When was iceland discovered by vikings

In September , archaeologist John Steinberg of the University of California at Los Angeles announced that he had uncovered the remains of a turf mansion in Iceland that he believes is the house where Thorfinn, Gudrid and Snorri lived out their days. For one thing, it could shed new light on the early Norse experience in North America, first substantiated by Helge Ingstad, an explorer, and his wife, Anne Stine Ingstad, an archaeologist.

In , they discovered the remains of a Viking encampment in Newfoundland dating to the year But the only accounts of how and why Vikings journeyed to the New World, not to mention what became of them, are in Icelandic sagas, centuries-old tales that have traditionally vexed scholars struggling to separate Viking fantasy from Viking fact.

Steinberg did not start out trying to insert himself into a debate about Viking lore, but to survey settlement patterns during Viking times. With his colleague Doug Bolender of NorthwesternUniversity in Chicago, he had developed a method for using an electrical conductivity meter to detect buried artifacts. The tool—a cumbersome, pound apparatus usually used to identify contaminated groundwater and locate pipes—sends alternating current into the ground.

The current induces a magnetic field, and the tool then measures how the magnetic field varies according to the makeup of the soil and the objects buried in it. The two men fitted the electronic equipment into a foot-long plastic tube and trekked around fields holding the apparatus by their sides, looking for all the world like slowmotion pole vaulters getting ready to vault.

There, Steinberg and Bolender charted magnetic anomalies—possible signatures of buried walls and floors of turf houses.

An person team they put together then settled on Skagafjord, on the north coast of Iceland, as the most promising place to conduct their studies. The area is dotted with rills, rivers and thousand-year-old fields green from the abundant rain and long, soft sunlight of summer days in the Far North. The territory was ideally suited to their technology, layered as it is with known volcanic deposits that coincide with important historical events, enabling the archaeologists to get a good fix on the ages of objects they found.

He points to a green layer that marks a volcanic eruption in , a blue layer from one in and a thick, yellow layer from yet another in In the summer of , Steinberg and his colleagues scanned the low fields in Glaumbaer. The work proceeded uneventfully until late August, when the team was about to pack up and leave. When two undergraduates probing spots that showed low conductivity in earlier scans pulled up their first plug of earth, they looked in the hole and saw a layer of turf—consistent with a turf house—below a yellow layer that marked the eruption of MountHekla in Excited, Steinberg returned in to dig a series of trenches.

By the end of , the team had plotted the direction and length of one of the walls. The house was so large that it evidently belonged to someone with wealth and power. But who? These epic Viking tales were probably first written down around or by scribes who either recorded the oral stories of elders or worked from some now-lost written source, says Thor Hjaltalin, an Icelandic scholar who oversees archaeological activities in northwest Iceland.

In the spring he purchased the land at Glaumbaer and established his farm there. They were led by local chiefs who did not like taking orders from, or paying taxes to, Harald Finehair, a Norse king then consolidating power in Norway. At first, Iceland offered a paradise to these ruggedly independent Vikings. The lowlands had forests of birch and other trees that had never felt the ax.

In just 60 years the population jumped from zero to 70, There was just one sore point to this idyllic life. Settled and organized though they might have been, the Vikings were also some of the toughest warriors who ever lived. A slighted Norse was not the type to turn the other cheek. The resulting bloody duels reverberated far beyond Iceland. According to the sagas, Erik eventually set up a farmstead on the west coast of Greenland. Viking Settlement Centre, Borgarnes : About one hour north of Reykjavik, the settlement centre uses art and technology to retell Egil's Saga across three exhibitions.

Snorrastofa : Not far from Borgarnes, the home of master storyteller Snorri Sturluson is a must-see for budding historians. Sturluson was a scholar of Viking law and shaped so much Icelandic culture with his writings. The findings from this research helped us understand how Viking longhouses were built in the so-called Commonwealth period.

Are you planning a Vikings in Iceland themed trip to the land of fire and ice? What's on your itinerary? He now works as a professional writer on all things Scandinavia. Table of Contents. Leif Erikson statue at Hallgrimskirkja, Reykjavik. You might also like Furthermore, he is also the father of Leif the Lucky who is sometimes credited to have found America.

Again, another place that was already settled. If you want to visit the homestead of Erik the Red, named Eriksstadir it has now been turned into a beautifully preserved museum. If you are looking for an extensive guide on how to travel like a Viking in Iceland. Sushi might not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of taking on the role of an Icelandic Viking.

However, if you really think about it. They did a lot of sailing and eating fish, and that is pretty much what you will be doing on this Incredible freshly caught Sushi experience. In early June, every year, the town of Hafnarfjordur is buzzing with all things Viking-related. It literally feels like you just time-traveled! The Vikings who are actually just normal people who live parts out of their years as actual Vikings set up camp, cook, sell souvenirs, fight and craft and you can join in!

The exhibitions are incredibly detailed with inputs from global institutions, such as the Smithsonian. If you are looking to explore the Norse settlement and Icelandic history a bit more, this is a stop for you! Iceland might not be a tropical island with an abundance of fruits and fertile givings but what the land gives the locals have gotten expert at utilizing. This being said. Icelanders can grow barely locally AND have access to intensely great water. Are you following? I am of course talking about the delicious beer found in Iceland.

Furthermore, if you are a real enthusiast, could you even join one of the beer tasting tours! Its inspiration is undoubtfully from a Viking ship and its location simply makes for the most idyllic scene. No matter the season, this iron sculpture never ceases to amaze! Stokksnes or Vestrahorn, it goes by a few names is one of those places that you truly take your breath away. It is located in the Eastern parts of Iceland and was, up until a few years ago, only known to the close-knit local community.

Today you might recognize the setting from Instagram representations of Iceland but the location has gotten very popular with the grammers. However, Stokksnes still somehow manages to keep its remote feel as Iceland might have looked like before anyone settled. The vast open space really is awe-inspiring. The settlement exhibition in downtown Reykjavik is built around the ruins of an old Viking Longhouse.

This is one of the oldest man-made structures ever to be found in Iceland! The exhibition focuses on the life and work of the first settlers giving you the tools to really put yourself in their shoes.

Imagining what it might have been like to live on this remote island in the middle of the North Atlantic in the 9th century. The Saga Museum is conveniently located right down by the harbor in Reykjavik not far from the hipster district Grandi. It is releveling small but an informative museum on the early Icelandic history with great attention to detail. Especially when it comes to the wax figures!