Anthro Notes

lunthro q notes National Museum of Natural History Newsletter for Teachers

vol. 8 no. 1 winter 1986

"VINLAND" REVISITED: 986-1986 west of Greenland, presumably in North America. The story begins 1000 years

ago this summer , in the year 986 when

In 1987 , Americans will celebrate Eirik the Red, accompanied by Herjulf, the bicentennial of the U.S. father of Bjarni, and a small group of Constitution; in 1992 they will colonists left the Norse settlement in celebrate the quincentennial of Iceland to found a new colony in

Columbus' discovery of the New World. Greenland . Later that summer, Bjarni But an important and far older event sailed from Norway to Iceland to spend will go almost unnoticed: the 1986 the winter with his father. When he millenial of the first recorded discovered that his father had already European discovery of North America. left with Eirik, Bjarni departed for Greenland on the same course they had Who were these first recorded taken. Unfortunately, as soon as European colonists and is there any Bjarni' s ship was out of sight of land, evidence that confirms their tale? The the east wind failed and the ship Greenlander saga, written in the 13th wandered for many days in the fog. When century, describes the somewhat the fog cleared, the wind had shifted complicated story of exploration and to the south, and Bjarni sailed on a discovery, which culminated in the sighting and colonizing of new lands (continued on next page) s

westward course for a day until he his men through the winter. The land sighted land. was distinguished by its long winter days, "sweet dew," and abundant The land Ejarni saw was not the supplies of salmon. The discovery of mountainous Greenland coast with its "wine berries" led to its naming as many glaciers but a low wooded country "V Inland". The following spring, Leif without mountains. (This description and his men returned to Greenland, fits several locations in New England following Bjarni 's route. as well as in southwest Nova Scotia.) Consistently refusing his men's According to the saga, ensuing entreaties to go ashore for water and years witnessed several voyages to and fuel, Bjarni sailed northeast along the short settlements in "Vinland" , the coast for two days, out of sight of first captained by Leif's brother land, until he made a second landfall Thorvald. Thorvald's murder of eight on a heavily forested coast (Nova Skraelings (war-whoopers) as they slept Scotia ?). A third land, seen after under their "skin" (or possibly three further days voyage, was high and birchbark) canoes, and the Skraelings' mountainous. Sailing north along the murder of Thorvald constitute the first coast, Bjarni perceived that this was recorded meeting of Native Americans an island (Newfoundland?). Four days and Europeans. This meeting also marked sail to the northeast across the open the first time humans encircling the sea brought him to Greenland and globe from west and east had met. Herjulf's farm, where Bjarni remained. Following this unhappy meeting and The Greenlanders, pre-occupied with the return of Thorvald's men to establishing their settlement, appear Greenland, another Norseman, Thorfinn to have ignored Bjarni' s tales of Karlsefni, sailed to Vinland and another land to the west. But sixteen founded a colony. The colony prospered years later on another voyage to on whale meat, game and fish, and Norway, Bjarni and his tale caught the traded the milk of their cattle to the interest of Norway's ruler, and Skraelings for skins. Thorfinn' s wife Norwegian excitement over possible new Gudrid gave birth to a son, Snorri, the lands and sources of ivory spread back first European child born in North to Greenland when Bjarni returned in America. But relations with the about A.D. 1002. In the following year, Skraelings soon deteriorated, and Eirik's son Leif purchased Bjarni' Thorfinn was forced to return to his ship and set sail for the west with 35 home in Iceland, where his descendants men. Leif first landed on a barren and wrote down the tale of these voyages rocky coast with distant ice mountains. sometime in the thirteenth century. A He named the area "Helluland", second saga (Eirik's saga) concurs with identified today as probably a location many of the above details but describes in the Canadian high arctic, possibly Leif Eiriksson as the discoverer of the east coast of Baffin Island or the Vinland during a voyage from Norway, north coast of Labrador. The next not from Greenland. Most authorities landfall southward he called lean toward the Greenlander saga as the "Markland", a heavily forested coast more accurate account. with low sandy stretches that may have been in central or southern Labrador. Are these sagas entirely mythical, Finally two days later, he sighted a or are the voyages to Vinland based on wooded land, and, in late August, reality? What evidence do archeologists landed there, on the west side of a cite for contact between the Vikings long, northward pointing cape. He then and some Native Americans or for Norse sailed up a short river and built a settlements in the New World? large sod house by a lake to shelter ,

To be accepted as proof of needed new sources of valuable Norse-Native American contacts commodities to support their precarious archaeological evidence must conform to existence in the world's northernmost several standards. First, the evidence settlements. In exchange for metal, must consist of material objects that cloth, and other items of European are indisputably linked to one culture manufacture, the Norse brought home but found in the territory of the skins , narwhal tusks , and walrus ivory other. The linkage between object and to Greenland to trade for food and people can be through style in form or metal items which Greenland could not decoration—a curvilinear Norse pin, or produce. The Greenland Norse even paid an Indian arrowhead ^f_ the style is taxes to Norway and tithes to Rome in — , specific enough to identify the maker. walrus ivory; in 1327 Greenland's Linkage can also be through a manufac- bishop sent a tithe of 400 tusks. On turing technology known to one group the west coast of Ellesmere Island, a but not to the other, or through raw folding bronze balance from a 14th material, such as a special stone type, century Inuit site suggests the visit limited to one group's territory. of a Norse trader. Further to the west, Additionally, the object must be found fragments of smelted copper, iron, and in a well-dated context of the bronze from Eathurst Island, Cornwallis appropriate age, so that it is clearly Island, and the east side of Hudson Eay not a later introduction or even a testify to the penetration of Norse forgery. goods well into central Canada.

Several archaeological examples Inuit style ivory and wooden substantiate Norse and Native American carvings, perhaps representing Norse- contacts. Some of the most exciting are men, are among the most intriguing bits from the Canadian high arctic. The east of evidence for Norse-Native American coast of Ellesmere Island is only 25 contacts. Two possible examples come miles from the northwest coast of from Ellesmere Island and another from Greenland. There, on a prehistoric the southern coast of Baffin Island, in Inuit (or Eskimo) house floor, less a house floor dated to the 13th than 800 miles from the North Pole, a century. This particular carving is fragment of European chain mail was typically Inuit in its stumpy arms and excavated in 1978. Other finds lack of facial features, but the figure including bottoms of wooden barrels, is dressed in a long European-style iron boat rivets, knife blades and a surcoat , embellished with a cross on piece of woolen cloth were all dated to the breast. Since the Greenland Norse between 1190 and 1390 A.D. Since Inuit had accepted Christianity around the neither raised sheep , spun or wove time of Leif Eiriksson's voyage, this clothing, stored food in barrels, or carving probably represents a wore chain mail, these objects clearly contemporary Inuit view of a Norseman, represent Norse finds in a native possibly carved locally given its American context. Although Inuit general style. hammered tools out of meteoric iron, the low nickel content of the pieces Even this find, however, does not shows that they were smelted from other prove that Norsemen settled in North ores by techniques known only to America, since objects can travel from Europeans and other Old World peoples. hand to hand across long distances without any direct contact between the From the Norse perspective, the maker of an object and its final owner. impetus for these early contacts and There are two such examples relating to for Norse penetration deep within the Norse-Indian contacts (as opposed to Arctic Circle was clearly economic: Norse-Inuit contacts): a chert Greenlanders and Icelanders alike arrowhead in the southern Labrador/ .

Newfoundland Indian style, recovered Vinland cannot be determined. Grapes near an eroding Norse graveyard in never grew at L'Anse aux Meadows, but Sandnes, Greenland; and the Maine wine can be made from other berries. On penny, minted in Norway between A.D. the latter point, however, one of 1065 and 1080 and found at the Goddard Thorfinn Karlsefni's own men appears to prehistoric Indian site near the mouth have dismissed the grapes as a piece of of Penobscot Bay. These objects do not 11th century false advertising. necessarily demonstrate Norse settlement in New England or even contact To date , no other Norse colonies in between Norse and Indians, since they the New World have been discovered, nor were probably traded through Inuit is there any accepted evidence of Norse intermediaries visits to areas outside the north- eastern corner of the continent. Colonization can only be demonstra- Enigmatic stone cairns, thought to be ted by architecture in a foreign style, Norse navigational aids or megalithic or by overwhelming evidence of techno- monuments, were probably constructed by logical or economic activities not Native Americans, whereas other finds, practised by the original inhabitants such as the well-known Kensington rune- nor likely to have been invented by stone from Minnesota represent archaeo- them. For years, archaeologists logical hoaxes. Since Norse exploration searched for the original location of in the North Atlantic was directed the Vinland settlement from Nantucket towards new sources of portable wealth to Labrador. Finally in 1963, at L'Anse in general and walrus ivory in particu- aux Meadows on the northern tip of lar, it is unlikely that they would Newfoundland, a Norwegian archaeolo- have explored the interior or southern gist, Helge Ingstad, discovered remains coasts of the North American continent. of three long sod houses by a sheltered harbor, on land visited both by ances- Were there any European colonies or tral Eskimos before the Norse era, and visits to the New World prior to the by Indians. Greenland Norse houses had Norsemen? It is impossible to argue stone foundations. But these New World that no Irish fisherman was ever blown houses lacked such foundations and so across the north Atlantic in a storm. could be explained as temporary But deliberate trade and colonization dwellings. Furthermore, one of five efforts were unlikely prior to 986, small outbuildings contained a since the Norse were the first to substantial amount of slag from an iron develop the sailing technology smithing operation. Radiocarbon necessary to exploit the distant determinations of charcoal associated islands of northwest Europe and eastern with the slag suggest an age of around Canada and to tie the newly founded A.D. 1000. Over 100 objects of European colonies back to a central power. manufacture were unearthed at L'Anse aux Meadows. A spindle whorl attests to Why did the Norse settlement or the weaving of wool and to the presence settlements in the New World fail, when of women. A cloak pin of bronze, a the Vikings were such feared conquerors material unknown to Native Americans, and successful colonizers throughout was similar in style to those found in Europe? European weapons of the 10th to Viking settlements of the British the 14th centuries were not markedly Isles. Finally, some wooden floorboards superior to those possessed by the from a boat indicate directly the Skraelings, and the latter s' boats presence of Norse ships. The authenti- would have been more maneuverable in city of the L'Anse aux Meadows site as inland waters. Supply lines between the a Norse settlement of brief duration mainland of North America and the Norse has been widely accepted by archaeologists. Whether or not this site was (continued on p. 14) 14

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settlement In Greenland were impractic-

ably long and dangerous , even during the relatively mild climates of the 11th to the 13th centuries. When the climate deteriorated after about 1300, the life of the Greenland Norse became increasingly precarious. Around the time of Columbus' "discovery" of the New World, the Greenland colony was abandoned.

Norse contact with Native Americans appears to have ceased around the time of the first Spanish colonies in the 16th century. Were the Spanish aware of the Norse voyages across the North Atlantic and of a colonization effort some 500 years older than their own? An old controversy persists whether or not Columbus made a secret voyage to Iceland for directions across the Atlantic. We may never learn the answers to these questions, but archeological evidence certainly suggests what some in the United States still deny, or, at least, overlook— the Norse discovery of America one thousand years ago.