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America’s Lost Vikings, Columbus was Second-ish: Who Discovered America Anyway, Found, Science Channel, TV, Where the Vikings Weren't

America’s Not-Lost Vikings, or Picking Fights with The Science Channel.

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When AiPT! asked me to review the new six-part Science Channel series, America’s Lost Vikings, I was apprehensive, but a little hopeful. First, it was on the Science Channel; that’s safe, right? Also, it’s headed by two archaeologists, Blue Nelson and Mike Arbuthnot.

I don’t know either man, so I did a little digging. Blue Nelson is an archaeologist, who appears to work in Cultural Resource Management and has been on a TV show prior to this on the History Channel, called Found. I dug a little into that show, and despite being on the History Channel (with everything that brings), Found seems to be a pretty solid show about archaeologists looking at the weird stuff people find in their yards and helping them accurately identify the items. I’ve seen one episode and was pretty pleased with it.

Nelson played a very small part in the first episode of Found, but I’m sure he’ll pop up more as I go through it. Most importantly to me was that Nelson didn’t seem to be playing into any weird pseudoarchaeology ideas like Minoans in America or Transoceanic Travelers or the European-First claims that tend to go hand in hand with “Vikings” in America.

Michael Arbuthnot is another story altogether. Arbuthnot is an archaeologist who specializes in underwater archaeology and used to run a company called Team Atlantis, which he described as, “A multidisciplinary research outfit whose mission is to explore archaeological mysteries with an emphasis on those enigmas associated with underwater contexts.”

In a 2013 reprint of a 2005 publication, The Disinformation Guide to Ancient Aliens, Lost Civilizations, Astonishing Archaeology, and Hidden History,Arbuthnot acknowledges the possibility that Atlantis could be a real place on Earth, but stated it wasn’t his primary focus of research. No, his work was to discover how the Americas were really populated. Arbuthnot then proceeds to argue for completely unsupported ideas of cultural diffusion to the Americas via prehistoric European migration by boat or raft.

I do not have the space here to explain why this is not an accepted archaeological theory, other than there is no evidence to support it and the implications of such a theory are problematic, to say the least.

So, with this unfortunate information now in my head, I watched the first episode of  America’s Lost Vikings.

Right off the bat, I’m struck with how this show will be following the format of others like Unearthed America, The Curse of Oak Island, and Legends of the Lostby using splashy graphics, epic music, and choppy editing to create a narrative that supports the show’s premises. I’m also struck with how Vikings‘ chosen audience is clearly men, given how far it went to not mention women at all.

The main focus of the first episode is the well-researched and documented site of L’Anse aux Meadows, the only confirmed Norse settlement site in the Americas. L’Anse aux Meadows was investigated in the 1960s by archaeologists Anne Stine Ingstad and her husband Helge Ingstad. The majority of what we know about L’Anse aux Meadows is because of the Ingstads, and continuing work in the 1970s by Birgitta Wallace, archaeologist emerita for Parks Canada.

Not that Nelson or Arbuthnot mention any of that. They attribute everything to only Helge Ingstad, effectively erasing Anne Stine Ingstad and Wallace from the picture. (There’s literally a monument at L’Anse aux Meadows for both of the Ingstads. They have to walk past it to see the site.)

Anyway. The rest of the first segment is Nelson and Arbuthnot walking around the site, looking at the reproduction of one of the longhouses, and in general talking about the particulars of the site.

There’s evidence that  L’Anse aux Meadows was home to somewhere between 60 -180 people, including women. Again, this is blatantly ignored. Why? Maybe they just didn’t have time to add in the word “woman” between Nelson making observations like, “This place must have just reeked of Man” (said of the longhouse), and, “This here, this is the Man’s room” (said of the sleeping closet).

Arbuthnot does spend about 30 seconds explaining that the Norse get a bad reputation as being Vikings, and really were mostly merchants, craftsmen, and farmers. The show follows this up with images of violent Vikings and passive women. So, way to clear up that misconception.

Arbuthnot also brings up the relatively short habitation period at L’Anse aux Meadows. It’s thought, via the Ingstads’ and Wallace’s research, that the site was only occupied for 3-5 years. In the long scheme of things, that is rather short, but Arbuthnot’s question of, “Why would they build so much for such a short stay?” is misleading. There are only eight structures identified at the site. Only three are housing. Eight buildings between 60-180 people doesn’t seem like “so much” to me.

It’s another subtle way the show is trying to build up the mystery of the site. Calling the houses “monumental” when they are not, saying it would have taken a long time to build, when it wouldn’t have, claiming there’s a huge number of structures when there isn’t. It’s exaggerating the facts to make it seem like more than it is.

L’Anse aux Meadows is an amazing site, but it’s not a wonder of the world or the most mysterious place in America. Pretending that it is takes away from the importance of the site, and the actually interesting things we’ve learned about it.

Arbuthnot touches on some of that a little by bringing up the controversial idea from Bjarni Einarsson that the site was used for hundreds of years, not just five. It’s the first big idea the show latches onto, and here we get to see some actual archaeology, however briefly.

Arbuthnot brings out a drone that he uses to take images of the site so he can then stitch them together into a 3D model of the footprints of the structures at the site. He makes a neat map out of the images and uses them to check the elevations of the footprints.

Not to be mean here, but honestly, as cool as it was to see this all in use, it was unnecessary. The building footprints are clear to the naked eye, and these are hardly the first aerial photographs of the site. You can find many online by simply Googling them.

Arbuthnot then compares the footprints of the buildings from L’Anse aux Meadows to other sites in Iceland. He’s doing this because he thinks he can “age” the buildings on the site this way.  The major problem with this is there are radiocarbon dates for the L’Anse aux Meadows site, and those are slightly more accurate than the stylistic footprints of buildings that could vary for any reason, from regional variation to the purpose of use. It’s interesting, and a neat trick, but not really hard evidence.

From here we kind of abandon “traditional” archaeology and start doing things that might generously be called “experimental archaeology.” There’s merit in doing experimental archaeology, but some of this I think is just an excuse for Nelson to dress up like a Norseman.

They go to Toronto’s Climate Lab, where there’s a giant freezer that can reach extreme temperatures, and they dress Nelson up in the best reproduction of Norse clothes they can find. Then they stick him in and monitor his vitals as the freezer drops to 7 degrees Fahrenheit, or -13.9 Celsius. Nelson says he was not too uncomfortable while in the freezer, and that’s nice and all. What this was proving, I don’t know. We already knew the Norse could live through the winters at L’Anse aux Meadows. They did so for about five years.

We then go to Reykjavik, Iceland to the Arni Magnusson Institute for Icelandic Studies. Nelson and Arbuthnot get access to early written-down sagas, and they want to see if L’Anse aux Meadows is possibly mentioned in the Icelandic Sagas. You see, there’s an argument that L’Anse aux Meadows is actually Vinland, mentioned in the Vinland sagas, but it in no ways matches the description of Vinland.  The researcher they talk with mentions it might be Leif’s camp, also mentioned in the Vinland saga, but there’s really no way to know or prove that. So, fun idea, but not really helpful.

We then take a detour to go to the apparent childhood home of Leif Erikson. Honestly, I have no idea why we’re here, other than to let Nelson and Arbuthnot have a moment to be wowed that they’re standing in the same spot as the first European to set foot in America, which is important for some reason.

Lastly, we head back to L’Anse aux Meadows to figure out why anyone would want to live there. L’Anse aux Meadows is a little strange in that there is apparently no evidence of agriculture or animal husbandry beyond foodstuffs. Even the food that is found there appears to be brought in from other places. We do know there was an iron smithy there, and that the people at L’Anse aux Meadows were harvesting bog iron and working it.

Nelson again decides he’s going to be the one to go learn how to harvest bog iron and drops the wonderful gem as he’s scraping mud barehanded from the creek bank, “While the Indigenous people of America were still using stone, the Vikings were extracting iron ore.”

Three things:

  • Seriously, Blue Nelson?
  • The Indigenous people of America were also mining and working copper, lead, and gold, harvesting oil, carving stone, crafting pottery, weaving, and building earthworks, among other things.
  • Am I really supposed to believe that people that figured out how to cross an ocean, work iron, and cut sod for houses, hadn’t figured out how to make and use a shovel? I think the guide was just screwing with Nelson here.

It’s possible this was not a typical settlement colony and more of a resource colony. Eleanor Barraclough at Durham University has even suggested that the site was a stop-over for ships, a place to possibly build and repair them. This idea is one Arbuthnot appears to repeat, commenting on the number of nails found at L’Anse aux Meadows, and comparing that number to known shipyards in Iceland. Honestly, that’s the first convincing thing I’ve heard all episode, and the originator of that idea isn’t even mentioned.

Nelson and Arbuthnot wrap up the episode with some stirring dialogue about how they’ve only just begun to investigate the Viking presence in America. But before they go off to chase wild geese, they have to have a drinking party with people dressed up as Vikings.

Overall, this episode didn’t really say anything flashing-red-lights “wrong.” The premise of the whole show, though, is an issue because of the loaded implications in the idea that Europeans were in the Americas in prehistoric times. That’s often used as a way to deny Indigenous culture and land rights, usually by claiming something is not actually Indigenous and assigning it to a different group. In this case, for example, Vikings.

L’Anse aux Meadows is the only verified Norse site in the Americans, and it’s not like people aren’t looking. I really hope that America’s Lost Vikings follows the pattern of Found, where they go and examine Viking claims, then effectively debunk them. I have this bad feeling it’s going to be six episodes of two guys doing wacky crap, then saying something like, “Well if we could do it, then Vikings could too!” And the problem there is the same problem with all Vikings-in-America claims — there’s no evidence.

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Columbus was Second-ish: Who Discovered America Anyway, Where the Vikings Weren't

Where the Vikings Weren’t – Wrap Up.

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So what have we learned so far about the Viking presence in America?

Well, we’ve looked at all the past usual suspects:

The Newport Tower. – Where we discuss where the tower came from and why it looks so much like a Norse tower. The reality of this structure seems to be that it’s really a windmill built by Gov. Benedict Arnold in the 17th cen, and the passing resemblance to a Norse tower was a creation in the mind of Carl Christian Rafn gotten from looking over some poorly drawn images of the tower, and never actually seeing the tower himself.

The Vinland Map – One of my favorite hoaxes of all time! Not just because it deals with maps, for which I have a fondness, but because it’s so old a hoax, it’s practically a real artifact itself now. Granted Yale would probably be really happy if it would turn out to be the real deal somehow, but with all the tests that have been done over the years, the evidence is really starting to weigh against that chance.

The Kensington Runestone. – The Runestone Museum in Minnesota still sort-of touts this one as being a real artifact when all evidence points to it being a hoax. The most convincing of all includes a detailed confession of how the hoax was set up and a then there is the major lack of any supporting evidence that it is remotely real.

Wisconsin Viking Horse Skull – This one is interesting because it’s not really about whether or not the skull is that of a Viking horse or not (it’s not BTW), but over if the skull found was the skull that was planted by pot hunters, or a different skull actually buried with the human remains it was found with. 

Beardmore Relics – These are indeed Viking relics, but where and how they were found is the real question. Still, after confessions brought the truth to light, the Royal Ontario Museum still got the last laugh. They gamely put the relic’s back out on display explaining the whole situation, and showing that they could take a joke.

But with the dismissal of all of these fun, yet unreal, stories about Viking’s in America, lets not overlook the real evidence of their presence here.

Please let’s all ooh and aah over L’Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland, Canada once more. Because, as I’ve explained many times, Vikings are cool, and we have evidence they landed here long before Columbus! Yay! Still as awesome as my beloved Vikings were, they were sadly not the first people to reach the new world.

So who were, you ask? Well, we still have several candidates out there. Mayhaps the Chinese?

Go to  Columbus was Second-ish: Who Discovered America Anyway? or Where the Vikings Weren’t for more on this series.

Columbus was Second-ish: Who Discovered America Anyway, Where the Vikings Weren't

Where the Vikings Weren’t – Beardmore Relics

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This week we have another puzzler, unlike the Wisconsin Viking Horse Skull, we know these artifacts are real. The question becomes, how did they get here?

beardmore relics
The Beardmore Relics. Image via Currelly 1939

In 1930 or 1931, a gold prospector named James Edward Dodd was prospecting just south of the Blackwater River (Elliott 1941a:254.) Dodd says while prospecting he blew up an old tree stump and a small clump of trees. When the smoke cleared he went to shovel the remains away and in the debris he says he found several iron objects (Currelly 1939:4, Elliott 1941a:254.)

According to Dodd, these objects were initially of no interest to him, so he left them there on the side of the ditch for a while. At some point he decided to go back for them, apparently in an attempt to see if anyone would buy them (Currelly 1939:4.)

As Dodd tells it, no one really showed in any interest for almost 10 years. He eventually took them to Port Arthur, Ontario and showed them to an Aaron Lougheed who then mentioned them to a John Jacob who went to Dodd’s home to see the bits of iron (Currelly 1939:4.) Lougheed and Jacob were so impressed by Dodd’s artifacts that they went to the local public library and through their own research they decided the artifacts were indeed Viking in origin (Currelly 1939:4.)

Armed with this conclusion, Jacob decided to contact C. T. Currelly at the Royal Ontario Museum of Archaeology. Apparently, nothing came of this call, and Dodd decided to again either throw away the iron bits or sell them to whoever would buy (Currelly 1939:5.) This time Dodd reached out to an Ontario geologist named E.M. Burwash, who again tried to contact C. T. Currelly, but again, this apparently went nowhere (Currelly 1939:5.)

Dodd couldn’t catch a break until one O.C. Elliott then at the Collegiate Institute in Kingston, Ontario saw the things Dodd was trying to hock, recognized them for what they were, and then sent a drawing of the items to Currelly personally (Currelly 1939:5.) At last Currelly got the message. He took one look at the picture, realized that they were indeed Viking weapons, and immediately had Dodd bring the artifacts in (Currelly 1939:5.)

Currelly judged the weapons to be a set, describing two bits of a sword, an ax head, and what could be shield grip (some say this is rattle). He concluded that the artifacts were made around 1000 A.D. and speculated that the weapons were part of a Viking burial. So impressed, Currelly purchased the artifacts for the Royal Ontario Museum (Currelly 1939:5), who still own them today.

This is where the story of the artifacts themselves ends. The Beardmore relics are real; they are over 1,000 years old; and the Royal Ontario Museum had them on display for about 20 years before they were removed due to controversy (Feder 2010:40.) However, the story of the Beardmore relics continues on in a massive “He said – He said” debacle.

From the beginning there were issues with Dodd’s story. Currelly’s peers began their own investigations and holes in Dodd’s story began to appear (Elliott 1941a & 1941b, Carpenter 1957, Godfrey 1955.) There were a number of discrepancies in the timing of Dodd’s discovery. Though he did have a few friends saying they saw the relics in Dodd’s possession after the discovery, many of these accounts can’t seem to get their dates to match up (Elliott 1941b, Carpenter 1957, Godfrey 1955.)

Also there were the signed affidavits of Eli Ragotte, J.M. Hansen and the Widdow of Jens Bloch stating that the relics really belonged to Hanson as collateral due to a loan he’d given to Bloch (Elliott 1941b: 278, Godfrey 1955:42, Carpenter 1957:877, Feder 2010:40.) Bloch came into possession of the artifacts by way of his deceased father, who had a collection when the Bloch’s lived in Norway. Bloch reportedly brought some of this collection to America with him, against Norwegian law (Elliott 1941b: 278.) Apparently, Bloch passed away before recovering the items, and Dodd, who rented Hansen’s house, helped himself to the relics.

Also in question was Dodd’s own character. Apparently, the man was quite the hoaxster and his knack for storytelling was well known in Port Arthur, Ontario. He was known at the local bar as “Liar Dodd” (Carpenter 1957:876) and would often ‘borrow’ high grade gold ore from his friends and then try to pass if off as ore he had found on his claims (Carpenter 1957:876.)  He was also frequently accused of “salting” his claim (Carpenter 1957:876.)

The most damming evidence turned out to be a sworn statement from Walter Dodd, the stepson of Dodd, stating that he had seen his father plant the artifacts before “discovering” them later (Feder 2010:40.) Walter had been present, according to Dodd’s statements, when Dodd discovered the items (Currelly 1939:4.) This final statement on the matter caused the Royal Ontario Museum to pull the artifacts from display (Feder 2010:40.)

But really all the evidence we have up to this point is really just one person’s word against another. Dodd is a dubious character, but that doesn’t mean that he couldn’t have really found these items. Still, sworn statements carry legal weight, and they shouldn’t be dismissed out of hand. But what can the relics themselves tell us?

Let’s consider the type and condition of the relics here. T.L. Tanton of the Dominion Geological Survey, was familiar with the soil and geology of the Beardmore area and gave his professional opinion that iron relics, like the Beardmore relics, should not have survived 900 years buried in the ground beneath a clump of trees in that area (Elliott 1941a:261.) Arguments were made at the time, that there were lots of iron artifacts all over the world that survived long term burial. However, Tanton’s opinion here should hold some weight because soil acidity, salt content, and moisture content change from area to area, so it really all depends on where the artifacts are buried. Tanton, being familiar with the area around Beardmore would know better than anyone if iron could survive the soil there.

The sword in particular is of great interest. The design is that of an eastern Norwegian style that didn’t travel much outside of its origin area (Elliott 1941b.) Also, the sword apparently predates the rest of the relics by about a century, bringing into question the weapons being a set (Elliott 1941b, Carpenter 1957.)

The overall conditions of the relics at the time that the Royal Ontario Museum purchased them were pretty bad. Currelly (1939) mentions immediacy putting them through a preservation technique to prevent further erosion. Elliott (1941b) calls this fragile condition into question in light of Dodd’s apparent rough handling of them. Could they have really survived being blown up, shoveled aside, being left to the elements, and handled bare-handed by several individuals? Elliott didn’t think so, neither do I.

The Royal Ontario Museum tired to salvage their loss, changing the plaque next to the relics to a more ambiguous statement before giving up and putting them into storage in the 1920’s (Currelly 1941, Feder 2010:40.) Still, Walter Dodd’s statement was too much in the end. However, the Relics were given new life in the 1990’s.

In the 90’s the Royal Ontario Museum pulled the Relic’s out of storage and put them back on display, this time  not as evidence of Vikings in America, but evidence of an unfortunate hoax that the museum had unwittingly fell for (Feder 2010:40.)

In the end the story of the Beardmore relics was deemed fake, despite the relics themselves being authentic. An interesting twist in  the saga of where the Vikings weren’t.

Go to  Columbus was Second-ish: Who Discovered America Anyway? or Where the Vikings Weren’t for more on this series.

Resources:

Carpenter, Edmund

1957    Further Evidence on the Beardmore Relics. American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 59, No. 5 (Oct., 1957), pp. 875-878. Accessed: 05/11/2013

Currelly, C.T.

1939   Viking Wepons Found Near Beardmore, Ontario. Canadian Historical Review Vol. 20 No. 1 (March. 1939). Pp. 4-7. Accessed: 9/18/2013

1941    Further Comments Regarding the Beardmore Find. Canadian Historical Review Vol. 22 No. 3 (Sept. 1941). Pp. 271-275. Accessed: 9/18/2013

Elliott, O.C.

1941a    The Case of the Beardmore Relics. Canadian Historical Review Vol. 22 No. 3 (Sept. 1941). Pp. 254 – 271

1941b    Further Comments Regarding the Beardmore Find. Canadian Historical Review Vol. 22 No. 3 (Sept. 1941). Pp. 275-279. Accessed: 9/18/2013

Feder,  Kenneth L.

2010    Encyclopedias of Dubious Archaeology: From Atlantis to the Walam Olum. Santa Barbara, CA. Greenwood.

Godfrey, William S.

1955    Vikings in America: Theories and Evidence. American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 57, No. 1, Part 1 (Feb., 1955), pp. 35-43. 05/11/2013

Columbus was Second-ish: Who Discovered America Anyway, Those Mysterious Mound Builders, Where the Vikings Weren't

Where the Vikings Weren’t – Wisconsin Viking Horse Skull

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So here is an interesting puzzle for us to consider. Not because there is any evidence that the artifact was left by Vikings, but because of the controversy over if the artifact is the real fake one or not.

A little background is required here:

Back in 1935 and 1936, Ralph Linton and W.C. McKern, from the University of Wisconsin, led summer excavations at Spencer Lake Mound (Hirst). Their team of college students those years was a who’s-who of soon-to-be well recognized Archaeologists of the 1940’s. From all accounts they used good recovery and recording procedures of the time and published their findings in peer reviewed journals (McKern 1942, 1964, P. 1964, Ritzenthaler 1964).

During the excavation they encountered several burials and recovered several artifacts, one of which was a horse skull missing its lower jaw (McKern 1964:120). The skull was removed, noted, and later identified by the Milwaukee Public Museum’s Mammologist as being a Western Mustang, a breed of horse introduced to the Wisconsin area in the early 20th century (Ritzenthaler 1964:121). McKern mentions the skull in his article in the Wisconsin Magazine of History in 1942 along with the other artifacts found, suggesting the skull as evidence of western influence during the time the mounds were built (McKern 1942:157). He further supports his idea of western influence with a piece of charred wood, apparently found along with the skull, demonstrated evidence of being cut by a steel ax (McKern 1942:157).

Now, at no point did anyone ever think the skull was evidence of anyone other than Native Americans, specifically the Chippewa (McKern 1942:157), and 20th century Europeans were involved in this situation. There is no suggestion or evidence that anyone other than the above mentioned groups were involved.

But let’s beat this dead horse anyway shall we?

Despite being debunked over a hundred years ago by Cyrus Thomas in 1894, and fifty years before McKern’s excavation at Spencer Lake Mound, some individuals still want to believe that the mounds, found all over the American Midwest, were not built by Native Americans. Some claim Ancient Hebrews, some go with white Europeans, others use the old fallback of Ancient Astronauts. In this case we’re asked to believe that these specific mounds were built by early Vikings, because of the horse skull.

For starts, the horse skull was identified as that of a Western Mustang. If it had been a horse of a Viking explorer we would be expecting it to be more like the Norwegian Fjord Horse. According to the Norwegian Fjord Horse Registry, this is one of the oldest breeds in the world, selectively bred for 2000 years, and found in Norse burial sites in Europe.

I’m guessing the similarity between the European Norse burials found with horse skulls and this one found in an old burial mound is the link needed to make this a Viking burial. Otherwise I can’t figure out why there is a link here. There are no other artifacts that were recovered that might lead one to believe this was Nordic in origin. The recovered remains were not identified as anything other than Native American. There isn’t even a random runestone to puzzle over. As far as I can see there is no reason to think this was Viking in nature.

The real controversy over the horse skull was whether or not it was planted there as a hoax.

See, in 1942 as McKern was preparing to publish a paper on the Spencer Lake Mound excavation, along with his thoughts on the horse skull, a mysterious gentleman came forwards and claimed to have planted the skull in the mound (McKern 1964, P. 1964, Ritzenthaler 1964).

The gentlemen requested to be known only as Mr. P., and came to McKern’s office to tell him an interesting story about his childhood spent pot-hunting with a friend.

“The boys dug a sizeable hole, consuming the better part of a hot afternoon, without encountering any kind of a recognizable feature. They were about to backfill the opening when one of them suggested that they bury a horse’s skull that lay along the edge of a nearby field a short distance away. This seemed like a brilliant suggestion to the undisciplined minds of the boys, so the skull was retrieved and carefully laid in an oriented position at the bottom of the excavation before backfilling commenced. Anticipation of the probable results of this piece of mischief somehow eased the monotony of the backfilling, and the miscreants mutually agreed that in about two hundred years some archaeologist would dig up the skull and conclude that he had found something really worthwhile (Mr. P. 1964:120).”

McKern’s 1936 publication in American Antiquity mentioned the skull as an important find, but he puzzled over its presence in the absence of any other western trade goods;

“The most important discovery in this mound was the complete skull of a horse found associated with one of the burials. This was clearly an inclusive feature, and dictates a proto-historic or early historic date for the erection of the tumulus. However, the absence of any trade objects of European provenience, or any other indication of contact with white traders, renders it difficult to ascribe to the mound an age under two hundred years. It is highly improbable that the horse could have been introduced into Wisconsin from the northern Plains earlier than two hundred fifty years ago. The time limitations so defined point definitely to the Dakota Sioux as the author of these relatively large northwestern Wisconsin mounds (McKern 1936 via Baerreis 1964:104).”

However, when McKern published “The Clam River Focus” in 1963 he left out the skull (Baerreis 1964:104). This caught the attention of reviewer David Baerreis, who apparently aked McKern why he’d left it out.

In a series of letters in the 1964 issue of Wisconsion Archaeologist Vol. 45 number 2, Baerreis, McKern, Mr. P., and Robert Ritzenthaler discuss the validity of the horse skull as an artifact and of the validity of Mr. P’s confession.

In brief, McKern did hear Mr. P’s confession, but in light of the plank found along with the skull, and the fact that there didn’t appear to be any evidence of previous digging in the Spencer Lake Mound, McKern didn’t think the skull was the same skull Mr. P buried (McKern 1964:118). Also, McKern felt that Mr. P’s description of the mound in which he buried the skull didn’t fit the description of Spencer Lake Mound (McKern 1964:119). McKern did believe that Mr. P had buried a skull as a childhood prank, he just didn’t think it was the same one he found (McKern 1964:118).

To back up McKern’s idea was the assurance of the rest of the excavation crew that there was no evidence that the ground around the burial with the horse skull had been disturbed (McKern 1964:118). The ground was described as hard packed, and the skull, along with the rest of the remains, had to be removed with smaller feature tools because the ground was packed into the skull (McKern 1964:118).

McKern did note that a previously dug pit fitting the description of Mr. P’s was located on the Clam Lake Mound not much further away, but it was quickly identified and was empty upon re-excavation (McKern 1964:119). McKern suggested that Mr. P was confused as to which mound he had dug in as a child, and that after he and his friends backfilled their hole, someone else came along and re-dug the hole hoping to find something (McKern 1964:119). (Apparently this is a common occurrence.)

A few things to point out here.

  • 1) It’s really easy to identify previously dug/disturbed soils in excavations, especially when they are less then 30-ish years old. So, it’s easy to believe McKern when he says he has no reason to suspect the skull was planted. Still, Ritzenthaler suggests that the youth’s may have dug the pit from the side of the mound and then wedged the skull into it (Ritzenthaler 1964:116). I’m not sure how convinced I am at this one, there still would have been evidence of disturbance, and McKern states the ground was packed into the skull making removal difficult. This wouldn’t be the case if this skull had just been placed there.
  • 2) There is the wood plank that had been chopped with a steel ax. Also, McKern and Baerreis both suggest the Spencer Lake Mound was younger than the Clam Lake Mounds, which would allow for the possibility that the mound could have been built in 1700’s which would allow for both western contact and the presence of horses (Baerreis 1964:104).
  • 3) Mr. P’s story suggests that the boy’s didn’t find anything interesting in their pot-hunting dig, there was clearly a burial with many other artifacts associated with it. Now it’s possible they stopped digging right before they hit pay dirt, but it’s been my experience that you see burials a while before you find them, in the form of darker soils, feature shapes, and the occasional artifact.
  • 4) Mr. P’s story also says that the mound they dug into was the ‘longest’ of a series of mounds, and the Spencer Lake Mound apparently is a solitary mound and is tall, but not long. However, the cluster of Clam Lake Mounds fits the description of Mr. P’s mystery mound, as do several other mound complexes in the area (McKern 1964:118).
  • 5) Ritzenthaler points out that after the skull was examined that there were noticeable chewing marks left behind from rodents gnawing on the skull (Ritzenthaler 1964:116). It’s very common to find rodent gnaw makers on bones, especially when they are left on the surface and exposed to the elements, which is what Ritzenthaler suggests (1964). Rodents will burrow and chew on things, but according to Ritzenthaler, for this to have happened there would have needed to be a maze of rodent tunnels all around the skull, which seems highly unlikely, and wasn’t mentioned by McKern.
  • 6) What are the chances of there being two horse skulls; one burred for real and the other a prank? I’m a good skeptic, I understand chance is greater than one might think, and from the two stories here, I’m beginning to think that’s just what happened.
  • 7) Neither McKern or Mr. P have any reason to be lying here, which makes it even harder to decide. There doesn’t seem to be any motive to either make up a fake hoax or to deny McKern’s account of the skull’s in-situ condition.

From what I can peace together, McKern probably left the horse skull out of his 1963 publication because it was just easier to do so. He still had the wood plank and other bits of dated evidence to base his hypothesis on, he didn’t need the horse skull. Still, it does seem that McKern may have been correct about Mr. P’s story. Since there is no reason to deny that Mr. P did plant a horse skull in some mound during his youth, and there is no reason to deny McKern’s account of discovery and excavation of his horse skull, there seems to be a good chance that there really were two skulls, one planted and lost, and one buried and found.

 

Go to  Columbus was Second-ish: Who Discovered America Anyway? or Where the Vikings Weren’t for more on this series.
———-
Resources:

Griffin, James B.
1964 Review of The Clam River Focus. Wisconsin Archeologist (old series) 45(2):104-111. http://www.ebooksread.com/authors-eng/wisconsin-natural-history-society-archeological-s/the-wisconsin-archeologist-volume-44-46-hci/page-25-the-wisconsin-archeologist-volume-44-46-hci.shtml. Retrieved July 25 2013.

Hirst, K. Kris.
N.d. There Were No Ancient Vikings in Wisconsin? Prank at Spencer Lake Mounds. About.com. http://archaeology.about.com/od/frauds/a/spencer_lake.htm. Retrieved July 25 2013.

Johnson, Annie
2012 Spencer Lake Horse Skull. http://prezi.com/77nbasbxlerv/spencer-lake-horse-skull/ Retrieved July 25 2013.

McKern, W. C.
1964 The Spencer Lake horse skull, Response to Mr. P.’s letter of June 28, 1963. Wisconsin Archeologist 45(2):118-120 http://www.ebooksread.com/authors-eng/wisconsin-natural-history-society-archeological-s/the-wisconsin-archeologist-volume-44-46-hci/page-25-the-wisconsin-archeologist-volume-44-46-hci.shtml. Retrieved July 25 2013.

1942 The first settlers of Wisconsin. Wisconsin Magazine of History 26(2):153-169 http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/wmh/id/29076/rec/19 Retrieved July 25 2013.

Mr. P.
1964 A Burnett County hoax. Wisconsin Archeologist 45(2):120-121 http://www.ebooksread.com/authors-eng/wisconsin-natural-history-society-archeological-s/the-wisconsin-archeologist-volume-44-46-hci/page-25-the-wisconsin-archeologist-volume-44-46-hci.shtml. Retrieved July 25 2013.

Ritzenthaler, Robert
1964 The riddle of the Spencer Lake horse skull. Wisconsin Archeologist 45(2):115-117 http://www.ebooksread.com/authors-eng/wisconsin-natural-history-society-archeological-s/the-wisconsin-archeologist-volume-44-46-hci/page-25-the-wisconsin-archeologist-volume-44-46-hci.shtml. Retrieved July 25 2013.

The Viking Rune.
Top Ten Viking Hoaxes. The Viking Rune: All Things Scandinavian. http://www.vikingrune.com/2009/05/top-ten-viking-hoaxes/ Retrieved July 25 2013.

Columbus was Second-ish: Who Discovered America Anyway, Where the Vikings Weren't

Where the Vikings Weren’t – The Kensington Runestone.

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Even though I’m only going to focus on one of the American Runestones (of which there are several), to date, none are thought to be authentic by anyone who is knowledgeable of such things. This doesn’t stop the conspiratorially minded however.

Probably the most popular of the American Runestones is the Kensington Runestone. Named for Kensington, Minnesota, the settlement it was discovered near in 1898 (Blegen 1968:6, Fridley1979:152). Specifically, it was found in the largely rural township of Solem, Douglas County, Minnesota (Blegen 1968:6, Fridley1979:152).

As the story goes, a Swedish immigrant farmer Olof Ohman and his son found the stone lodged into the roots of a tree they were removing from a field to be plowed (Blegen 1968:6, Fridley1979:152). According to the story, the two didn’t even notice the inscription until much later, after Ohman’s son dusted the stone, and dug the dirt out of the engravings with a stick (Blegen 1968:6). From there the story gets a little blurry, apparently there was an excavation looking for artifacts associated with the stone, but all they found were pieces of stone originally thought to be bone (Blegen 1968:36). Future exactions found nothing associated with the stone (Fagan 2006:119). Currently the stone rests in a Runestone Museum, located in downtown Alexandria, Minnesota.

The stone itself is a large slab of greywacke, roughly the shape of a tomb stone, that has runic inscriptions on two sides (Blegen 1968:10). The inscription tells the story of an ill-fated Norse excursion in the area that would become Minnesota (Fagan 2006:118). However, from the time of its discovery, the stone has been a source of controversy that still lasts today.

The Kensington Runestone. Image via Wikicommons.

Very briefly and incompletely, runic scrip is the written language of the ancient Norse. Metaphysics aside, the script consists of somewhere between 16 -24 individual symbols that represent consonants and vowels, exactly like the English Alphabet. Rumor has it that it once competed with our own letter system for dominance during the medieval period, if true, it obviously lost. So to find something like this, even in 1898, was quite the discovery.

After the initial buzz around the stone died down, the stone apparently dropped out of public eye until sometime in 1907, when Norwegian-American journalist, Hjalmar Rued Holand became aware of the existence of the runestone and purchased it for about $10 (Blegen 1968:10). Holand spent most of his life trying to prove a Norse voyage into the American Midwest sometime in the 14th century (Fridley1979:152), which the stone’s authenticity would have supported nicely.

Holand took his new possession to Europe with him to a very cold reception. Swedish linguists dismissed the stone as inauthentic and the general public was simply not interested. Holand persisted, writing articles and books arguing for the stone’s authenticity, briefly getting support from William Thalbitzer and S. N. Hagen, who agreed with the stones authenticity (Wahlgren 1958, Time 1951). However, prominent linguists Sven Jansson, Erik Moltke , Harry Anderson, K. M. Nielsen, and Erik Wahlgren denied it flatly (Wahlgren 1958, Time 1951). The stone again dropped out of the public eye until about 60 years later.

In 1968, Theodore C. Blegen decided to take-up the Runestone again, this time returning to the place where it was found, and giving all the evidence a much more thorough going over (Fridley1979:152). He looked over the original major criticisms about the stone; the authentication of the inscription, the linguistics of the inscription, the discovery of the stone, and the testimonies of involved parties (Fridley1979:152).

Blegen focused particularly on an interview done by Dr. Paul Carson, Jr. in 1976 with Frank Walter Gran about Frank’s father, John P. Gran (Blegen 1968, Fridley1976:154). The interview centered around John confessing that he and Ohman had carved and hidden the stone as a prank against “people who were really educated (Fridley1979:154).” This was significant because it was suggested that the inscriptions were carved by two different individuals, one right handed and one left, and John was left-handed (Fridley1979, Blegen 1968). Supporters of the stone’s authenticity try to dismiss this confession as one made out of jealousy by Gran (Williams 2012:11).

Belgen also found that the Scandinavian runic scholars who studied the inscription, nearly unanimously, condemned the stone as a fraud (Wahlgren 1958, Fridley1979:152).

The inscription on the Kensington Runestone tells about an ill-fated voyage of thirty individuals who came to America in 1362 (Fagan 2006:118-119). Basically, they came, they saw, they got hassled badly, they went home. If their trip was true and correct, it would have made these Norse explorers the earliest known in the interior of North America. But the problem is, the story of the runestone doesn’t quite hold up to scrutiny.

Firstly, the language and the lack of case sensitive modifiers used on the stone was not what one would expect from 14th century Norse. Certain words in the inscription were not in use at that time (Wahlgren 1958, Fridley1979:152, Fagan 2006:119, Williams 2012:13), however, those same words were common to the area that Ohman’s friend, Sven Fogelblad, was from (Fridley1979:153). Fogelbald was an itinerant teacher and former minister originally from an area of Sweden well known for having lots of authentic runic inscriptions lying around, and who had known and apparently studied under Claes J. Ljungstrom, himself a widely known and prominent runologist (Fridley1979:153).

Also suspect were certain runic symbols that were not known to the Futharks  (the name of the Runic Alphabets) in use in the 14th century, but again these were know to Fogelbald and apparently were rather specialized to his particular region of Sweden (Wahlgren 1958, Fridley1979:152, Fagan 2006:119, Williams 2012:13).

At first blush there appears to be several versions of the Futharks at use on the stone’s inscription. However, sometime in 2004 it was suggested that the runes mimic those in the notes of an 1883 journeyman named Edward Larsson. Honestly, the only place I can find reference to this is on the Wiki and their reference is in Swedish. My Swedish is not good enough to read a whole paper, sorry. In the same paragraph the runic inscription is tied to the Knights Templar, so, take that how you will (I call it a red flag.)

Based on all this, Blegen put forward the probability that the stone had been carved by two separate individuals working together and that several individuals were involved in the hoax beside Ohman and Gran, including Fogelblad, and Andrew Anderson, Ohman’s neighbor (Fridley1979:153).

So, what all do we have here than?

Pretty much all the authorities from the time of the discovery, as well as modern ones, dismiss the stone as a hoax. The language on the stone is wrong, the runes used are wrong, we have a confession of sorts (though honestly, this is the weakest piece of evidence), and there has never been any other form of evidence to suggest the Norse made it as far inland as Minnesota. Where does that leave us? For me this one gets put pretty solidly in the ‘Hoax’ category. It’s not evidence of anything except someone’s ability to carve runes on a flat stone.

Still there will be those, like the Runestone Museum in Minnisota, who want the stone to be a real artifact. I suppose you can manufacture some kind of debate there if you want to, but honestly, it’s pretty cut and dry.

Go to  Columbus was Second-ish: Who Discovered America Anyway? or Where the Vikings Weren’t for more on this series.

Resources:

Blegen, Theodore Christian
1968 The Kensington Rune Stone: New Light on an Old Riddle. Minnesota History Society. USA. http://books.google.com/books?id=DU2LbIbBK7oC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false. Retrieved 7/08/2013.

Faram, Arthur D.
2013 Solving the Runestone Mystery. The Kensington Runestone : An Ancient Mystery Solved. Updated: 02/11/2013. http://www.thekensingtonrunestone.com/. Retrieved 2/18/2013.

Feder, Kenneth L.
2006 Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries: Science and Pseudoscience in Archaeology, 5th ed, McGraw-Hill, New York. NY.

Fridley, R
1976 The Case of the Gran Tapes: Further Evidence on the Rune Stone Riddle. Minnesota History Society #45 152-156. Winter. <http://collections.mnhs.org/MNHistoryMagazine/articles/45/v45i04p152-156.pdf&gt;. Retrieved 2/18/2013.

Time Magazine
1951 “Olof Ohman’s Runes” <http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,859375,00.html&gt;. 8 October. <http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,859375,00.html&gt; Retrieved 7/08/2013.

Wahlgren, Erik
1958 The Kensington Stone, A Mystery Solved. University of Wisconsin Press. Retrieved 7/08/2013.

Williams, Henrik
2012. “The Kensington Runestone: Fact and Fiction” . The Swedish-American Historical Quarterly 63 (1): 3-22.

Columbus was Second-ish: Who Discovered America Anyway, Where the Vikings Weren't

Where the Vikings Weren’t – The Vinland Map

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Vinland Map.

The Vinland map is an interesting artifact, one that captured my attention as a child. Frankly, I think the evidence points to the map being a fake, but there are a some who still fight for it to be real.

The Vinland map first surface in  1957 glued inside the of the cover of a bound volume of Hystoria Tartarorum (Feder 2006:119, Wiki). Apparently, the book was originaly owned by a Spanish-Italian book dealer named Enzo Ferrajoli de Ry. He hired London book dealer Irving Davis to offer the book to the British Museum. When that offer was refused Ferrajoli sold the volume, for $3,500, to an American dealer Laurence C. Witten II, who offered it to Yale University, who took the book (Wiki).

At first, it was dated to around 1440 and people suggested that the map was actually a copy of an earlier map based on Viking knowledge of Canada and Greenland (Feder 2006:119). Yet, even from the beginning there were skeptics.

One reason the British Museum had turned down the map when offered was because their Keeper of Manuscripts detected elements of handwriting style not developed until the 19 century (Seaver 2004). Also, map Scholar Douglas McNaughton pointed out that the map was in a style unlike any other 15 Cen map (Feder 2006:119). There was no delineation boarder showing the dived between heaven and earth, the orientation was wrong, and there was no mention of the map in the book in which it was bound (Feder 2006:119). The parchment appeared to have been soaked in some  unknown substance that was not able to be tested for and the out line of the map seemed to consist of two separate tracings, one in a feint graphite or ash, the other one more yellowish (Baynes-Cope 1974). This yellow line was of more interest because the black ink used to outline the continents appeared to have a diffused yellow band around it, which was typical for old inks, and normally takes hundreds of years to form. However, under the microscope it was discernible that the yellow line had been drawn on first, then retraced with the black in to mimic the appearance of old ink (Feder 2006:119).

Also, there is the appearance that they map was on drawn on a single sheet of paper, but rather two separate pieces (Baynes-Cope 1974). Evidence of this is that several place-names start or finish right before the inner edge of the map instead of  being written straight across it (Baynes-Cope 1974). Even the rivers of eastern Europe run parallel to it (Baynes-Cope 1974).  In 2005 a team from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, led by Dr. René Larsen, studied the map and confirmed that the two halves of the map were entirely separate (Larsen and Poulsen 2005). It was suggested that two separate blank leaves in the original “Speculum Historiale”, of which the first dozen or so pages are missing, could have been used to create the  map (Seaver 2004). This would explain the chemical treatment of the pages to disguise differences in color and texture, and the noticeable notch in the bottom could have been cut to disguised the slight size difference (Seaver 2004). All of which were common tricks of the fake antique trade.

All of this before we even discuss the ink!

The ink was instantly a point of contention as it was not conventional iron-gall ink, and didn’t match any known formula available at the time (Baynes-Cope 1974).  Also, microscopist Walter McCrone, examined the physical characteristics of the map with a scanning electron microscope and election and ion microprobes (Feder 2006:119). He found the presence of titanium dioxide, the name for a yellow pigment called anatase or titanium white, which was not manufactured until the 1917  and required a knowledge unknown until this time (Feder 2006:119).  His conclusions are backed up by a second study and by  British researchers Katherine Brown and Robin Clark (Feder 2006:119). Interestingly, this ink is not found on any of the pages of the book (Feder 2006:119).

As always there must be deceters, one of which is Larsen himself. At the International Conference on the History of Cartography in July 2009, Larsen revealed that his team had continued their investigation after publishing their original report, which was apparently not in support of authenticity. He letter explained to Reuters that:

“All the tests that we have done over the past five years — on the materials and other aspects — do not show any signs of forgery” (Acher 2009).

He says that his team studied the ink and the wormholes in the document and found that the wormholes were consistent with the book the map is bound in (Acher 2009), which contradicts earlier studies (Feder 2006:119), and that the ink could have gotten it’s traces of anatase from sand that could have been used to dry the ink (Acher 2009). Of course there is no evidence of this and Larsen and his team did not examine the crystals of the anatase to see if it matched up with anatase found in sand.

Kenneth Towe, a retired geologist from the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. says,

“The problem is if the anatase…came out of gneiss or any other natural source, it is going to have a totally different appearance than the anatase that appears on the Vinland map ink,” he notes. Towe says the Vinland ink has small round crystals produced chemically, whereas sand would have larger fractured crystals from grinding along with other minerals like quartz. “Even if sand has been found on other maps,” he adds, “it still has never been found on the Vinland Map.” (Borrell 2008)

Though it is true that the parchment on which the map is drawn does carbon date to about 1440 (Acher 2009, Borrell 2008, Feder 2006:119), that doesn’t actually mean the drawing of the map itself was made at that time.  Clever forgers of the past have used old papers to create the look of authenticity. So why exactly did Larsen change his story? We may never know.

Still, the map is an interesting item, though at this point I would guess most scholars don’t believe in it’s real. What’s more important, we don’t need it to be. We have other, very credible evidence of a Viking presence in America long before Columbus. At this point the authenticity of the map is more to do with Yale than with history.

Go to  Columbus was Second-ish: Who Discovered America Anyway? or Where the Vikings Weren’t for more on this series.

Resources:

Acher, John
2009  “Vinland Map of America no forgery, expert says”. Reuters.com. Reuters. 17 July 2009. Retrieved February 4, 2013.

Baynes-Cope, A.D
1974     “The Scientific Examination of the Vinland Map at the Research Laboratory of the British Museum”.Geographical Journal (The Geographical Journal, Vol. 140, No. 2) 140 (2): 208–211. doi:10.2307/1797077.JSTOR 1797077.

Borrell, Brendan
2008    Pre-Columbian Map of North America Could Be Authentic–Or not, Scientific American. July 22 2008. Retrieved February 4, 2013.

Feder, Kenneth L.
2006    Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries: Science and Pseudoscience in Archaeology, 5th ed, McGraw-Hill, New York. NY.

René Larsen & Dorte V. Poulsen,
2005    “Report on the Assessment and Survey of the Condition and Technique of the Vinland Map and the Bindings of the Tartar Relation and Speculum Historiale.” Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. Retrieved February 4, 2013.

Seaver, Kirsten A.
2004     Maps, Myths and Men. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

Images provided by  Wikimedia Commons, unless otherwise stated.

Columbus was Second-ish: Who Discovered America Anyway, Where the Vikings Weren't

Where the Vikings Weren’t – The Newport Tower.

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In our first installment of this series we looked over the actual factual, evidence of both Christopher Columbus and Leif Eiriksson discovering the Americas. Arguably, you could say Columbus discovered South America, and Leif the North. I would say, simply touching a rock on one park of a massive continent complex doesn’t equal discovering both bits of America, but that’s my opinion on the matter.

Apparently some folks agree with me, because there have been several claims around North America of evidence of Vikings. We’re going to go over them, and see if there is any merit to these claims.

The Newport Tower

The Newport Tower.

Newport, Rhode Island is said to have a singular structure, surely evidence of Vikings. The Newport Tower, aka Old Stone Tower, aka Touro Tower, aka Old Stone Mill, aka…anyway you get the point. The Newport Tower stands at the west end of Touro Park. It is a round stone structure that was preserved in 1854 when Judah Touro donated $10,000.00 to the City of Newport to conserve it and the land around it (Barstad 2007, 2008). Until recently, little has been known about the tower, except some speculation that the Tower might have been built by Vikings, but is there evidence?

Certainly there is no other known Norse structures around, or Nordic artifacts, or anything else to suggest the Norse were ever in the area, but you do have to admit, the tower does look strange. It doesn’t look like other known 17th-century structures, which are often square or rectangular and built of wood. New England smock mills are described as tapered, with narrow tops and wide basis, and almost always built of wood (Barstad 2007, 2008). It has a very rustic look to it, made out of stone, it even has those weird arches at the base. Does it match up to any other known Nordic structures? Not as far as I can tell. Still there is enough going on here that it’s worth looking at the unusual structure.

William S. Godfrey Jr. conducted a dig around and under the tower and published his findings in American Antiquity in 1951. He appears to have been pretty thorough. He lifted the sidewalk surrounding the tower (placed there by the city, I believe. Don’t quote me.) looking for, and finding, the construction trench and taking his units down to the sterile layers of soil.  He describes the soil surrounding the structure thus:

“We cleared the area with great care, but found the yellow clay, as before, completely undisturbed; no sign of foundations, no postholes, no Norse artifacts (Godfrey 1951).”

Instead he did find pottery sherds, iron nails, clay tobacco pipes, buttons and buckles, all traceable to Scotland, England, or the English Colonies in America. All were dated to between the 17th and 19th centuries (Godfrey 1951,Feder 2006:117). He even found a preserved boot-print in the soil beneath the stone foundation (Godfrey 1951, Feder 2006:117).

Later in 2006 and 2007, The Chronognostic Research Foundation sponsored their own research on the Newport Tower (Barstad 2007, 2008). They used several different techniques that would not have been available to Godfrey, including ground penetrating radar (Barstad 2007, 2008). They identified quite a bit about the history of the park and they increased the amount of 17th, 18th, and 19th century artifacts found in association with the tower, backing up Godfrey’s findings (Barstad 2007, 2008).

I’m mildly hesitant to use Barstad’s work, mainly because of the conclusions she draws at the end of the 2008 report. Specifically  that the Tower is really an observatory and that it was built around 1125. Her Observatory conclusions are  biased on window orientation, making the case that two windows line up for the sunset on the winter solstice, but she seems to ignore a clearly visible, filled in, window. Not to mention the Chesterton Windmill, thought to be the actual model for the Newport tower, displays similar windows and is clearly a mill.

Also, I have no clue where she is getting her date of 1125 when the oldest artifact her team recovered was dated to the 17th century. She goes on to reference Nordic saga’s, but there is no evidence to support or suggest that she should. Also, the lime mortar bonding the stones together has been radiocarbon dated to 1665 (Feder 2006:117), so…

Chesterton Windmill in Warwickshire, England.

Other factors that work against the tower being as old as 1125, is that the area was settled in 1639, and no one ever mention the tower (Feder 2006:117). Also the Newport Historical Society explained:

“We’re 99.9 percent sure the tower was built as a windmill by Governor Benedict Arnold in the 17th century.” When asked about the remaining 0.1 percent of doubt, the member added, “Oh, well, the public does so love a good mystery, we like to leave a bit for them.” (Barstad Nd).

The first known mention of the Tower is in Gov. Benedict Arnold’s 1677 last-will-and-testament, where he uses it as a landmark for where he wanted to be buried (Barstad Nd, Feder 2006:118).  Arnold was brought up near Chesterton, England and the design of the mill was well-known there (Feder 2006:118). Most likely, he built a similar one when he got to the colonies (Feder 2006:118).

Apparently, the origin of the Norse idea began in 1830, when Carl Christian Rafn, the then Danish secretary of the Royal Society of Northern Antiquities in Copenhagen, suggested that the Tower was built in the 12th century by the Norse. He never saw the tower, so was making a guess based on the descriptions of others, specifically a drawing by F. Catherwood (Barstad Nd).  Rafn suggested that the tower was built under Eric Gnupsson, a bishop from Gardar, Greenland, sometime between 1112 and 1121.

Frederick Catherwood’s Drawing of the Newport Tower ca. 1836-39

The problem here is that Rafn never saw the Tower himself, and as gifted an artist Catherwood was, his picture is known to have inaccuracies, which could have influenced Rafn. For Barstad to use this as evidence of any kind is a little unsettling, especially when there is no other apparent reason to accept such an idea, and the actual evidence is so heavily weighed against it.

There are a bunch of other ideas as to how the Tower got here, all attached to the various contenders for the title of “Who Discovered America First”. Some suggest (Barstad mostly) that the Scott, Sir Henry Sinclair, built it while exploring the coast of North America between 1395 and 1398 as part of a planned community (Barstad Nd). There is a Chinese Theory by a retired British submarine commander named Gavin Menzies, who suggests a Chinese treasure fleet (always a treasure involved somewhere) rounded the Cape of Good Hope in the 1420’s built the tower as part of their colony (Barstad Nd). There is a Dr. Manuel Da Silva who suggests the CorteReal brothers shipwrecked in the early 1500’s and built the Tower so that rescuers could find them (Barstad Nd). She even put forward the idea that the Basque built it as a kind of whale spotting tower (Barstad Nd).

There are massive and immediate holes in all of these ideas. Hearsay cannot trump evidence, especially in archaeology. We can use a good story to help us formulate a hypothesis, but when the evidence, in the form of artifacts and now ground history, doesn’t support that hypothesis, we must decide on the side of the evidence. Clearly this was not done in this case, and it’s upsetting.

Still, the hard facts point to a 17th century birth for the Newport Tower, probably at the hands of Gov. Benedict Arnold, and very probably modeled after the now famous Chesterton Windmill.

But this isn’t the only supposed Viking evidence out there, oh no. There is also a very questionable map that we’ll look over next week.

Go to  Columbus was Second-ish: Who Discovered America Anyway? or Where the Vikings Weren’t for more on this series.

Resources:

Barstad, Jan

Nd    “Who Built the Newport Tower?” Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies. Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona. http://www.acmrs.org/about/online-resources/NewportTower. Retrieved Jan/14/2013.

2007    “The Newport Tower Project: An Archaeological Investigation in to the Tower’s Past.”  The Chronognostic Research Foundation. Sept 21, 2007. http://www.chronognostic.org/pdf/tower_project_report_2007.pdf. Retrieved Jan/14/2013.

2008 “Discovery Over Touro Park”. The Chronognostic Research Foundation. http://www.chronognostic.org/over_touro_park.html. Retrieved Jan/14/2013.

Feder, Kenneth L.

2006    Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries: Science and Pseudoscience in Archaeology, 5th ed, McGraw-Hill, New York. NY.

Godfrey, William S.  Jr.

1951    “The Archaeology of the Old Stone Mill in Newport, Rhode Island,” American Antiquity Vol. 17, No. 2 (Oct., 1951), pp. 120-129 Society for American Archaeology. http://www.jstor.org/stable/277246?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents Retrieved Jan/14/2013.

Columbus was Second-ish: Who Discovered America Anyway

Columbus was Second-ish: Who Discovered America Anyway? Mayhaps the Vikings?

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In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue. He set out on a bold new mission to reach out to new civilizations and boldly go where no one had gone before. Or was that Star Trek? Either way, when many of us were in grade school, we were taught that Christopher Columbus discovered America. Some of us, if we were lucky, were taught that he thought he had discovered Asia since he had been looking for a new trade route there to trade for spices. None of us ever got the truth.

No Flag, No Country. It’s a rule I just made up.

Columbus made his first landfall in Caribbean islands on what he called San Salvador, somewhere in Cuba. He immediately encountered native people, and though he now knew he wasn’t in either Cathay or Chpangu (China or Japan) he had no flipping clue where he really was. He figured he was still somewhere in Asia, but he couldn’t figure out where. Columbus made three more voyages to the shores of what would be called The New World, making landfall in 1493, 1498, and 1502. He even attempted to establish a temporary colony there in 1492 after the Santa Maria was wrecked off the coast of  Haiti. 39 men were left behind in an encampment built out of the remains of the ship, however when Columbus returned  in late 1493 he found all the men dead and the settlement burned to the ground (Feder 2006).  He managed a much more successful colony in what is now the Dominican Republic called La Isabela.

How do we know all this as fact and not just more fables told to children in grade school history class? We have evidence. Among the artifacts we have, trade goods, glazed ceramics, nails, glassware, horse gear, metal bits, and dated coins (Feder 2006). All distinctly Spanish in origins. We also have verifiable documentation of Columbus’ travels, court records, maps, journals, and other such documents (Feder 2006). We have lots of evidence that all corroborates. And that’s how we know.

“But Wait!” You say, “There is evidence of other groups reaching America before Columbus did! What about them?”

Yes, what about them?

There is no dispute that Columbus reached the America’s in 1492, we can back that up. However, there are numerous claims that the America’s were discovered long before Columbus was a twinkle in his mother’s eye. How do these claims hold up? Does the evidence support them? Was someone here before? In this series were going to look over the many and varied claims to the New World, spanning from the Vikings to, yes, Aliens.

So let’s start with the most likely culprits, The awesome Vikings!

Leif Eiriksson discovers America, by Christian Krohg (1893).

The Norse were/are a pretty cool culture, and in my opinion, the coolest. They were culturally sophisticated, socially liberal, and artistically creative. They were kings of the sea, scourges of the land, and the stuff of legends even to today. They left a rich written history behind them in the form of numerous sagas and eddas. Two of those saga’s, The Greenlander’s Saga and Eirik the Red’s Saga, tell of the discovery of Vinland, a land further west then even Greenland and covered with grapes.

Leif, the son of Eirik the Red, is the one said to have landed on, and briefly investigated, three new lands past Greenland. He called them Helluland, Markland, and Vinland. He came home to Greenland and told of the vast riches of the new land, Vinalnd. His brother, Throvald, set off to explore Vinland more fully, met up with the natives, called Skraelings, and promptly got himself killed.

Around 1022 A.D., Throfinn Karlsefni led a sizable group, consisting of families and animals, from Greenland to Vinland to create a permanent settlement  They built homes and farmed the land. Again though, the Skraelings attacked unmercifully and apparently drove the Norse Folk out.

What we have here is a riveting tale of discovery and exploration, but as wondrous at this all seems, it’s not evidence  Not to mention, we don’t even know where Helluland, Markland, and Vinland are on a map.  What we need is physical evidence, and fortunately that’s what we have.

Lots of little things have been found along the Northeastern portions of North America. A Norse coin that dates between 1880 and 1235 AD, smelted metal, chain-mail, ship rivets  and other non-native goods have been found isolated and within native sties (Feder 2006). These artifacts show contact between the native Americans and the Norse, either through trade, or more nefarious means.

But the big payoff came in the 1960’s in a little place called L’Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland, Canada.

A Norse long house recreation at L’Anse aux Meadows

I’ve gone over the tenacious Anne Stine Moe Ingstad and her husband Helge Ingstad previously and their discovery of L’Anse aux Meadow.  Here they discovered what appeared to eight typically Norse, turf houses (ArchyFantasies 2012). They worked on the site between 1961 and 1968 and recovered enough information to definitively identify it as a Norse colonial settlement (ArchyFantasies 2012, Feder 2006). The excavation revealed the remains of an early 11th century Norse settlement, including sod houses called “booths”, a forge, cooking pits and boathouses (ArchyFantasies 2012).  They also recovered worked iron, bronze pins, a soapstone spindal, and other Norse artifacts (Feder 2006). They also recovered traditional foodstuffs, like butternut shells, a kind of walnut that does not grown in Newfoundland but in Nova Scotia. Carbon dates for the site date it to 920 AD, plus or minus 30 years (Feder 2006).

Patricia Sutherland

Also, Patricia Sutherland, adjunct professor of archaeology at Memorial University in Newfoundland and a research fellow at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, has found evidence of a Viking camp on Baffin Island (Feder 2006, Pringle 2012). Things such as spun yarn, whetstones, metals, a whalebone shovel, and even the pellets of Old World rat stowaways from the ships (Pringle 2012). Sutherland’s dates are still being assessed, but the artifacts can be traced to as early as the 11th century (Feder 2006).

Norse Cord

So we’ve got two settlements loaded with evidence  and lots of isolated objects popping up in Native American sites that date to the same times. Honestly, that’s a pretty open and shut case. Score one for the the awesomeness of the Vikings!

But the fun doesn’t stop there. We know of at least two locations where the Norse where, but there are many more claims out there claiming “Vikings stopped here, too!” Things like the Vinland Map to the numerous rune-stones found all over the United States. These claims just don’t hold up as well under examination when looked at closely, and what kind of blog would this be if we didn’t look at them? In our next installation we’ll examine the not-so-factual evidence of Vikings in America.

 

Go to  Columbus was Second-ish: Who Discovered America Anyway? or Where the Vikings Weren’t for more on this series.

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Comment below or send an email to ArchyFantasies@gmail.com

Resources:  

ArchyFantasies

2012 “Women in Archaeology – Anne Stine Moe Ingstad” ArchyFantasies.  http://archyfantasies.com/2011/09/25/anne-stine-moe-ingstad/. Retrieved Jan 3, 2013.

Feder, Kenneth L.

2006  Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries: Science and Pseudoscience in Archaeology, 5th ed, McGraw-Hill, New York. NY.

Posner, Michael

2012 “New doc aims to unravel an Arctic mystery” The Globe and Mail. Nov. 21 2012 http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/10/121019-viking-outpost-second-new-canada-science-sutherland/. Retrieved Jan 3, 2013.

Pringle, Heather

2012 “Evidence of Viking Outpost Found in Canada” National Geographic The Daily News. October 19, 2012. http://m.theglobeandmail.com/arts/television/new-doc-aims-to-unravel-an-arctic-mystery/article5540781/?service=mobile. Retrieved Jan 3, 2013.