The Norse in North America: Did Norse sailors reach the Americas first, and when?

Why this question matters

Icelandic sagas written down in the 1200s describe voyages west of Greenland to a land called Vinland. A Norse site at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland was found in 1960, and a 2021 study dated wood cut there to AD 1021. The case tests where the stories and the ground agree, and where they still don't.

The evidence

The exhibits you examine in this case, labelled by the kind of evidence each one is.

• Written laterWritten down in the 1200s

  The Vinland sagas

  Saga of the Greenlanders; Saga of Erik the Red

  Two Icelandic sagas describe Leif Eriksson and others sailing west of Greenland around AD 1000 and meeting local people. They were written down about 200 years later.

• Made at the timeFound in 1960

  The L'Anse aux Meadows site

  Helge Ingstad and Anne Stine Ingstad; Parks Canada

  The remains of Norse-style turf buildings, iron boat rivets, a bronze cloak pin and signs of iron working. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

• Scientific findingPublished 2021

  Wood cut in 1021

  Kuitems et al., Nature

  Wood pieces at the site were cut with metal blades. Their tree rings carry a carbon-14 spike from a solar storm in AD 993, so scientists could count rings out to the year the trees were felled: 1021.

• Scientific findingExcavation finds

  Butternuts

  Parks Canada

  Butternuts were found at the site, but butternut trees don't grow that far north. Someone brought them from farther south.

How the investigation works

After the briefing and exhibits, you complete three steps. Every answer is explained, and the verdict lists the sources.

1. 1

   Chronology

   Put the events back in order, oldest first. BC and AD are handled correctly, and there is no year zero.

2. 2

   Source comparison

   Two sources, several statements. Decide which source supports each one, or whether neither does.

3. 3

   Supported conclusions

   Sort claims into supported, going beyond the evidence, or contradicted. Every answer explains why.

Sources

• Parks Canada: L'Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site
• Kuitems et al. 2021, Nature
• UNESCO World Heritage: L'Anse aux Meadows

Case content last checked 2026-10-13. Not reviewed by an independent historian. Found an error? Tell us.