When the Vikings First Came to America

The Vikings came to the Americas long before Columbus did. However, until now, it was not clear when exactly. Researchers from Mannheim, who form part of an international research team, have now succeeded in determining the exact year when Europeans first came to America. According to them, it was as early as in 1021 AD..

The international research team was supported by the Curt Engelhorn Archeometry Center of the Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen Mannheim. Their study specifies the earliest verifiable date on which Europeans came to the Americas before Columbus arrived in 1492. Professor Wilfried Rosendahl of the Department of History at the University of Mannheim was directly involved in the research project. He is the director of the Curt Engelhorn History and Cultural Heritage Research Center and academic chairman of the Curt Engelhorn Archeometry Center. The study was published in the renowned science journal “Nature”.

Previous attempts to determine the Vikings’ arrival in America were largely based on Icelandic myths. But these were orally transmitted stories that were only written down centuries after the events they recount and thus are not reliable to pinpoint an exact date.

In a science-based process, the researchers examined wood pieces from three trees from contexts that can be archaeologically associated with the Vikings in Canada. On all three wood pieces the researchers found clear signs of carvings from metal blades, which is a material the American natives did not produce. The exact year could be determined because a massive solar storm occurred in 992 AD, which produced a clear signal in the radiocarbon (¹⁴C) of the tree rings of the following year.

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