SETTING SAIL
The word “Viking” means “pirate” in their Old
Norse language, and they lived up to the name.
They were fierce raiders who lived between
A.D. 750 and A.D. 1050, attacking lands outside
their native Scandinavia (modern-day Denmark,
Sweden, and Norway). Their expeditions were
chronicled in stories called the Norse sagas.
The sagas tell of Vikings sailing west, likely
toward Newfoundland. “Newfoundland has
always been a focus in the search for Norse
settlements,” Viking expert Neil Price says. “It’s
one of the closest points to Greenland, where
Vikings were known to trade.”
In 1960 archaeologists followed descriptions
in the sagas to Newfoundland’s L’Anse aux
Meadows. There they unearthed several
artifacts, including foundations of longhouses,
a type of building found in European Viking
settlements. This made L’Anse aux Meadows the
first confirmed Viking site in North America.
EYE IN THE SKY
Archaeologist Sarah Parcak became interested
in the search for North American Viking sites
after the 1960 discovery. “If the sagas are true,
then there must be other sites,” Parcak says.
“But where are they?”
Parcak, who refers to herself as a space
archaeologist, uses cutting-edge science to look
for buried treasures by studying satellite photos
taken from space. That distance allows her to see
things that aren’t visible from a plane or on the
ground. “For instance, I look for small changes
in plants in a particular area,” she says. Those
changes sometimes indicate that something
man-made is buried below—or once stood in
that spot.
After studying the Canadian coastline, Parcak
zeroed in on Point Rosee, some 400 miles south
of L’Anse aux Meadows. There she saw shapes
in the landscape that were darker than the
surrounding grass. One patch matched the
dimensions of the longhouses on L’Anse aux
Meadows. It was time for a closer look.IRON MEN
At Point Rosee, Parcak’s team conducted a
magnetic scan, or an x-ray of the ground. It
showed high iron levels. Turns out that Vikingsused iron to make their
tools. Parcak’s team has
done some digging, but they’re
still waiting on test results to verify what
they’ve uncovered.
One thing they haven’t found is any flint
or pottery, which the Vikings did not use.
Those items would’ve instead connected the
site to Native American tribes or other
European settlers.NEW TERRITORY
If Parcak’s work confirms that Point Rosee was
a Viking settlement, it helps fill in the map of
where these explorers staked their claims. “A
settlement there would suggest the Vikings
explored more of North America,” Price says.
“It might have served as a rest stop for trips
farther south and west.”
Parcak is still at Point Rosee, searching
for clues. She doesn’t know for sure if she’s
walking in the footsteps of the Vikings. But her
discovery is every bit as exciting as the Norse
sagas that may have taken place there nearly a
thousand years ago.NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC KIDS 27
SARAH PARCAK
(RIGHT) AND
OTHERS DIG FOR
VIKING ARTIFACTS
AT POINT ROSEE.