Norse colonization of North America

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The exploration of North America by Norsemen began in the late 10th century. Voyages from Iceland reached Greenland and founded colonies along its western coast. Norse settlements on Greenland lasted almost 500 years, and the population peaked at around 2,000–3,000 people. The colonies consisted mostly of farms along Greenland's scattered coastal fjords. Colonists relied heavily on hunting, especially of walruses and the harp seal. For lumber, they harvested driftwood, imported wood from Europe, and sailed to modern-day Canada.

Archaeological evidence indicates that the Greenland colonists used lumber and possibly iron ore imported from North America. Archaeologists found remains of one short-term settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows near the northern tip of Newfoundland. The remains of buildings excavated there in the 1960s dated to approximately 1,000 years ago.^[1][2] It was not a permanent settlement and lacked graves and livestock areas. The site was abandoned, seemingly deliberately, by 1145 AD with no valuables or tools left behind.^[3] Some wood fragments and nuts in the Norse remains were from plants not found in Newfoundland, but native to the continental mainland across the Gulf of St. Lawrence.^[4] No other settlements in Canada and no settlements on the North American mainland have been conclusively identified as Norse.

One explanation for why it seems the Norse did not create permanent colonies beyond Greenland is a lack of population pressure. The Greenland colonies were abandoned gradually during the 14th and 15th centuries, due at least in part to climate change. The Little Ice Age brought more storms, longer winters, and shorter springs. It reduced the availability of food at the same time that the value of Greenland's exports to Europe plummeted. The last written record from Norse Greenland was a 1408 marriage. Radiocarbon dating found the last Norse colonists inhabiting the Eastern Settlement in 1430 (±15 years). The reasons for its abandonment have long been debated.

The Norse exploration has been subject to numerous controversies concerning the exploration and settlement of North America by Europeans. The primary sources for descriptions of the Norse voyages beyond Greenland are the Vinland Sagas. These heroic sagas were first written down in Iceland centuries after the events they describe. After the European discovery of the Americas, it was debated whether the lands they describe beyond Greenland (Helluland, Markland, and Vinland) corresponded to real places in North America. Since the public acknowledgment of Norse expeditions and settlements, pseudoscientific and pseudohistorical theories have emerged.^[5]