Forum: history.stackexchange.com
Tags: <middle-ages><vikings><precolumbian-contact>
Title: Is there evidence of extensive Viking presence in North America?
Question: The Vikings  appear to have had two long-lasting communities in Greenland, and a site has been found at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland Canada.  But is there any solid evidence that the Vikings had a more extensive presence in pre-Columbian North America?

Answers:
sents: text: If there was an extensive Viking presence in North America, it has not been documented.
text: And the doings of the "western" (Norwegian) Vikings are fairly well documented.
text: What would be accurate illustrations of vikings and viking culture?
text: One of the issues is that the Vikings didn't "know" that they had "discovered" (or were close to discovering), a new continent.
text: To them, Newfoundland (an island) was just another Greenland or Iceland, somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean, with no particular relevance to anything else.
answer_details: author: history.stackexchange.com/users/120/Tom Au
score: 12
sents: text: There is some various "evidence", but all of it is of such low quality or shaky provenence that they are generally considered fakes.
text: For example, we have the Heavener Runestone , in Oklahoma.
text: The writing scheme employed, Elder Futhark runes , were used far before the other Viking excursions into North America, and two of the runes are incorrect.
text: There are a few other proported Viking artifacts in Oklahoma, but all are generally accounted as either similar low-quality modern fakes, or more likely Native American in origin.
text: There is also the Kensington Runestone , from Minnesota.
text: It also seems to be a forgery, although a slightly better done one.
text: Then there are the Beardmore Relics .
text: These appear to be genuine iron Viking-age artifacts, supposedly found in Ontario.
text: Their authenticity is not in a lot of doubt, but most scholars believe they were probably planted in Ontario.
text: The son of the "finder" signed a sworn affadavit that they were in fact planted there by his father.
text: So there are hints of Viking activity around Oklahoma and the western Great Lakes area, but most likely that has more to do with modern scandanavians settling in those areas than any actual Viking activity there.
text: There's no real accepted evidence of a Viking presence in North America outside of Greenland and Newfoundland.
answer_details: author: history.stackexchange.com/users/771/T.E.D.
score: 7
sents: text: No. L'Anse aux Meadows is all that was found on the American continent.
answer_details: author: history.stackexchange.com/users/13/Rory
score: 6
sents: text: There is less spectacular evidence of Viking activity in the north which includes bits of iron, both meteoritic iron from Greenland and smelted iron from Iceland and Norway, bits of smelted copper and a few bits of sawn oak which were found in old aboriginal sites in the north including metal into the central high arctic.
text: What is not known is exactly how this material was distributed which could range from extensive Viking travel into northern Canada to aboriginals robbing out of abandoned Viking sites i.e. evidence of contact but not explanatory of the exact nature of contact.
text: Typical Aboriginal use of European metal goods was reuse to suit Aboriginal lifestyle; for example, breaking down copper pots to make arrow points for bird hunting, beads, nose rings, etc; consequently, complete artifacts may have not long remained in obvious Viking form.
text: It was certainly the case that Aboriginals had no use for iron boat nails to build watercraft but found many other uses for them.
answer_details: author: history.stackexchange.com/users/17660/GeraldR
score: 4
sents: text: Well, there's the Maine Penny .
text: It may have been traded from more northern tribes down the coast, or from Greenlanders who traveled much farther south than we knew.
answer_details: author: history.stackexchange.com/users/11376/Rob Crawford
score: 2

Summary of the answers:
There is some shaky evidence around Oklahoma and the Great Lakes but it's not generally accepted.
It is generally considered that there is not evidence to suggest an extended Viking presence in North America. Artifacts have been found, but nothing that conclusively points to an established Viking presence in the region.