Douglas
Bolender, left, and Sarah H. Parcak, right, looking for evidence of a
Viking presence at a remote site, called Point Rosee by researchers, in
Newfoundland. If confirmed, the site would be the second known Viking
settlement in North America. Credit Greg Mumford
A
thousand years after the Vikings braved the icy seas from Greenland to
the New World in search of timber and plunder, satellite technology has
found intriguing evidence of a long-elusive prize in archaeology — a
second Norse settlement in North America, further south than ever known.
The
new Canadian site, with telltale signs of iron-working, was discovered
last summer after infrared images from 400 miles in space showed
possible man-made shapes under discolored vegetation. The site is on the
southwest coast of Newfoundland, about 300 miles south of L’Anse aux Meadows, the first and so far only confirmed Viking settlement in North America, discovered in 1960.
Since then, archaeologists, following up clues in the histories known as the sagas,
have been hunting for the holy grail of other Viking, or Norse,
landmarks in the Americas that would have existed 500 years before
Columbus, to no avail.
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