The Newfoundland base was likely inhabited for only about a decade before being abandoned, but included such features as iron smelting using bog ore near the site.
Each hop was a five to nine day sail for a Viking ship: from Scandinavia to the Faroes; from the Faroes to Iceland; from Iceland to Greenland and then; from Greenland along the coast of Labrador to northern Newfoundland. The Greenland settlements being the permanent populated base to set up the forward base in Newfoundland.
Among the abundant evidence of a much warmer climate at the time, Viking era graves in Greenland are in permafrost. There is no way they dug those in permafrost back then. Digging in cement would be easier.
It is unclear why the Vikings abandoned Newfoundland, though their own accounts suggest that they didn't get along well with the locals.
My own theory is that the only tradable goods the Vikings had that the locals would have wanted were iron items, which the Vikings absolutely wouldn't have wanted to trade (their own accounts say that was strictly forbidden). However, the locals would have been rich in furs, which were extremely valuable in European markets. If you have the element of surprise and superior weapons, along with a rich target, the temptation to raid and steal would have been overwhelming. Raiding and stealing, in turn, would have generated a reaction from the locals, who would have made a sustainable, long term settlement untenable/unprofitable for the Vikings stretched well beyond the limits of a supply line.
After the great human migration out of Africa tens of thousands of years ago, the strands that went to Europe and the strands that went to America finally briefly connected about 1000AD. However, it wasn't for another 500 years that those strands permanently intertwined.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/71/Territori...
The Newfoundland base was likely inhabited for only about a decade before being abandoned, but included such features as iron smelting using bog ore near the site.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L'Anse_aux_Meadows
Each hop was a five to nine day sail for a Viking ship: from Scandinavia to the Faroes; from the Faroes to Iceland; from Iceland to Greenland and then; from Greenland along the coast of Labrador to northern Newfoundland. The Greenland settlements being the permanent populated base to set up the forward base in Newfoundland.
Among the abundant evidence of a much warmer climate at the time, Viking era graves in Greenland are in permafrost. There is no way they dug those in permafrost back then. Digging in cement would be easier.
It is unclear why the Vikings abandoned Newfoundland, though their own accounts suggest that they didn't get along well with the locals.
My own theory is that the only tradable goods the Vikings had that the locals would have wanted were iron items, which the Vikings absolutely wouldn't have wanted to trade (their own accounts say that was strictly forbidden). However, the locals would have been rich in furs, which were extremely valuable in European markets. If you have the element of surprise and superior weapons, along with a rich target, the temptation to raid and steal would have been overwhelming. Raiding and stealing, in turn, would have generated a reaction from the locals, who would have made a sustainable, long term settlement untenable/unprofitable for the Vikings stretched well beyond the limits of a supply line.
After the great human migration out of Africa tens of thousands of years ago, the strands that went to Europe and the strands that went to America finally briefly connected about 1000AD. However, it wasn't for another 500 years that those strands permanently intertwined.