Video Review Sheet

The Vikings in America

1994, Nova, color, 52 Minutes

 Summary:

Five hundred years before Columbus, the Vikings visited North America as described in the Icelandic and Greenland Sagas. Following Erik the Red's voyage to Greenland in 986AD, his son Leif Erikson sailed west around 1000 AD. The Viking world view saw the planet as round, making their voyage conceptually possible. The voyages continued with four more over the next two decades, making efforts to colonize Erikson's Vinland. Where exactly Vinland is remains a question.

The video recounts the efforts of the Smithsonian Institution archaeologist William Fitzhugh's efforts to trace the voyage, as well as the discovery of the L'Anse aux Meadows habitation site which provided the first material evidence for Viking habitation. A Norwegian team in 1960, led by Helge and Anne Stine Ingstad discovered the site while searching for Vinland. Helge met a local fisherman, George Decker, who showed him what locals thought was an aboriginal camp. Excavation of the site later discovered the Viking settlement. Consisting of some eight structures, the site has produced smelted iron. As well, the discovery of a spindle whorl indicates the presence of women among the colonizers.

The Vikings encountered "skraelings," what are know to be Dorset culture peoples and Thule Inuit. The contact may be part of the reason for Viking abandonment of their settlements. At the same time, trade with the Inuit was extensive, and part of what has been proposed as a circum-Arctic trade network.

Study Questions:

• That the Vikings did visit and inhabit North America well before Columbus's voyage suggests that not all speculation about transoceanic contact is in error. What is different about the way archaeologists look at the issue?
• What levels of proof are required?
• How reliable is oral tradition as history? What issues should be considered when dealing with oral tradition?
• What type of diffusion does the Viking colonization represent?
• What kinds of material evidence have been found at L'Anse aux Meadows?
• Does the interaction with the indigenous people seem similar to what happened 500 years later? In what ways?

If you would like more information on the Vikings, numerous web sites are available. The Viking Home Page. The Viking visits to America have also generated number of hoaxes, most notably the Kensington Rune Stone.

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larry-zimmerman@uiowa.edu
University of Iowa Anthropology
08.20.98