Vikings in Canada centuries before Columbus

The more I read and hear about the old Norsemen the more impressed I am. In the documentary THE NORSE: AN ARCTIC MYSTERY a film crew follows Pat Sutherland on her journey to prove that the early history between North America and Europe did not unfold the way the history books say it did. In fact the Norse were in Canada several centuries before Christopher Columbus.

“The Norse were here over a long period of time, and they had business to do,” says Sutherland. The dig at the Nanook site at Baffin Island in Canada has revealed stone walls marking out the shape of an trading post, possibly the first European building this side of the Atlantic.

Vikings in Canada centuries before Columbus

“It certainly substantiates that there were Europeans on the site,” says Sutherland, “no question about that.” The excavation team has also found lots of artefact pointing to the Norse, and according to Sutherland the Norse traded walrus tusk and furs with the Dorset people, the local natives of the time.

See animations from the documentary

Unfortunately - and very controvercially - Pat Sutherland has lost her research funding and she has also been fired by the Canadian Museum of History. Hopefully this extremely interesting research will be taken up and continued so that everyone interested in the topic can get more knowledge.

See Pat Sutherland's research article: Evidence of Early Metalworking in Artic Canada.

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