Ie the title of the post is like "Alien vs. Predator" - two different worlds. But in fact, this is quite a real historical fact. Look here:
L Anse aux Meadows is a historical and archaeological site in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Discovered here in 1960, the Viking settlement until a certain point was the only one found in North America. In addition, it is the only evidence of pre-Columbian transatlantic travel. The estimated date of construction is the XI century. That is, it was founded 500 years before the "discovery" of North America by Columbus!
Let's get more details …
Viking travels across the North Atlantic.
Ever since Christopher Columbus discovered America for Europeans in 1492, rumors have circulated that some unreported European discoverers may have visited a previously unknown continent to the west. As early as the 3rd century BC, legends were told of how the Phoenicians ventured through Gibraltar and reached Thule, which is now almost universally believed to be on the western coast of Norway rather than in the American Arctic. Some have suggested that the Egyptians or Romans might have reached Central America.
A more robust, albeit extremely obscure story makes it possible to consider the discovery of the New World by Irish monks led by Saint Brendan, who made a voyage in the 6th century A. D. The folklore legend called "The Voyage of Saint Brendan" has many intriguing features, despite the many its inherent fantastic and mythical aspects. An island with a volcano could very well be Iceland. The phenomenon, described as a silver pillar, as hard as marble and like crystal, was probably an iceberg. There is no reason to doubt that the monks passed through the Arctic. Recent experimental reconstructions of the ancient Irish ship have proven its comparatively high seaworthiness and ability to cross the waters of the North Atlantic. All this speaks of possible attempts by the monks to go to the west,however, the available data are insufficient to assert that they actually reached America.
Until the 60s. XX century, the same attitude was met by the legends about voyages to the New World of the Vikings. Less than two centuries earlier, scientists agreed that in the Middle Ages, the Vikings reached Iceland and even Greenland, but few people knew for sure then. Modern discussions about the Vikings' discovery of America began in 1837, when the Danish scholar Professor Karl Christian Rafn published American Antiquities. It contained two sagas detailing the events of the voyages undertaken by the Vikings about eight centuries earlier to a western country that, judging by the descriptions, could very well be America. Both The Saga of the Greenlanders and The Saga of Eric the Red provided detailed descriptions of the accidental discovery and subsequent exploration of a vast territory in the West, where attempts were made to create settlements,whose history, however, was not long. Many details contradicted each other, since in one saga the point of view and view of the events of the Greenlanders was presented, and in the other - the Icelanders. The factual style of the sagas, devoid of familiar monsters and mythology, inspires confidence in the narrative.
Brattahild - an eastern settlement, founded by Eric the Red around 1000 and over the next few centuries was a quite prosperous Scandinavian colony. Residents abandoned him as a result of the worsening climate.
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Another factor that awakened confidence in the evidence was that discoveries were being made - or could have been made - at a time when the Vikings were well known in almost every country in Europe that could be reached by boat. Part of the general expansion of the Vikings was the penetration of Iceland and the colonization of the island, which took place around 870. By the middle of the 10th century, the population had reached about 30,000 people. Apparently, the Vikings even then saw Greenland, although the expedition landed on it no earlier than 980, that is, during the campaign of Eric the Red, who was called so, most likely, because of the color of his hair (in English, the word red, sculpted from the Norwegian raude, also means red, maybe red-faced. - Approx. lane), which began the colonization of the island. In 986 he founded two settlements,called the Eastern and Western colonies, in which up to 3000 Vikings soon lived.
Strandhogg on scrolling
According to the sagas, the Vikings undertook at least four more campaigns from Greenland to Vinland, presumably dating from 1000 to 1030. The first expedition was led by Leif's brother Thorvald, who, together with 35 people. The team tracked down the houses built by Leif in Leifsbudir. Until now, the Vikings had not yet met traces of other human habitation in the new lands, until one day a search party found "on the island to the west a grain storage made of wood," which was clearly the work of man. The following summer, Torvald and his comrades had an exciting meeting with the locals of the New World. On the shore, they stumbled upon "three leather boats, under each of which there were three men." Torvald and his companions attacked the natives and "captured them all, except one who escaped in a leather boat."According to the Saga of the Greenlanders, this is how the first contact between Europeans and the original inhabitants of America took place.
"Strandhogg" When the need arose for restocking the boat, the Vikings allowed themselves to arrange strandhogg, i.e. raid. Across the sea - in foreign lands - the search for food was carried out due to "procurement on the spot" during which the Vikings could not resist the temptation to catch healthy girls and adolescents for sale in the markets of the flourishing slave trade, and at the same time free local residents from gold and valuable items. which those so imprudently did not hide earlier more reliably.
The Vikings called them "screling" (something like "screamers" or "screechers", which may, however, mean "scum" - approx. Transl.), And this word was called all the natives without distinction. The described action was, most likely, a consequence of one of the favorite activities of the Vikings, called strandhogg in their language, which was a raid into the coastal territory in order to catch cattle or sheep, as well as girls and teenagers for sale into slavery. The locals did not let such incursions go unpunished, proving that Vinland's Scrolling were a tribe of determined and brave warriors. Soon after the bloody incident described above, the aborigines appeared "in large numbers on leather boats" and pounced on the Viking boat. The Scrallings were skilled with bows and even killed Thorvald, the leader of the Vikings,the arrow pierced the gunwale and his shield. Despite the confrontation, the Vikings spent two more years in Leifsbudir in Vinland and only then returned to Greenland.
What ethnic group did those local warriors belong to who had the courage not only to oppose the Vikings, but also to counterattack them with considerable skill and determination? Some believe there is reason to believe that the attackers are Eskimos, while others are Indians from the forests of North America. In The Saga of Eric the Red, they are described as "vile little [or dark] men with rough hair, big eyes and wide cheekbones." Aborigines dressed in animal skins and had weapons. Were these inhabitants of Vinland in 1000 or a little later the descendants of the Beotuks and Algonquins? The question continues to remain open even today, although according to the available signs, one should nevertheless make a choice in favor of the Forest Indians.
Reproductions of Viking personal items at the Visitor Center in l'Anse aux Meadows, which include cloak pins and bracelets. Not many genuine artifacts have survived in the original settlements.
Testimonials
The sagas, with their stories of such poignant moments, aroused tremendous public interest on both sides of the Atlantic, since so many of them were verifiable and fit well into earlier stories related to the Viking sailing in the North Atlantic. Beginning in 1837 and over the next more than a century, countless theories arose, spiced up with "genuine evidence proving traces of Viking presence in North America." Some calculations based on the sagas mentioning the length of day and night in Vinland - smoother throughout the year than in Scandinavia - led the Vikings to probably penetrate south as far as what is now Florida. Ruins, considered to be the ruins of Viking buildings,led one extremely enthusiastic 19th century explorer to envision an entire Viking city near downtown Boston today. The old stone tower in Newport, Rhode Island, with its unusual architectural style, was attributed to the Vikings, although in reality it was a large windmill of the 17th century. The stone with ancient Scandinavian inscriptions was "discovered" at the end of the 19th century in Kengsington (Minnesota), as well as others later "found" in Maine and even as much as in Paraguay. All of them turned out to be nothing more than an outright scam of scammers. An interesting turn in the history of this kind of "finds" was noted in 1936, when a prospector claimed that he had unearthed a Viking weapon in the desert near Birdmore, Northwest Ontario. The rusted swords turned out to be the true weapons of the Vikings, but later it turned out that they were brought to Canada from Norway in the 20th century.
More serious evidence is the so-called Vinland map, made around 1440, discovered in 1957 and presented to the public in 1965, declared a fake in 1974, and again “reinstated” as genuine in 1986 after how it was subjected to more in-depth checks, which allowed new advances in science. The cause for concern was the image of a world map showing Vinland as a location west of Greenland. Another map, Segurdur Stefansson, discovered in the Royal Library of Denmark and dated to the 16th century - i.e. after the discovery of America by Columbus, - nevertheless demonstrates Helluland, Markland, Scalingeland and a narrow peninsula called the Vinlandia Promoorium, which is strangely similar to the northwestern "spur" of Newfoundland.
However, conclusive physical evidence of the actual presence of the Vikings - their sites or settlements - in America was not found until the Norwegian writer, Helge Ingstad, and his wife, Anne Stene, put forward the correct assumption that Vinland should represent the tip of the Newfoundland Peninsula.
The interior of the Viking turf hut - refurbishment at l'Anse aux Meadows. In the foreground, elements of the hearth where food was prepared are visible.
At the turn of the 19th century, Canadian historian V. A. Mann began his study of medieval Icelandic manuscripts. The Greenlandic Saga and Erikne Saga described the lives of Torvald Arvaldson, Erik the Red and Leif Eriksson. According to the manuscripts, Torvald, accused of murder in Norway, was forced to move to Iceland. His son Eric fled to Greenland for the same reasons. A representative of the next generation, Leif went even further and founded the Vinland settlement.
The colony existed for about 10 years. The Vikings had to capitulate to the local tribes. Mann suggested that there was a settlement in Newfoundland.
The village of Lance aux Meadows is fraught with mysteries. There are rumors about the existence in these territories many years ago of a mysterious Kingdom inhabited by fair-haired white-skinned rich people. It was never possible to find this mystical city called "Saguenay". Scientists have been trying for centuries to find the land of the Vikings.
In the early 1960s, archaeologists Helge Ingstad and his wife Anna Steen Ingstad began their search. In 1961 they found what they were looking for near Epave Bay. Hundreds of 11th century artifacts have been found on the site.
The buildings were built in Icelandic style, with heavy roofs that supported the inner columns. The large buildings contained bedrooms, carpentry workshops, living rooms, kitchens, and storage rooms.
L'Anse aux Meadows is currently owned by the Canadian Parks Association. In 1978 it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. On its territory, some of the buildings were reconstructed, and the park itself acquired the status of a “living history” museum. Now costumed "settlers" live here and visitors can see scenes from the life of the Vikings.
In 2012, Patricia Sutherland of Memorial University of Newfoundland (Canada) and the University of Aberdeen (Scotland) and her colleagues were able to announce the discovery of the second Viking outpost in America.
Digging into the ruins of a centuries-old building on Baffin Land far beyond the Arctic Circle, archaeologists have found several very curious whetstones. Their grooves bear traces of copper alloys (for example, bronze), which were used by the Vikings and which the indigenous inhabitants of the Arctic did not know.
At the site (photo by David Coventry, National Geographic).
According to written sources, the Vikings went to the New World around 1000. Icelandic sagas tell about the exploits of Leif Erikson, the leader of the Greenland Vikings, who reached the country he called Helluland (which means "land of stone slabs" in Old Norse), after which he went south to a certain Vinland.
In the 1960s, Norwegian explorers Helge Ingstad and Anne Stein Ingstad discovered and excavated a Viking camp at L'Anse aux Meadows on the northern tip of Newfoundland, dating from 989-1020. It possessed three halls, as well as huts in which weavers, blacksmiths and ship craftsmen worked.
Ms Sutherland first suspected the existence of another outpost in 1999, when she came across two pieces of rope found on Baffin's Land and kept at the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Gatineau, Quebec. The researcher noticed that the ropes were not very similar to the twisted tendons of animals used by Native Americans. Indeed, it turned out that this is Viking yarn, identical in technique to the one that existed in Greenland in the XIV century.
After that, Ms. Sutherland continued her search in museums. She managed to find new samples of Viking yarn, and wooden rulers on which trade operations were marked, and dozens of sharpening stones.
The artifacts were found in four places, not only on Baffin Land, but also in the north of the Labrador Peninsula (and they are separated by more than one and a half thousand kilometers). There were settlements of the Dorset culture in each of these places, which hinted at their contact with the Vikings.
Eventually, Ms. Sutherland resumed excavations at the most promising site, the Tanfield Valley on the southeast coast of Baffin Land. In the 1960s, American archaeologist Moro Maxwell discovered a piece of a building made of stone and turf, which he said was difficult to interpret. Ms Sutherland suspected that the house was built by the Vikings.
Since 2001, archaeologists have found a lot of evidence of the presence of the Vikings in these places: fragments of the skins of Old World rats, a whalebone shovel similar to those with which the Greenlanders cut turf, large stones, carved and trimmed according to the European pattern, as well as even more yarn and sharpening stones. In addition, the ruins bear a striking resemblance to the buildings of the Vikings of Greenland.
Some Arctic explorers were skeptical about the findings. Radiocarbon dating has shown that the Tenfield Valley was inhabited long before the arrival of the Vikings. But at the same time, she made it clear that this area was inhabited several times, including in the fourteenth century, when the Vikings were actively engaged in agriculture on the shores of neighboring Greenland.
Next, employees of the Geological Survey of Canada examined the grooves of more than 20 grindstones from the Tenfield Valley and elsewhere using energy dispersive spectroscopy. Microscopic bands of bronze, brass and fused iron were found in them, which unequivocally points to European metallurgy.
Ms Sutherland believes that Vikings traveled to the Canadian Arctic in search of valuable resources. The nobility of Northern Europe of that time highly valued walrus bones, soft furs and other things, which were also hunted by hunters of the Dorset culture. The waters of Helluland were teeming with walruses, and the shores were teeming with foxes and other small fur-bearing animals. Probably, the Vikings exchanged them for iron, pieces of wood for carving and other goods.
If Ms. Sutherland is right, then she has opened a new chapter in New World history.
The results of the research were presented at a meeting of the Council for Northeast Historical Archeology in St. John's (Canada).
Reconstruction of the Viking turf huts at l'Anse aux Meadows.
All of the above discoveries made a proven hypothesis that the Vikings actually visited America five centuries before Columbus. Thus, the fact of the discovery and exploration of the New World, described in the Saga about the Greenlanders "and in" The Saga of Eric the Red ", was confirmed as genuine. It turned out that Newfoundland really turned out to be the "Vinland" about which the sagas were told.
The discovery, however, brought to the fore new questions about what the Vikings saw in America and how plausible the sightings captured in the sagas might be. If Newfoundland is Vinland, then where are the grapes, where are the lush vegetation, which is told about in the legends about the Greenlanders and about Eric the Red? In part, the answer can be given by the consideration that the climatic conditions in this region in 1000 were more mild than later. Until the end of the 13th century, the climate in the Northern Hemisphere was certainly warmer, but then it began to become colder and colder, which continued progressively until the middle of the 19th century, when warming began again. In that era, called the "Little Ice Age", in winter it was possible to skate on the Thames and along the canals in Holland,while in Northern Europe and Northern China crops were often killed by the cold. In general, countries in more temperate climatic zones suffered a cold snap more easily. In the "uplifted" regions of the hemisphere, however, changing weather conditions have led to more severe consequences. Whatever plants grew in Greenland and further to the west, the question of their survival became more and more intractable. The increase in the number of icebergs forced the whales to migrate further south, which means that the source of food for the Eskimos in the High North was also threatened, forcing many Aboriginal people to seek more fertile lands. Consequently, Vinland in 1000 may well have had more varied and thermophilic vegetation. It is also assumed, although this kind of nuance is very fragile,that Leif Eriksson deliberately gave the newly discovered land an attractive name to whip up interest from potential settlers, as his father did in the case of Greenland.
Whatever vegetation now grows in this region, the Vikings in their time found a more fertile climate there. However, the question is: how long did they stay there? What they were doing? Did they only have one settlement and what prompted them to abandon it? Did they look for new places elsewhere? In search of an answer, one has to turn to the sagas again. These tales are closest to the true history of the Vikings in North America, and the events described in them are full of drama.
Living in Vinland
After the return of Thorvald's expedition, at the beginning of the 11th century, a year or two passed before the Vikings visited Vinland again. This time, their stated goal was to establish a notable settlement in Vinland. Colonists were recruited in Greenland. The party consisted of 60 men and five women, with some livestock, and was led by a man named Thorfinn Karlsefni. They set sail and without incident reached Leifsbudir in Vinland, it is further said that the travelers did not lack food, for "there was enough all kinds of game, fish and other things that went to the table around." The colonists began harvesting wood, which was a scarce material in Greenland. Around the same time, Karlsefni's wife Guthrid gave birth in a settlement on Vinland to a boy named Snurri and thus the first child of European parents.born in America. Moreover, according to The Saga of the Greenlanders, Karlsefni "ordered to erect a formidable palisade around the houses, and they (he and his companions) made all the preparations to be able to defend themselves." From which we conclude that these fortifications were the first fortifications built by Europeans in America.
More reproductions of Viking artifacts from the Visitor Center in l'Anse aux Meadows. Many Viking era crests have been found, indicating that looking neat was considered good form among the Scandinavian culture.
The sagas say that the Viking colonists in Vinland armed themselves with swords, axes and spears. There is no mention of archers in their ranks. Shields served as the main defensive equipment. Red shields were the signal for battle, while white ones were symbols of peaceful intentions. The Vikings usually did not have chain mail because of the high cost of such items. They were probably owned only by the leaders and the richest of the Scandinavians. However, we do know of chain mail that came to America, as evidenced by two fragments dating back to the 11th and 12th centuries, discovered as a result of archaeological excavations in northwestern Greenland and in the east of Ellesmere Island.
Viking colonists spent the winter in a settlement on Vinland. They found no trace of the Scrallings until the next summer "a great many of them emerged from the nearby forests." According to the authors, the natives were quite frightened by the lowing of cattle brought by the Vikings, which caused some confusion, especially considering that "neither side understood the language of the other." As a "symbol of peace" the Vikings decided to "take a white shield and bring it towards them [ie. to the aborigines. - Approx. per.] ". The move worked. In the end, it became clear that the Scrolling intended to trade with the Vikings.
According to The Saga of Eric the Red, Karlsefni and his companions "raised their shields", after which the natives and Vikings "began bargaining." What attracted the Scrallings first and foremost was the "red cloth" which they "wrapped around their heads." In return, they offered leather and furs, since they had “gray and black furs and skins of all sorts and types” in exchange. They also wanted to acquire swords and spears, but in both sagas it is mentioned that Karlsefni strictly "forbade his companions from selling weapons." The trade between the Scrallings and Vikings "went on like this for a while" until the Vikings ran out of red matter. When it happened that a "loudly roaring bull" ran out of the thickets, this extremely frightened the natives, who "ran to the boats and paddled south along the coast. After which they [the Scandinavians] did not see them [the natives] for three weeks."
Scralling war
(as the Indians are called in the sagas)
Relatively friendly relations between the natives and the aliens soon broke down when some of the natives returned and - according to the Greenlandic Saga - one of them fell victim to the Vikings while trying to "steal" a weapon (for some reason the author put the word "steal" in quotes, although it is clear that the aborigines in all ways had to try to get hold of the more perfect weapons of the white people, which they tried to do, for which they naturally and justly were punished. - approx. trans.). Whatever really happened, only the "Saga of Eric the Red" noted "many local boats approaching from the south", while the people in them were armed with sticks "and everyone … screamed terribly." The Vikings "raised their red shields, holding them in front of them," and then they "clashed in battle and fought fiercely. Arrows and javelins flew in the air, and the natives also used slings. "The Scrallings began to “put a large bluish-black ball-shaped object on the poles. They sent him flying across the sky in the direction of Karlsefni's warriors, but when he descended, a disgusting sound was heard. Everything that happened to the object frightened the people of Karlsefni so much that they did not think of anything else but fleeing along the river to the high cliffs, where the Vikings stopped and got ready to fight again. At that moment Freydis, the sister of the deceased earlier Torvald, left the house and, seeing the Vikings running, shouted: “Why are you running in front of these creatures? You brave men!.. If I had a sword, I would have fought better than you! " But they did not listen to her, and Freydis, although she "could not run fast because she carried a child," managed to join them in the forest, "pursued by the natives." Then she saw a dead Viking "with a flat stone stuck in his head"and picked up his sword "to defend it," while the Scrallings were already rushing towards her in droves. “Then she pulled her breasts out of her shirt and struck them with her sword. This frightened the natives so much that in terror they rushed back to the boats and swam away. Karlsefni and his warriors returned and admired her for her bravery."
The noisy and loud confrontation ended not particularly bloody: the Vikings lost two people perished, but, in turn, killed four of the natives or … "many" (depending on which source to believe). However, the Vikings in the settlement thought about the possible consequences. But what if the natives attack the colonists simultaneously from boats and from land? The Scrallings appeared well prepared - with slings, if not with bows and arrows, which, of course, alarmed and frightened Karlsefni and his companions.
Scralling Warriors
According to the first European researchers, the various tribes and peoples scattered across America had strong military traditions. Despite the brevity, legends from the sagas in one way or another mention the art of war of the Scrallings. They were apparently distinguished by a fairly good military organization. As the sagas tell, the natives could well mobilize a significant number of soldiers in a short period of time and just as quickly move them into the threatened area to join the battle. Courage in battle was an important part of their culture, as they showed a willingness to attack an unknown and formidable enemy, as the sagas tell us about. The natives were distinguished, among other things, by their great mobility, which they owed largely to light leather boats, the ability to quickly retreat,which did not mean defeat and flight, as the Vikings imagined. The Aborigines have shown the ability to retreat, regroup and - reinforced - attack again and attack with greater fury. As Europeans later learned well in America in later times - over centuries of battles and battles with the natives - rapid attacks and then the same quick withdrawal were typical methods of their warfare.
And, finally, the natives made good use of the weapons that the Stone Age bestowed upon them, especially if you remember that Viking killed by "a flat stone stuck in his head." We must not forget, moreover, that they wielded weapons made of wood, bone, sharp stones and sinew of animals, fighting with people armed with steel swords and spears with steel tips. The Scrallings also had, if I may say so, psychological weapons, for they had invented a way to intimidate the enemy, like the blue-black ball that they launched against the Vikings. In terms of scouting, the Vikings, who, of course, could not know their surroundings in the same way as the natives, proved to be unimportant scouts. Apparently, they did not establish the locations of the bases of local residents, did not find their villages,in order to attack them and at once suppress the centers of possible resistance, while the natives, of course, quite quickly identified and, accordingly, attacked the European settlements. Such tendencies reveal the presence of effective observation techniques, which, probably, have long been practiced by the natives to protect villages from the aggression of other hostile local tribes. It is difficult even to imagine what storms of emotion caused by the appearance of the Vikings among the indigenous communities. Were the many Scrallings who attacked the Vikings descended from the same tribe? Or were they a combined force of different local forces, fused together to counter an unusual and supernatural threat? The cruelty and fury of the Vikings towards the natives clearly did not give reason to perceive them as peaceful neighbors,and therefore could well contribute to the unification of the tribes, driven by a single goal - to throw them out. However, the Scralling counterattacks ultimately signed a verdict on any further attempts to establish colonies in Vinland. As the "Saga of Eric the Red" narrates, the Vikings "enlightened that, although that land was good and fertile, they would not be able to live there and not be forced to constantly fight and be threatened" - such a statement is quite worthy of a Viking.they would not be able to live there and not be forced to constantly fight and be under threat”- such a statement is quite worthy of a Viking.they would not be able to live there and not be forced to constantly fight and be under threat”- such a statement is quite worthy of a Viking.
Battle of Vikings with Scrallings in the XI century. The main reason for the failure of the attempts of the Vikings to establish permanent settlements in North America, clearly, lay in their hostile relationship with the Scrallings, as the Indians are called in the sagas, as well as the Eskimos, without making any distinction between them. Anthropologists presumably define these same Scrallings as representatives of the extinct Misinaki Indians, or Beotuks, akin to the Algonquins. The Scrallings, whose influence eventually contributed to the disappearance of Viking settlements in Greenland, were Eskimos, not Indians.
The reason that forced the settlers to abandon their endeavors in Vinland was, most likely, a combination of increasing internal centrifugal forces, expressed in disagreements between individual Viking leaders, which resulted in mass murders in the colony at the behest of Freydis, as described in the "Saga of the Greenlanders", and besides, in the constant onslaught of the Scrallings, who, as they say, had reasons to "sharpen their teeth" on cruel and wayward aliens.