Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Medieval Norse Trappers On Baffin Island


Icelandic sagas and a single archaeological site in Newfoundland document a Viking Period presence of Norse people in the Americas. Now National Geographic’s November issue has a piece on new work in the field, lab and museum collections by Dr. Patricia Sutherland of the Memorial University in Newfoundland that points to a group of additional and somewhat later sites that may expand that evidence. She kindly answered some questions of mine via e-mail.

The best site is near Tanfield on the south coast of Baffin Island. Dr. Sutherland emphasises the following evidence as suggesting the presence of people with life-ways set apart from the local Inuit-speaking Dorset culture.

Click here to read this article from ScienceBlogs

See also Vikings and Native Americans