New potential Viking site discovered in southern Newfoundland
Posted Apr 1, 2016 12:52:25 PM.
Last Updated Apr 1, 2016 01:42:27 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A United States archeologist says a Viking settlement may have been uncovered in southern Newfoundland, though there’s still lots of work to be done to verify the find.
Douglas Bolender of the University of Massachusetts Boston was part of a research team that made the potential discovery last June in the Point Rosee region of the province’s southwest corner.
He says high-resolution satellite data taken 600 kilometres above Earth brought American archeologist Sarah Parcak to the area, where excavations were conducted.
Bolender says the research team has found a Viking-style structure and bog iron, some of which has been carbon dated to around 800 AD and 1200 AD.
It could be the first such site to be discovered in North America in over 50 years, but Bolender cautioned that a bounty of evidence needs to be uncovered before the site can be confirmed as Norse.
Researchers plans to return to Point Rosee this summer to conduct further excavations.
L’Anse aux Meadows, a Norse site on Newfoundland’s northern peninsula, is currently the first known evidence of European presence in the Americas.
