Re: Vikings visited Canadian Arctic, research suggests
- From: VtSkier <vtskier@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 28 May 2009 22:19:20 -0400
Jack Linthicum wrote:
Somebody wake up Farley Mowat. Photo at the cite.
Vikings visited Canadian Arctic, research suggests
Artifacts suggest Norse settlement in Nunavut
By Randy Boswell, Canwest News ServiceMay 27, 2009
This May 26 handout photo shows a Nanook archeological site on Baffin
Island. Traces of a stone-and-sod wall found at the site, if
confirmed, would represent only the second location in the New World
where Norse seafarers -- popularly known as Vikings -- built a
dwelling.
Thule Inuit built of sod and whalebone. Presumably they
would use stone if whalebone wasn't available, or for
walls and whalebone for roof. What did the Dorset people
use for housebuilding?
This May 26 handout photo shows a Nanook archeological site on Baffin
Island. Traces of a stone-and-sod wall found at the site, if
confirmed, would represent only the second location in the New World
where Norse seafarers -- popularly known as Vikings -- built a
dwelling.
Photograph by: P. Sutherland, Canadian Museum of Civilization, Canwest
News Service
One of Canada's top Arctic archeologists says the remnants of a stone-
and-sod wall unearthed on southern Baffin Island may be traces of a
shelter built more than 700 years ago by Norse seafarers, a stunning
find that would be just the second location in the New World with
evidence of a Viking-built structure.
700 years ago the native people would have been Inuit.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorset_culture
See the maps about half way down and note that
"Thule" is Inuit.
The tantalizing signs of a possible medieval Norse presence in Nunavut
were found at the previously examined Nanook archeological site, about
200 kilometres southwest of Iqaluit, where people of the now-extinct
Dorset culture once occupied a stretch of Hudson Strait shoreline.
A UNESCO World Heritage site at northern Newfoundland's L'Anse aux
Meadows -- about 1,500 kilometres southeast of the Nanook dig -- is
the only confirmed location of a Viking settlement in North America.
There, about 1,000 years ago, it's believed a party of Norse voyagers
from Greenland led by Leif Eiriksson built sod-and-wood dwellings
before abandoning their colonization attempt under threat from hostile
natives they called "Skraelings."
Around 1000 AD the Newfoundland natives (Skraelings) could have
been either Dorset or Beothuk.
However, over the past 10 years, research teams led by the Canadian
Museum of Civilization's chief of Arctic archeology, Pat Sutherland,
have compiled evidence from field studies and archived collections
that strongly suggests the Norse presence in northern Canada didn't
end with Eiriksson's retreat from Newfoundland.
At three sites on Baffin Island, which the Norse called "Helluland" or
"land of stone slabs," and another in northern Labrador, the
researchers have documented dozens of suspected Norse artifacts such
as Scandinavian-style spun yarn, distinctively notched and decorated
wood objects and whetstones for sharpening knives and axes.
Among the new artifacts found near the sod-and-stone features at
Nanook is a whalebone spade, consistent with tools found at Norse
sites in Greenland, and which might have been used to cut sections of
turf for the shelter.
There is also evidence at Nanook of what appears to be a rock-lined
drainage system comparable to others found at proven Viking sites.
The apparent "architectural elements" found at the site still have to
be confirmed, Sutherland says. "They're definitely anomalous for
Dorset culture, and, when you see these things in connection with
Norse artifacts, it suggests that there may have been some kind of a
shore station."
Sutherland's theory is that Norse sailors continued to travel between
Greenland and Arctic Canada for generations after the failed
colonization bid in Newfoundland. She believes they encountered and
possibly traded with the Dorset, ancient aboriginals who were later
overrun, probably before 1400 AD, by the eastward-migrating Thule
ancestors of modern Inuit.
The theory is controversial.
Yes and the controversial parts interest me.
University of Waterloo archeologist Robert Park recently challenged
the dating of artifacts and Sutherland's interpretations of evidence
in a paper published by the journal Antiquity.
Park argues that the most plausible explanation for Norse-like traces
at Nanook and other sites is that "none of these traits come from
Dorset-European contact."
He suggests such items may have been developed without any Norse
influence by the ancient indigenous inhabitants of northern Canada.
Sutherland insists that, while proof of Norse-Dorset interaction isn't
overwhelming, there are "several lines of evidence" pointing to
sustained contact. She also notes that the kind of "boulders and turf"
structural feature observed at Nanook is "atypical for Dorset" and
consistent with Norse culture.
But 700 years ago it probably would have been Inuit,
not Dorset.
Not sure about Dorset-Norse interaction, but Inuit
used iron tools which could only have been gotten
in some way from the Norse (stealing, trade?).
Again, 700 years ago would have been Inuit.
Sutherland, whose research is also featured in the current edition of
Canadian Geographic, says a scientific paper summarizing a decade's
worth of work on the national museum's Helluland project is to be
published in August.
http://www.canada.com/technology/science/Vikings+visited+Canadian+Arctic+research+suggests/1635865/story.html
Cool stuff, but the remains could have easily been
native American.
However, the Norse needed wood for building and although
driftwood has been suggested, I posit that it wasn't
enough and so they made forays to the Labrador coast
for harvesting wood. I would presume they would try to
make themselves as comfortable as possible and build
themselves a house or two for their stay.
I would also assume that hunting trips to the far north
would also be more comfortable with some sort of
shelter which could be used year after year.
.
- References:
- Vikings visited Canadian Arctic, research suggests
- From: Jack Linthicum
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