Canada's lost Vikings revealed: 1,000-year-old stone vessel is earliest evidence of Norse metalwork across the Atlantic
- The Baffin Island container held bronze and small spherules of glass
- It may have been used as a crucible for melting bronze by a metalworker
- It could have belonged to Norse seafarers who travelled to Arctic Canada
- Up until now, the indigenous Dorset hunters were thought to have been a very isolated people with very little contact with anyone outside of tribe
A small stone container unearthed half-century ago has now been recognised as further evidence of a Viking or Medieval Norse presence in Arctic Canada.
The discovery was made when the interior of a container, which was unearthed in Baffin Island, was found to contain bronze as well as small spherules of glass.
Archaeologists believe the stone vessel was a crucible for melting bronze by a metalworker, likely in order to cast it into small tools or ornaments, during the centuries around 1000 AD.
A small stone container unearthed half-century ago has now been recognised as further evidence of a Viking or Medieval Norse presence in Arctic Canada
Scientists claim this is the earliest evidence of high-temperature metalworking north of Mesoamerica – an area that describes Central America and Mexico before the 1500s.
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Scientists believe indigenous peoples of northern North America did not practice high-temperature metalworking.
Instead, archaeologists believe Norse seafarers travelled via Greenland to parts of Arctic Canada where they came into contact with the Dorset people.
Baffin Island, in the territory of Nunavut, is the largest island in Canada and the fifth largest island in the world
The discovery was made when the interior of a container, which was unearthed in Baffin Island (pictured), was found to contain bronze as well as small spherules of glass
The Dorset were hunters who occupied parts Greenland and the Canadian eastern Arctic 2,000 years before Inuit moved in from Alaska.
They survived on sea mammals such as seals and walrus, often lived on the coasts in skin-covered tens and made ornaments from bone, ivory, or wood.
Up until now, the view of the Dorset culture had been that they were a very isolated people with very little contact with anyone.
BRONZE AGE GLASS BEADS IN DENMARK ARE TRACED TO EGYPT
Bronze Age beads (left) in Denmark matched the blue glass found in Tutankhamun's death mask (right)
Another northern European discovery this week unearthed previously unknown trade routes for glass between Egypt, the Middle East and Denmark in the Bronze Age.
The discovery was made after Bronze Age beads found in Denmark matched the blue glass inlays found in Tutankhamun's gold death mask.
Twenty-three blue beads unearthed in an Ølby grave, south of Copenhagen, were analysed using a technique known as plasma-spectrometry,
The method allowed researchers to analyse the fragile bead and compare the chemical composition of trace elements with material from Amarna in Egypt and Nippur in Mesopotamia.
The comparison showed that the chemicals matched exactly, marking the first time that Bronze Age Egyptian and Middle Eastern cobalt glass has been found outside the Mediterranean area.
Researchers from the National Museum in Denmark and the Institute of Archaeomaterials Research in France say the latest study shows that as well as amber, Denmark and Egypt traded glass 3,400 years ago
They also believe it links two ancient sun cults, based on the fact that sunlight is able to penetrate the surface of both amber and glass.
'The crucible adds an intriguing new element to this emerging chapter in the early history of northern Canada,' said lead author Dr Patricia Sutherland, an honorary research fellow at the University of Aberdeen.
Dr Sutherland has spent 15 years recovering other specimens in Arctic Canada that resemble those used by Europeans of the Viking and Medieval periods.
'It may be the earliest evidence of high-temperature nonferrous metalworking in North America to the north of what is now Mexico,' she said.
Archaeologists believe Norse seafarers travelled to parts of Arctic Canada where they came into contact with the Dorset. These were hunters who occupied parts Greenland and the Canadian eastern Arctic 2,000 years before Inuit moved in from Alaska
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