According to a new study, Vikings traveled across the Atlantic Ocean in their longships and landed in Canada in early 1021, the first precise date of Europeans in the Americas.
Artifacts show evidence of Vikings in Canada
The researchers looked at wooden artifacts from a previously updated Viking encampment in Newfoundland, which are the oldest known evidence of humans crossing the Atlantic into the Americas. The location, known as L’Anse aux Meadows, is located on the northern peninsula of Newfoundland.
Researchers used two odd sources to arrive at a certain date: cut wood and a solar storm that happened over a thousand years ago.
Once the Vikings arrived in L’Anse aux Meadows, they cut down trees with metal blades, which were not available to the local Indigenous inhabitants at the time. Three different trees were used to make the wooden pieces that were left behind at the encampment.
Tree rings, including a visible marker for the year 993, were found within those parts. A big solar storm happened the year before, astronomers believe, blasting a stream of highly energetic particles or cosmic rays from the sun at almost the speed of light.
Lead study author and isotope chronology associate professor at University of Groningen Michael Dee said, “The distinct uplift in radiocarbon production that occurred between 992 and 993 AD has been detected in tree-ring archives from all over the world.”
Interestingly, all three wooden artifacts show similar signs of the solar storm, with around 29 growth rings to the edge of the bark.
The study’s co-author Margot Kuitems said, “Finding the signal from the solar storm 29 growth rings in from the bark allowed us to conclude that the cutting activity took place in the year 1021 AD.”
Vikings arrived in Iceland and Greenland before Canada
Equally, Vikings conquered Greenland and Iceland prior to their journey to L’Anse aux Meadows.
Dee explained, “It is thought that the Vikings ventured west to find new raw materials, most notably wood. By traveling between the continents for such materials, it has been described as the first step in globalization.”
