![By Joyce Hill (Image uploaded to en:) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/16/Viking_landing.jpg)
Reenactment of Viking landing at L’Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland, Canada 2000, by Joyce Hill GFDL, via Wikimedia Commons
Are you ready for a week full of Vikings?
Ever see a news story about an amazing historical discovery and wonder what is so special about it? Or read a news article about a “historic moment,” only to wonder what they were talking about? In this series, “History in the News,” I take you behind the headlines, explaining the history behind these findings and announcements, giving you a historian’s perspective on why they are important.
This week, we’ll be discussing the latest discovery of a second possible Viking settlement in Newfoundland. On April 1, 2016, Dr. Sarah Parcak announced she and her team of researchers had discovered evidence of what might be a Viking-style hearth and eight kilograms of early bog iron in a part of Newfoundland called Point Rosee. This discovery was even featured in a NOVA documentary, Vikings Unearthed (which featured Parcak and others horrifyingly mispronouncing “Newfoundland” and the typical sensationalizing of Vikings as murdering barbarians). Parcak and NOVA believe that Parcak’s findings are strong evidence for what they describe as only the second Viking settlement in North America. But are they correct? We will explore the answer to this question over the course of three blog posts. The first post, which you are reading right now, will discuss the history of Viking sites in North America and give you an overview of Parcak’s discovery. The second post, which comes out tomorrow (Wednesday) will be Part 1 of an interview with Vikingologist and dear friend, Dr. Teva Vidal, who will discuss Parcak’s findings and the significance of such a find. The third post, which comes out on Thursday, will be Part 2 of the interview with Dr. Vidal, and will discuss why we seem to care so much about when Europeans arrived in North America and where they went. Are you excited? I know I am!