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New Clues About Vinland was originally published in the nationally distributed Den Danske Pioneer on January 29, 2001.New Clues About Vinland?
All of the media focus about the millennial celebration of Leif Eriksson’s voyage of discovery came last year. Likewise the media hyped our own entry into a new millennium on January 1, 2000. In both cases, the hoopla was a year premature. A strong case can be made for Leif returning to Greenland from Norway in the year 1000. Since he only outfitted his famed voyage to the New World sometime after his return from Norway, it is highly improbable that he sailed for the New World prior to 1001. It should come as no surprise that many of the ‘experts’ on the subject somehow missed this trifling fact. Many related facts and anomalies go unrecognized or ignored by these same ‘experts.’ Their general consensus places Leif’s final landfall on a bleak, inhospitable spot near the Northern tip of Newfoundland – L’ans aux Meadows. To be sure, the Viking Age site excavated there is a bona fide Norse site. It is NOT, however, part of Leif’s Vinland. Aside from the fact that the site is in the New World, not a single bit of the saga record corroborates the L’ans aux Meadows site. Not the lay of the land, not the botanical evidence, not the climate, not the length of the days, not the sailing directions; nothing-even hints at Newfoundland being part of Vinland. Yet read most books or magazine articles on the topic and you’ll find many ‘experts’ lined up to support the site as Leif’s hospitable land of plenty. Facts must be twisted, ignored, explained away, or conveniently overlooked to suit theory. Great to promote tourism, bad for truth. The scope of this article is not such that a point-by-point examination of the tantalizing saga evidence can be examined. Suffice it to say that only one region fulfills ALL of the observations recorded on Leif’s voyage – and that is Cape Cod, Massachusetts. No twisting, distorting, or ignoring of facts is needed. Each falls neatly into place forming a conclusive argument that when examined by an unbiased mind, cannot be ignored. Nor can it be refuted, although the ‘experts’ would certainly try. Curious how academic scholars, persons to whom truth and open-mindedness should be sacrosanct, all too often live with closed minds that shut out truth - so much easier to cling to the old, as opposed to considering something new. Contrary to what they would have people believe, new clues regarding the Viking contacts with North America can very realistically be expected to be found. Yet whenever someone hints at having some potential new evidence to corroborate anything other than the “accepted” theory, then efforts are made to belittle the finder or label that person a kook while refuting the object or potential evidence with haughty proclamations. Rarely do the “experts” ever deign to seriously examine such blasphemous data, as though by seriously considering it, they themselves might become somehow tainted. At the best of times archeological research requires careful study of clues in order to begin to understand how they might fit into the broader picture of things. But as generally conducted with regards towards potential Viking Age artifacts south of Newfoundland, archaeological principals seem to vanish. Perhaps with some tenacious work on the part of a handful of open-minded researchers, such as myself, this trend can be reversed and truth will again surface.
A Potentially Exciting New FindAll of which brings us to a new find – one that if proven authentic could have far-reaching repercussions about where Vinland was located. It is a find sure to draw fire because it was not unearthed scientifically (being stumbled onto by chance, how could it have been?). This find is very modest to date – two small, metallic objects that appear to be of great antiquity. The one is a silver ring about 2.75” in diameter. The other is a broken-off bronze foot, possibly from a playing piece or a statuette of a god. They were found by an amateur treasure hunter. He only began to wonder if he had stumbled on a Viking Age site when he could find no simpler explanation for what he had located. He was not out to prove anything, least of all where Vinland might lie. The person who discovered them lives near the Bass River on Cape Cod and has a hobby of searching for lost items with his metal detector. Over the years he has found many 'treasures', but perhaps none as intriguing as those he unearthed from beneath several inches of overlay last summer. The silver ring is perhaps the more intriguing of the two objects because it obviously bears some extremely worn markings. The object appears to have been cast in a sand mold and has significant wear at one point, almost as if something else had been attached to it there. One tantalizing thought is that it might be part of a Norse cloak pin, where the ‘pin’ itself broke off after years of wear. The markings are extremely worn and identifying them will take time and careful study. The obvious solution would be to look to the Runic alphabet for answers, but an open mind demands alternative searches as well. To date no definitive conclusion as to their nature or purpose can be drawn. The bronze foot is interesting as well. The style is reminiscent of some Viking Age work. But being broken off of a larger object, it only offers a hint at the whole. The big question is what it is a piece of. Was it a gaming piece, a part of a god, or something else? Only careful study might reveal the answer. And study is the key word here. Both objects need to be carefully analyzed to determine their exact metallurgy. Such data would help to date them and could either dash any possible Viking Age connections or bolster them. If a window of viability remains, detailed analysis of both objects down to the minute detail of their markings needs to be conducted by persons qualified to make comparative analysis with known objects of the period. Even then they may not reveal their origin or purpose, but the possibility is there and it bears investigation. The two objects were not found in the same exact location, although they turned up quite near each other. Pending detailed analysis of the objects, the location of the find is being kept confidential to avoid treasure seekers from spoiling any potential for further finds. But perhaps one of the more intriguing aspects of these two little metal objects is that they turned up near the Bass River on Cape Cod, the only viable waterway /candidate for Leif’s camp in the New World. This same waterway has yielded two boulders with mooring holes chiseled into them and the remnants of a boat shed built to house a ship the size and dimensions of Leif’s ship. Yet nothing is conclusive. These earlier clues have been dismissed. Even if the latest objects do turn out to be Viking Age pieces, of and by themselves, they will not conclusively prove anything. But they would serve as part of the mounting evidence that the “experts” who place Vinland elsewhere, need to accept the inevitable – their theory cannot stand up to scrutiny. How can you help help?
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