Viking “discovery” of Americas dated
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Archaeologists have determined that Vikings occupied the Americas as early as 1021 – exactly 1000 years ago – revealing the earliest known record of humans crossing from Europe to the New World 
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WOOD DATING
Precise date pinpointed through radiocarbon dating of wooded artefacts found at L'Anse aux Meadows, only known Viking site in Americas

Samples taken
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Greenland
Viking homelands
Viking settlement 
AMERICAS
Iceland
EUROPE
ATLANTIC OCEAN
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L'Anse aux Meadows
150 km  90 miles
Newfoundland
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Clean cuts on wood show artefacts were modified using metal tools - not manufactured by indigenous population at that time

ICELANDIC SAGAS
According to 13th century sagas, Norse explorer Leif Erikson established settlement of Vinland - in present-day eastern Canada - around 1000, five centuries before voyages of Christopher Columbus
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Reconstructed building at L'Anse aux Meadows

Statue of Erikson in Reykjavik, Iceland

Microscope image of wood fragment 

Oseberg ship, Viking Ship Museum, Oslo, Norway
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Sources: Nature, UNESCO, Encycloedia Britannica
Pictures: Glenn Nagel Photography, Petra Doeve, M. Kuitems, Newscom
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