldn’t it be relevant? You cannot discredit the discoveries that existed before Columbus, especially with tangible proof. There are questions that still need to be asked:
- What is the actual extent of Viking expeditions in North America, aside from Newfoundland and northeastern Canadian coastal regions?
- Did they travel down the St. Lawrence into the interior?
- Did they explore through the Hudson Bay region of northern Canada?
- How often have regular people found artifacts and kept them, instead of notifying a university or a historical society?
- If they do find more artifacts within North America, will this impact what we know about pre-Columbian history?
And, until those questions have been answered, we will just have to wait and anticipate some fantastic finds in the future!
-YHP 2017
Works Cited
"An Ancient Mystery Solved". The Kensington Runestone , 8 Apr. 2014, www.thekensingtonrunestone.com/. Accessed 29 Mar. 2017. Bird, Lindsay. "On the Trail of Vikings: Latest Search for Norse in North America - Newfoundland & Labrador." CBC News, 12 Sept. 2016, www.cbc.ca/news/canada /newfoundland-labrador/viking-dig-point-rosee-newfoundland-2016-1.3751129. Accessed 29 Mar. 2017. "Conclusions." Kensington Rune Stone - Case Closed, www.kensingtonrunestone.us/html /_conclusions.html. Accessed 29 Mar. 2017. Jarus, Owen. "Searching for the Vikings: 3 Sites Possibly Found in Canada." Live Science, 18 Apr. 2016, www.livescience.com/54439-three-possible-viking-outposts-discovered.html. Accessed 29 Mar. 2017. Kaplan, Sarah. "An Ancient Site Spotted from Space Could Rewrite the History of Vikings in North America - The Washington Post." Washington Post, 1 Apr. 2016, www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/04/01/an-ancient-site-spotted- from-space-could-rewrite-the-history-of-vikings-in-north-america/. Accessed 29 Mar. 2017. Klein, Christopher. "Did Vikings Actually Inhabit Minnesota? - Ask History." HISTORY.com, 17 Feb. 2016, www.history.com/news/ask-history/did-vikings-actually-inhabit-minnesota. Accessed 29 Mar. 2017. ---. "The Viking Explorer Who Beat Columbus to America - History in the Headlines." HISTORY.com, 8 Oct. 2013, www.history.com/news/the-viking-explorer-who-beat-columbus- to-america. Accessed 29 Mar. 2017. Linden, Eugene. "The Vikings: A Memorable Visit to America | History." Smithsonian, Dec. 2004, www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-vikings-a-memorable-visit-to-america-98090935/. Accessed 29 Mar. 2017. "New Evidence of Viking Life in America?" BBC News, 1 Apr. 2016, www.bbc.com/news /magazine-35935725. Accessed 29 Mar. 2017. "New Evidence of Viking Life in America?" BBC News, www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35935725. Accessed 29 Mar. 2017. Ramsey, Lydia. "Tour of the New North America Viking Site." Business Insider, 6 Apr. 2016, www.businessinsider.com/tour-of-the-new-north-america-viking-site-2016-4. Accessed 29 Mar. 2017. Short, Robert R. "Hurstwic: Viking-age Exploration in North America." Hurstwic Viking Combat, www.hurstwic.org/history/articles/society/text/North_American_exploration.htm. Accessed 29 Mar. 2017. Strauss, Mark. "Discovery Could Rewrite History of Vikings in New World." National Geographic News and Latest Stories, 31 Mar. 2016, news.nationalgeographic.com/2016 /03/160331-viking-discovery-north-america-canada-archaeology/. Accessed 29 Mar. 2017.
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