L’Anse aux Meadows: The Viking Settlement of North America

In the 1960s, Anne and Helge Ingstad discovered an 11th-century Viking settlement in L’Anse aux Meadows, Canada, proving that the Vikings made it to North America.

For years, people passed on their legends orally before eventually writing them down. The Greenlanders’ Saga and The Saga of Erik the Red immortalized the tales of the Vikings’ westward voyages featuring Leif Erikson. Leif, born around 970 CE in Iceland to Erik the Red and Thorhild, led the expeditions. According to the sagas, Erik the Red discovered Greenland, setting the stage for Leif’s own explorations. He assembled a team of thirty men and embarked on the journey. Discovering an environmental paradise with lush meadows, forests, a serene lake, and abundant salmon, Erikson and his crew chose to settle there. They established camp and made it their home. Centuries before Christopher Columbus, the Vikings had reached a New World, if the sagas were accurate. Finally, evidence confirming their arrival was discovered at L’Anse aux Meadows, Canada.

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Slavic settlement and burial ground found in Saxony-Anhalt

Image Credit : LDA

Archaeologists from the State Office for Monument Preservation and Archaeology (LDA) of Saxony-Anhalt have discovered a Slavic settlement and associated burial ground near the town of Wettin-Löbejün, Germany.

During the Migration Period and the Early Middle Ages (5th to the 10th century AD), the Early Slavs established control over extensive regions of Central, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, establishing the foundations for the Slavic nations.

The original homeland of the Slavs is uncertain due to a lack of historical records, however, many scholars suggest that they originate from somewhere in Central-Eastern Europe.

Excavations were in preparation for the construction of the SuedOstLink, a planned underground cable connection from Wolmirstedt (Saxony-Anhalt) to Landshut (Bavaria).

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