I found this article about contacts between the Norsemen and the indigenous people of the Americas by Valerie Hansen at Aeon extremely interesting:
Who, besides the indigenous peoples from Asia who crossed the Alaskan land bridge in prehistory, arrived in the Americas before Columbus? The question has fascinated generations of scholars. Could a Chinese tribute ship, as Gavin Menzies proposed in 2002, have departed from the rest of the Ming fleet in East Africa in 1421 and sailed to North and South America, Australia and the Arctic? Could fishing vessels from the British port of Bristol, as David Beers Quinn suggested in 1974, have followed schools of cod across the north Atlantic and reached the fishing grounds off the Canadian shore in 1480 or 1481? No persuasive evidence supports the claim about the 15th-century Chinese. The voyages of the Bristol cod fishermen are more likely, but no documentation concerning them predates 1492, possibly because they wanted to keep the location of the fishing grounds secret.
The most credible claim – that the Vikings reached North America around the year 1000 – deserves more attention.
The short version is
- the evidence that the Norsemen actually reached the New World before Columbus is pretty good and getting better all of the time
- the indigenous people of the Americas had extensive trade routes long before Columbus
- the Norsemen may well have penetrated the interior of the country as well as having short-lived settlements on the coast
The piece seems sound in its parts, but takes a leap of faith to get from Viking penny found in Maine to there was a large civilization centered on Cahokia with trade routes joined by the Mississippi so the Vikings could have gone there.
The dark ages were ……dark.
Possibly DNA of natives and archeological research will shed light.
More realistic then the Vikings getting to Central America are Polynesians.
There was a rigorous DNA study this summer that showed Polynesians travelled to Central America around 1200; had kids with locals; and travelled back to Polynesia.
According to my understanding, the Omaha would annually undertake what was known as The great Round. As the winter broke, and spring began they would plant their gardens and leave their lodges to forage, hunt and trade in a circuitous route stretching hundreds of miles. The route was familiar to them and goods passed hands as they met with other tribes. The trade goods the author spoke of may have passed through many, many hands. For instance, the Omaha made necklaces of seashells that originated thousands of miles away.
L’Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland is a confirmed site for Norse settlement on the west side of the Atlantic. There are also Norse sagas describing this settlement in Vinland (which more likely translates to ‘meadow-land’, rather than ‘grape-land’ which makes sense since grapes do not grow that far north) as well as explorations of the far north Atlantic shoreline of the New World. The settlement failed due to inclement weather, hostile natives (the Norse failed to bring with them that most-effective European weapon of war, infectious disease), and lack of support from home (LaM was effectively a family undertaking and in addition was two hops away from the Norse homeland).
There have been many purported pre-Columbian Old World contacts with the New World. Barry Fell tried to make a case for Celtic settlements with his analysis of ‘runestones’ at Mystery Hill and other so-called ‘root cellar’ ruins in New York and New England. The Venetii of the Flanders region certainly had sailing vessels capable of making the voyage. There is the record of the Ming Treasure voyages of the early 15th century, which Gavin Menzies believed reached at least the West Coast of the Americas if not the east. The Basques certainly reached the New World before Columbus in pursuit of cod, Sebastian Cabot mentions their fishing vessels during his visit to the New England coastline in 1497. But nothing stuck until Old World diseases started emptying the landscape of Indians who would have otherwise disputed attempts at colonization. The Separationists only survived by eating the foodstores abandoned by the surviving Wampanoags when they fled inland to get away from a plague. De Soto’s expedition survived because it traveled through a deserted landscape decimated by pandemic and war.
‘The Omaha made necklaces of seashells that originated thousands of miles away.’
There are many other instances of long-distance trade in North America. Pipestone pipes from the Dakotas, native copper from the Upper Peninsula, serpentinite from the Mid-Atlantic, and various stone tools and ornaments with unique chemistry all have been found in gravesites and archaeological digs hundreds if not thousands of miles their point of origin.
Not so fast! Wine grapes were grown in Southern Norway and in Sweden during the Medieval Warm Period (roughly 800-1200) which, coincidentally, is exactly the period when the Norsemen spread to Iceland and then to the New World. Also the native North American grape, AKA “fox grape”, grows just about everywhere in North America.
Climate variation is something too much neglected in our history classes. I suspect there’s a pretty darned good case to be made that the Romans invaded England during a period in which their lifestyle was easily supported there and left when it no longer was. There are records, for example, that oranges and olives could be grown in Cornwall when the Romans were there.
WRT trade routes there are trade routes in Europe and Asia that extended for thousands of miles and have been used for millennia. The most widely known is the so-called “Silk Road” but long before silk was traded obsidian was traded over a vast area. Somewhere around here I have a research paper that catalogues discoveries of obsidian and its original place of origin based on composition that goes back 10,000 years or more.
Trade routes are a topic of interest for me: my ancestral home in Switzerland is located on one such trade route. If I had the time I believe I could document that practically all occurrences of my paternal haplotype derive from locations near a single trade route. The route is still in use—it’s called the Jakobsweg or the Camino de Santiago, i.e. the “Way of St. James”. It has been a popular pilgrimage route for more than a millennium. The Canterbury Tales takes place during a pilgrimage on the English stretch of the route.
John Adams and two of his sons used a portion of the route (in reverse) on their way to Paris when soliciting funds to support the American Revolution.
‘The piece seems sound in its parts, but takes a leap of faith to get from Viking penny found in Maine to there was a large civilization centered on Cahokia with trade routes joined by the Mississippi so the Vikings could have gone there.’
That’s not quite on a par with the Israelites migrating to the New World and leaving the Golden Tables for Joseph Smith, but it certainly leans in that direction. Not inconceivable, but very very unlikely.
One of the important pieces to finding evidence of Polynesians voyaging to South America was appreciating that the ocean currents were Northerly on the approach to South America. The genomic imprint of first contact was in Columbia, from which Easter Island was later settled.
I think some of the earlier research focused on Chile which is directly east, and while Thor’s son had noted prevailing currents, Thor’s son had come to be seen as a braggart god who shouldn’t be treated seriously.