The Vikings were the first to reach America, exactly 1000 years ago

It was known for 60 years that the Vikings had reached the’Îthe one of Newfoundland but without precise date. Researchers have finally just achieved this, using a solar storm and the traces it left in tree rings as a landmark: the Vikings were in Newfoundland in 1021. Details from Mathilde Fontez, editor in chief ofEpsiloon.

franceinfo: Nordic navigators discovered America long before Christopher Columbus… 1000 years ago?

Mathilde Fontez: 1000 years everything! We know today: in 1021, the Vikings were in America. An international team has just given proof of this. By tracking the quantity of carbon-14 present in the trees of a known archaeological site in Newfoundland …

Did we already know that the Vikings had landed in Newfoundland?

Yes. And for a long time. Since the 60s and 70s. At the time, remains were found, in particular the remains of a sort of village, by the sea, on a site that is now called Anse au Meadows. There are buildings there, objects, which do not resemble those built at the time by the Native Americans. The place is considered a major archaeological site. It is even classified as a Unesco heritage.

But archaeologists could not date this Viking presence. There have been major field campaigns, excavations. The Nordic sagas have also been studied a lot. But all that could be said was that the Vikings must have come here at the end of the first millennium. Without much more precision.

And there, the researchers used a new technique?

It is a known technique: it is normally used to find old solar storms. You are going to tell me that you do not see the connection between solar storms and the Vikings. But I assure you, there is one …

When the Sun erupts, it happens from time to time, it sends puffs of charged particles towards the Earth, which interact with the atmosphere. And carbon 14 is formed. So when there is a solar storm, there is momentarily a higher rate of this element in the air. And it is stored in trees. It is therefore enough then to study the rings of trees, you know these circles which mark the growth of a tree, to find there those which are concentrated in carbon 14, and therefore to date the eruption.

However, we know that there was an eruption near the date of the Vikings’ arrival in America, in 993. The researchers therefore had the idea to look for traces of it in the wood used to build the buildings of L’Anse aux Meadows, and they found it. The rings of this wood show that it was cut precisely 28 years after the eruption, in 1021!

Doesn’t that mean the Vikings landed in America in 1021?

No, you are right. We can only say that they were present in 1021.
But that’s already a lot. It provides an anchor in time, for the first time, to tell the story of America’s first discoverers.