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Vikings in America
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Program Overview
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Many people believe that Columbus was the first European to arrive
in North America. However, historians and archeologists have
discovered evidence suggesting that Vikings landed in North America
in the eleventh century, 500 years before Columbus, and established
settlements along the northeastern coast of the continent. Although
the exact routes of the Viking voyages are not known for certain,
scholars have attempted to trace them from Scandinavia to North
America by interpreting the medieval Norse sagas compiled in Iceland
that describe the voyages. This episode of NOVA presents some of the
researchers who are re-creating the Viking voyages and searching for
archeological clues along the North American coastline.
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