Norse Discovery of North America

Since we haven’t discussed the Americas in class I thought I would talk about its discovery. Growing up everyone has learned that Christopher Columbus discovered America. We say discovered although there was already Native Americans living in the Americas. We say it because most of Europe didn’t know about the Americas. It seems that another group of Europeans beat Columbus to the Americas and that would be the Norse.

The Norse were led by Leif Erickson and made their discovery around 1000. This is approximately 500 years before Columbus discovered the Bahamas. The Norse spotted land west of Greenland in 986 when Bjarni Herjolfsson left Iceland to reach a settlement on Greenland but because of high winds and fog lost his course. He spotted land that was unlike the description of Greenland and corrected his course back east eventually making it to Greenland without landing in North America.

Leif Erickson very interested in Bjarni’s story left Greenland in search of these new lands. Erickson explored the coast and eventually founded a small settlement where they stayed a winter. They called the new land Vinland because of the grape vines that were growing there. In the spring they returned to Greenland.

The archaeological site of L'Anse aux Meadows is believed to be an attempted colony by Leif Erickson and the Norse in 1003. At this site many Norse objects have been found and carbon dating estimates the date around 1000. A list and pictures of these objects can be found at http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/vinland.html

It is believed that the colony failed due to the same problems found in Greenland. The climate got colder and the colonies could no longer sustain themselves with agriculture. The colonies simply vanished in Greenland and must have also failed in North America.

It is very interesting that this is not common knowledge among students growing up in North America. Although research is still being done knowledge of the Norse discovery is being more commonly accepted.


Information found at
http://news.softpedia.com/news/How-Did-Vikings-Discover-America-49891.shtml
http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/vinland.html