Re: native American personas (fwd)

["Terry L. Neill" <Neilltl@ptsc.slg.eds.com>]

Poster: "Terry L. Neill" <Neilltl@ptsc.slg.eds.com>

Eogan  wrote:
>I've been doing a littel research into this since this thread came up.  It
>seems that Norse colonies in the New World could have existed and been
>sustained from the 10th to the mid-14th centuries. Some estimates have
>them extendidn into the 15th centuries but this does not seem very likely.
>In any case, most everyone agrees that Norse occupation was done with
>before the major European powers started their age of Exploration (Spain,
>Portugal, England, etc.).


The colony in Greenland died out around 1500 a.d.  After that (and a good deal
*before* that, even) it is highly unlikely there were even brief expeditions to
Vinland.

L'Anse aux Meadows in Nova Scotia Canada has been dated to 1000ish.  It was
briefly occupied.  It was not a colony.  Current thinking is that it was a base
camp for expeditions to obtain lumber and other natural resources.

LAM is the only confirmed Viking site discovered in North America.

Current scholarship shows that Vikings came to North America for a few brief
years around the last millenia.  They set up some houses, worked some bog iron,
spun, fished and felled timber, and left again never to return.  There were no
colonies.

(Earlier analysis found sheep bones at the LAM site.  That made everyone think
it was an attempt at colonization.  More recently the 'sheep' bones have been
re-evaluated and turn out to be seal bones.  That's what makes the current
belief of LAM being a base camp, not a settlement.)

If another site besides LAM is discovered, that view may change

There are other theories out there about Kensington rune stones, towers in New
England and Viking Empires in North America.  But AFAIK, there is no sound
scholarly base to them.

But in any case, as Eogan wrote, the Vikings were done with America before
Cristobol Colon came along.

        - Anarra
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