Vikings in Canada

[tomahawk6]

Sorry if its in the wrong area but I thought this find was neat.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/scientists-may-spotted-viking-space-145600689.html

Satellite imagery of Point Rosee in Southern Newfoundland in Canada has revealed a surprising discovery: an ancient Viking site that has the potential to rewrite the history of North America.

The new site is several hundred miles south of the only other Viking site in North America, called L'Anse aux Meadows.

"The sagas suggest a short period of activity and a very brief and failed colonization attempt," Douglas Bolender, an archaeologist specializing in Norse settlements, told National Geographic.

"L'Anse aux Meadows fits well with that story but is only one site. Point Rosee could reinforce that story or completely change it if the dating is different from L'Anse aux Meadows. We could end up with a much longer period of Norse activity in the New World."

 

[Jarnhamar]

That seems like a tricky way to find evidence of human occupation.

"Space archaeologist" Sarah Parcak made the discovery by studying vegetation in satellite images. Ancient structures like the Vikings built can change the surrounding soil and affect much water it can absorb. That, in turn, affects how much vegetation can grow. When Parcak spotted a dark patch in satellite images, she knew she was on to something.

 

[AJFitzpatrick]

That was just the remote sensing method to identify the target for doing the actual field investigation. They still dug the site to get the physical evidence.
Mineral exploration works much the same way.

 

[Chispa]

The Basques, from the Pyrennes region between modern France and Spain, had been hunting whales in their own waters since at least the 11th century. By the early 16th century they were venturing out across the Atlantic to visit the Gulf of St Lawrence and adjacent areas, at least 20 years before the “official” voyages of discovery financed by Francois I. Every year they set out in pursuit of their precious prey, at the time considered fish (called “Lenten bacon, fast fish, blubber fish” or “crapois”). Whale meat and fat were indeed highly prized and the blubber was used to make oil for lamps. In 1534, Jacques Cartier encountered many Basque whalers on his first expedition to North America, mainly in the Strait of Belle-Isle, which separates the island of Newfoundland from Quebec and Labrador.

http://www.historymuseum.ca/virtual-museum-of-new-france/economic-activities/basque-whalers/

In his History of Brittany (1582), the French jurist and historian Bertrand d'Argentré (1519–1590) was the first (as far as we currently know) to make the claim that the Basques, Bretons, and Normans were the first to reach the New World "before any other people."The Bordeaux jurist Etienne de Cleirac (1647) made a similar claim, stating that the French Basques, in pursuing whales across the North Atlantic, discovered North America a century before Columbus: Wiki.

 

[Colin Parkinson]

Seems slightly odd place, good for defense, but hard to land and no real protection for vessels. There seems to be better sheltered waters nearby, unless resources ashore was the deciding factor.