Point Rosee

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Coordinates: 47 ° 50 ′ 19.7 "  N , 59 ° 22 ′ 54.9"  W.

Map: Newfoundland and Labrador
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Point Rosee
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Newfoundland and Labrador

Point Rosee (French form of name: Pointe Rosée ) is the name of a headland on the southwestern end of the Newfoundland coast near the village of Codroy ; the closest major city is Port aux Basques . According to an archaeological report for the Provincial Archeology Office in St. John's from 2017, evidence of Nordic settlement in the Viking Age could not be confirmed.

Archaeologist Sarah Parcak had previously identified some possibly man-made structures on the headland by analyzing satellite images. During a two-and-a-half-week test excavation in summer 2015, the site was first measured with a magnetometer . According to this, findings were made at a selected point, as a result of which this was interpreted as a smelting place in the form of a roasting place or a racing furnace for processing lawn iron ore . It is a fireplace, 28 pounds of cinder, burnt charcoal, which was determined to be 1271 by means of a 14C dating , 18 pounds of a glassy, ​​blackened and brownish material, which is probably interpreted as roasted lawn iron ore, and possible walls Peat sod. In addition, a rock was found at the edge of a pit, which may have been split open by the action of heat, and interpreted as a 'stone hearth'. How such a use could have found remains to be clarified.

If the classification could have been verified, it would have been the second site on Newfoundland to be assigned to Scandinavians from the Viking Age , alongside L'Anse aux Meadows . Other discoveries that indicate an early presence of Scandinavians in North America were made in 2012 in the Tanfied Valley on Baffin Island (see under Helluland ).

See also

Individual evidence

  1. La probable découverte d'un 2e site viking en Amérique relance les speculations. AFP article at L'Express , April 2, 2016, accessed October 29, 2016 (French).
  2. Point Rosee, Codroy Valley, NL (ClBu-07) 2016 Test Excavations
  3. a b c Mark Strauss: Discovery could rewrite history of vikings in the New World . National Geographic , March 31, 2016, accessed October 29, 2016.
  4. ^ A b Frank Ochmann: Archeology: The Secret of Point Rosee . Stern.de , April 17, 2016, accessed April 18, 2016.
  5. ^ Sarah Parcak: Why I Didn't Want to Study the Norse World — But I'm Very Glad I Did . The author's blog post from April 14th in the “Explorers Journal” on nationalgeographic.com , accessed on April 18, 2016: “… when we had it analyzed by a Norse metallurgy expert, turned out to be evidence of bog iron ore roasting, which is the first phase in Norse iron production ”.