Science News for Writers

www.dailymail.co.uk    The new Viking settlement was found on the edge of Point Rosee in Newfoundland (illustrated above) 400 miles south of another site at L'Anse aux Meadows. They suggest that the Vikings' mastery of the seas allowed them to venture to North America.    There is so much speculation on possible discoverers of the Americas ranging from Polynesians, Japanese and Chinese to French Merovingians to a lost tribe of Israel, ancient Egyptians and sailors from the lost continent of Atlantis.  There are two statements that need to be said about this: An extended family group first crossed from Siberia to North America some 14,000 years ago, and survived, built sophisticated cultures and societies, and left undeniable evidence of their presence.  To give credit where credit is due, they discovered the Americas and no one else. Until solid scientific evidence establishing other groups as having visited the Americas is prod...

Credit: © Lars Johansson / Fotolia   Viking ship. The researchers say that long voyages were underway early in the 8th century AD, with the establishment of a marketplace in Ribe. What were to become history's Viking expeditions can be directly linked to the development of Ribe as a town and commercial centre. Polite trading with early Vikings? Scandinavian trade 'triggered' the Viking Age Archaeologists suggest that the dawn of the Viking Age may have been much earlier -- and less violent -- than previously believed. The new study shows that the early Vikings from Norway had access to large quantities of reindeer antlers and sold them to craftworkers in Southern Scandinavia. The study by Dr Steve Ashby, of the Department of Archaeology at York, working with colleagues from York and Aarhus University, identified the first signs of the Viking Age around 70 years before the first raid on England. Previously, the start of the Viking Age has...