Vikings, not Columbus, were first to discover North America and meet Indigenous Americans

Sweden

History books tell us that Christopher Columbus discovered America. But a new study suggests that Viking Age Norse people might have encountered Indigenous North Americans hundreds of years before Columbus stepped foot on the continent. 

They were reportedly looking for walrus ivory in the High Arctic and this is when they met the people in America. Norse intermediaries used to supply the prized walrus ivory in medieval Europe. To look for it, they expanded across the North Atlantic and established settlements in Iceland and Greenland.

Where the walrus ivory was precisely sourced has been a mystery. But a new study suggests that it was likely harvested from very remote High Arctic hunting grounds before being imported into Europe from Norse settlements in Greenland.

The team used high-resolution genetic sourcing methods to locate the exact places in the High Arctic, which included North Water Polynya in northern Baffin Bay where open water is surrounded by sea ice between Greenland and Canada, and the interior Canadian Arctic.

Vikings lived roughly between the late 8th and 11th centuries, during which time the seafaring Norse people from Scandinavia raided, colonised and traded across Europe and beyond.

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The researchers say that the Norse came in contact with Indigenous peoples of the North American Arctic, during which time they possibly exchanged ivory with them.

Study lead author Peter Jordan, with the Department of Archaeology and Ancient History at Lund University in Sweden, told Newsweek, "We had no idea the walrus ivory was coming from such remote parts of the Arctic. This is big news. The exciting implication is that ivory shipped back to Europe was coming from remote High Arctic areas inhabited by Arctic Indigenous peoples."

The study authors say that Vikings must have met people from other cultures when they went to these places. They also likely had trade relations with each other, especially the Thule Inuit, who are the ancestors of modern Inuit in Canada and Greenland.

While it has long been theorised that Norse and Indigenous Americans likely interacted with each other, clear archaeological evidence has been missing.

The new study says that Norse people and Thule Inuit were in the same place at the same time because of ivory. It was available only in remote areas where both groups operated. Another North American Arctic Indigenous group known as the Tuniit also existed at the same time in these areas, according to the researchers.