Columbus did not discover America...?

Sindujaa D N

According to one study, Viking villages existed in North America several centuries before christopher Columbus found the country 1,000 years ago.

The Vikings are people from the so-called Scandinavian countries of Denmark, Norway, and sweden who travel by water. During the 9th and 11th centuries, they were involved in piracy, trade, rediscovery, and colonial rule. 

Using a new dating technique that chronicles time by planting rings on trees, scientists have established that the Viking community settled in Newfoundland, Canada, about 1021 AD. 

The radioactive isotopes of carbon (carbon-14) in an object are measured using radiocarbon dating. Carbon-14 is a radioactive isotope that decomposes over time. The age of an object can be determined by calculating how much of it remains. 

But it is only today, for the first time, that researchers have given a precise time frame. 


Painting by a Viking

A radiocarbon signal was created in the atmosphere by a solar storm in the past. Scientists claim to have been able to establish the exact year the tree was felled using it. 

According to scientists, such a massive solar storm (the biggest solar eclipse ever seen from the sun) occurred in 992 AD, shortly after Christ. This is what prompted experts to pinpoint the precise year of this period.


The pieces of wood had also been worked with iron tools. They have performed search operations in numerous regions, including the south. The Vikings had been in the area since AD. Not in a thousand years, says the narrator.


The Viking population that existed there in 1021 while the logs were being worked on was only there for a short period. The UNESCO World heritage Site L'Anse aux Meadows is located on the northern extremity of the island of Newfoundland. 


This is the sole Viking settlement in North America, as well as the earliest evidence of european immigration to the New World.

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