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00:00the vikings we're on the trail of where they went in america this could change american history as
00:09we know it i'm archaeologist and military vet blue nelson and i'm archaeologist and ocean
00:17explorer mike arbuthnot i'm having trouble standing up we'll go to any length to uncover
00:22the real history of america got it man i think we're game on we've worked together for almost
00:2810 years but we've never tackled a mystery as big as this holy cow and my viking blood means that
00:35this investigation is personal these are my cousins we'll be using cutting-edge technology
00:41and hands-on archaeology to reveal how the vikings survived this is like something from a horror movie
00:48and how far into america they really went together we're on the hunt for america's lost vikings
00:57man i'm stoked never thought i'd make it this far i mean i feel like i'm at the end of the earth
01:11right now i definitely feel like this is the start to an adventure
01:15we're headed to the site of one of the biggest mysteries in american history
01:21this is probably one of the most enigmatic sites in north american archaeologists
01:26just off the east coast of canada on the island of newfoundland
01:30is a discovery so extraordinary that when archaeologists announced what they had found
01:35it shocked the world
01:36what did they see here yeah this is what we got to find out
01:4260 years ago norwegian explorer helge ingstad came to this barren desolate shore and made a truly
01:52historic discovery this is hallowed ground yeah
01:56this is lonsaw meadows
02:01these grass mounds were once thought of as an ancient native american camp
02:08but ingstad knew better to him they could only mean one thing
02:14vikings
02:17ingstad came to canada looking for vinland
02:23a legendary viking land mentioned in ancient texts
02:27he was convinced that this 1 000 year old settlement
02:32was it
02:33this is the beginning of european settlement in north america
02:38that's super cool
02:3960 years on lonsaw meadows remains the only confirmed viking site in north america
02:46so what were the vikings doing here at the ends of the earth
02:50vikings originated in scandinavia
02:55by the end of the 8th century they were the scourge of europe
03:00conquering land stealing resources and capturing slaves
03:05their expansion soon took them further into europe
03:09across britain france spain and even russia
03:14also going west to iceland and finally greenland
03:18but experts never thought they reached north america
03:22until the discovery of lonsaw meadows
03:26between us mike and i have conducted archaeology in 25 u.s states
03:31and dug everywhere from easter island to the middle east
03:34but for me this investigation is personal
03:38according to my family tree we descend from vikings
03:42so growing up feeling like a viking
03:44this investigation is very important to me
03:46lonsaw meadows is the buried footprint of a viking complex
03:52three large houses and five smaller buildings arranged north to south
03:58roughly 300 feet from the shore
04:01they say that actually between five and eleven people
04:06would have occupied this space
04:08this place probably just reeked of man
04:12archaeologists spent decades scouring this site
04:18digging cataloging and analyzing every last artifact they could find
04:23they've used all that knowledge to create this extraordinary reconstruction
04:29look at this thing it's incredible
04:31this accurate build is based on this small section of the site
04:37using the exact measurements from the footprints
04:40and building techniques from the old world
04:42archaeologists rebuilt the huts precisely as they would have looked
04:48viking houses in scandinavia were constructed almost entirely from wood
04:54but as vikings ventured across the atlantic
04:58timber became scarcer so they turned to turf instead
05:02one of the things that strikes me immediately is this is a monumental piece of architecture
05:07yeah it's definitely an undertaking
05:10the main hall is an incredible 96 by 25 feet
05:16built using turf over a wooden frame
05:19a thousand years ago something like this would have been a major project
05:25these walls right here are six feet thick
05:29that's some insulation
05:31that's a lot of insulation
05:32i mean these are better insulated than modern homes
05:34you don't really get a good sense for how big these things are
05:51just by looking at the footprints
05:52this place is much much larger than i would have guessed
05:55the theory is that the architecture of these homes were basically like an upturned ship
06:03you know they'd have a viking longboat
06:05they'd flip it upside down and live under it
06:07and then architecturally devolved into the longhouses
06:10wow look at this
06:12the house is packed with replicas of artifacts found here on site
06:16along with carefully reproduced pieces from the old world
06:20the vikings have a bad rap
06:22they're considered marauders, pirates, pillagers
06:27while the vikings were feared raiders
06:30there was a purpose behind their conquests
06:33they were running out of suitable farmland at home
06:36and needed to feed their growing population
06:38in reality they were incredible craftspeople
06:41they were explorers
06:42most vikings were farmers
06:46they lived in regularly spaced farmsteads surrounded by grain fields
06:50even the viking raiders would normally return home for the harvest
06:54this is a loom
06:57the animals often slept inside over winter
07:01it was pretty crowded
07:02except for the master's box bed
07:04look at this here man
07:06i mean this
07:06this fella's got like a mattress
07:09he's got little doors he can close
07:11he's got privacy
07:12yeah
07:12this here is uh
07:14this is the man's room
07:15it's probably the chieftain here
07:18and his navigator
07:18yeah i can be the navigator today
07:21all right well then you're goose and i'm maverick
07:22despite all the work that's been done here
07:28mysteries still remain
07:30the vikings traveled from europe
07:33thousands of miles to get here
07:35what were they doing here
07:38the current thinking is that the vikings stayed at lonce meadows
07:42for just a few years
07:44the question is why would they have built so much for just a short stay
07:48this site is like an historic cold case
07:54the answers are here
07:56we just need to find them
07:58blue and i decide to explore
08:04the more i see i feel like something isn't right
08:12it's different from the viking sites we've seen before
08:15hey blue you copy
08:18hey blue you copy
08:22go ahead mike
08:23yeah i'm down on the beach
08:25and i'm seeing something kind of interesting
08:27rushes i'm on my way
08:29it took me a while
08:30but i think i can see what's missing
08:33hey man
08:36hey brother
08:37so
08:40looking around this location here
08:42i'm realizing that it is
08:44entirely exposed coastline
08:47there is zero protection here
08:51from the elements
08:52they need to bring in supplies to survive here
08:57i don't think they could grow food and raise livestock on this land
09:01based on what i'm seeing here
09:03this seems to be atypical of a viking settlement
09:05i'm not finding any evidence for agriculture at all
09:10i'm just wondering now
09:12could the site have been used for something totally different
09:15so if they didn't farm here
09:18why did they pick this place to set up camp
09:21we're going to need to look at this site
09:24from a totally new perspective
09:26it's time
09:28to break out the tech
09:30this incredible archaeological site
09:46on the northern tip of newfoundland
09:48is proof the vikings were in north america
09:51500 years before christopher columbus even set sail
09:55but we still don't know what they were doing here
09:59they don't seem to have been farming
10:01so what was the site used for
10:04we need to get in here
10:05take a look at these clues like forensically
10:07and see how we can piece them together
10:09if we're going to play detective
10:10then i'm starsky your hutch
10:12i'm starting with the biggest clue the vikings left behind
10:18the footprints of the buildings
10:20many experts believe this was a temporary site
10:25only used by the vikings for a few years
10:27at most a decade
10:29but not everyone agrees
10:31there's an icelandic academic bjarne einason
10:35he believes that occupation here was much much longer
10:39based on his interpretation of
10:42the architecture of the various buildings
10:45he's thinking that there could have been people coming here for
10:47a hundred years
10:49it's controversial
10:51the length of time the vikings were here
10:53is still hotly disputed
10:55to help discover the truth
10:57i'm going to use a drone
10:59to make the first ever
11:013d map of the site
11:02we'll be able to use this map
11:05to age the remains here
11:06by comparing them with known viking buildings in scandinavia
11:10it's never been done before
11:12so this would be a great first
11:14we're going to be able to contribute to the scientific body of information about las ametas
11:19and this is like a dream come true
11:22as the drone flies over the site
11:26it takes hundreds of detailed photographs
11:29the drone is incredible
11:31because you can take the individual images
11:33and build a high resolution three-dimensional model
11:37this is going to tell us
11:39there's quite a bit about the architecture
11:41of the individual buildings
11:43the vikings shifted their architecture
11:48over time
11:49and perhaps by looking at the different footprints here
11:53it'll say something about how long the site
11:55was occupied
11:56if bjarne is proven to be correct
12:01it could force us to reevaluate everything we know
12:05about vikings in north america
12:07i've crunched and processed the data
12:16and i can't wait to show blue what i found
12:19if we can work out how long the vikings stayed
12:24it might shed light on why they were here
12:27what's up bud
12:29hey dude
12:30the results of the photogrammetry you're in
12:32take a look at this flyby
12:34wow
12:36this is the highest resolution map of lonson meadows ever created
12:43it's so detailed that if there were any vikings left
12:46we could tell you what color their eyes are
12:48i have never seen anything quite like this i mean i've seen photogrammetry of small objects but never of an entire landscape
12:57by adjusting the color balance we can highlight elevation changes which for the first time in high resolution allows us to see the exact design of each house
13:10what's cool is you can actually see right here in this picture
13:13all three of the larger structures look completely different from one another
13:18they definitely have different layouts
13:21different architectural styles
13:23it's curious
13:24now we have the data to test bjarne einerson's theory
13:29if he's right
13:31it could mean the vikings were in north america for much longer than anyone thought possible
13:36these are the footprints of viking houses built in iceland in the late 10th century
13:44after 200 years the viking era was at its peak and extended halfway around the world
13:51it was around this time most archaeologists believed lonson meadows was first occupied
13:57so the architecture of the houses on site should match
14:01that's identical
14:03it is almost it's right there
14:05let's see what else we got
14:08this second house in iceland is a style that came into fashion decades later in the early 11th century
14:17look at that
14:19it's a match
14:20this one only looks like it's got two rooms and a grand hall
14:24yeah
14:25it's almost identical
14:26it's possible that lonson meadows may have been occupied for much longer than some experts think
14:34let's see what else
14:36okay this looks very different from the other examples you were showing me
14:41this final house style appears in greenland around the 12th century by now the vikings had merged with other european cultures
14:50this is long after lonson meadows was supposedly abandoned so this one shouldn't match which it doesn't but if i flip it
15:02the story of the vikings in north america may about to be turned on its head
15:07we're at lonson meadows in newfoundland this site is the ultimate proof that vikings arrived here in north america
15:26many experts think that the vikings lived here for three to ten years
15:30but a radical new theory suggests that they were here for much longer
15:35and now for the first time we have the photographic data to test it
15:40house designs from the late 10th and early 11th century seem to match the buildings here
15:46however an early 12th century house design doesn't match until mike flips it
15:53look at that it's reversed wow it's pretty close really close
15:59i'm convinced that the eastern structure at lonson meadows was added later
16:05it really defies conventional wisdom
16:06this new investigation suggests the houses here have been built at least 100 years apart
16:13eynerson's theory could be right this theory is controversial but the implications are spectacular
16:19it could indicate that the vikings were here longer than we believed possible
16:23this could change american history as we know it
16:27if the vikings were coming here for more than a century
16:33they'd need to be able to work outside during the freezing winter
16:37average winter temperatures in newfoundland are around seven degrees colder than both iceland
16:45and southern greenland
16:47this is the end of summer
16:49and it's freezing you know i mean what would it be like in the dead of winter
16:52how long could you actually make it right here dealing with these conditions
16:58we need to find the answer even if it means testing the temperatures on ourselves
17:04i've managed to get a succession in toronto rehabilitation institute's high-tech climate lab
17:19we can assume that they had the clothing to stay warm but how long would that clothing keep
17:25them warm it can be so cold that you could literally be frozen to death through the incredibly
17:31harsh winters it's going to be dangerous but using authentic viking clothing
17:37we'll see if we can withstand those extreme freezing temperatures
17:40but only one of us is ready to put their body on the line
17:45how do you always get out of the tough stuff
17:48it's just the way things are meant to be
17:50if you've got viking blood
17:52you should be able to withstand the cold in the chamber
17:55i'm going to demonstrate whether or not the vikings were able to survive a summer in florida
18:01okay
18:01game on
18:10you ready
18:10this is a hospital
18:12it's appropriate
18:14well i tell you i think it's actually starting to sink in the gravity of how dangerous this could be
18:18to keep me safe as the temperature plunges researcher dr sophia yuli will be monitoring me throughout this dangerous experiment blue nelson
18:28okay before you go into the chamber you need to worry about the frostbite and also the concern is the cold temperature actually increase your blood pressure and we've seen people have heart attack and stroke
18:40so it is very important you just tell us i feel really really cold let me out
18:47listen we're gonna have to come up with a signal so that you can pull the plug and i can be like
18:50look mike uh she pulled the plug on me it wasn't me
18:53all right getting ready
18:55sensors placed around my body will monitor temperature
18:59including my fingers and toes the areas most at risk from frostbite
19:03i think we have all the sensors secured we'll see on the other side
19:10what kind of partner are you
19:13very little viking clothing survives
19:18look at all this
19:19but we've created an outfit using archaeological evidence
19:23and historical sources
19:24what measurements did they get
19:29it's so accurate we've even copied the stitching used a thousand years ago
19:33it's itchy
19:35it's itchy because rather than the iconic stereotype of furs and leather
19:41most vikings wore woven natural fibers like wool and flax
19:45and the layers just keep coming
19:47blue is always claiming to have viking ancestry so
19:52now's the moment of truth
19:54will blue truly represent the vikings well
19:59check it out mike i'm an american viking
20:06awesome
20:08dude you're rocking it
20:10i'm gonna start wearing this to the office
20:11you about ready to get in the freezer
20:16well i'm as ready as i'm ever gonna be
20:19i'd be lying to you if i told you it didn't make me
20:21a little apprehensive
20:23time to find out if viking clothing can help me survive
20:31a newfoundland winter
20:32we're investigating the vikings in north america
20:49we know they built a camp in newfoundland
20:52and now new evidence suggests they used the site decades longer than previously thought
20:57wow
20:58but could they have survived the extreme cold
21:03to find out i've dressed up as a viking
21:06in a historically accurate outfit of course
21:09that hopped into a research grade cold chamber
21:12which seemed like a good idea at the time
21:15we're ready to drop them down closer to freezing
21:21due to the dangers of prolonged exposure to freezing temperatures
21:28dr paul o a cardiovascular specialist is on hand to monitor the experiment
21:34the body's really good at trying to preserve heat right so
21:37the idea is that we'll keep our core as warm as possible
21:41as a result of that the the outsides of us start to shut down
21:44blood vessels constrict
21:46to keep more blood towards the middle of us
21:50blood pressure will rise
21:52and as a reflex our heart rate kind of slows down
21:55after 25 minutes we're at 15 degrees fahrenheit
22:01i got this small space i'm tethered to a wall i can only pace back and forth to keep myself warm
22:06i feel a bit like a caged animal
22:08normally we don't let people stay there for more than 20 minutes
22:14blue has now been in for over 30
22:18they have never let anyone stay this long inside the chamber without modern protective clothing
22:24he's doing really well
22:28you don't see a dramatic change in his finger temperature
22:32and also his upper back
22:35so it seems that he's keeping himself fairly warm
22:38so far the viking clothes are doing their job
22:42but we still haven't hit the average winter temperature at lonson meadows
22:46seven degrees fahrenheit
22:48i hope he holds out crossing my fingers and toes
22:52what temperature now
22:56seven fahrenheit
23:00well you have made it my friend
23:03right
23:04you are right now experiencing a viking winter
23:08as well as their fires
23:12the vikings would go to extreme lengths to avoid freezing
23:16the body heat of the animals they brought inside
23:19helped to warm their houses
23:20suddenly the medical team spots a spike in blue's measurements
23:29it looks like the finger temperature has dropped about 10 degrees fahrenheit or so
23:33so checking with blue to see that he's not getting any signs of frostbite
23:38hey blue
23:40are you feeling any numbness or tingling
23:43no i'm actually i'm doing really good man
23:46my core seems to be doing fine
23:48my toes are cold my nose is cold
23:50but other than that i'm doing great
23:52blue's now been in there for an hour and a half
23:57and the viking clothes are working
23:59no signs of frostbite
24:01good body warmth
24:03everything we hope the experiment would show
24:05blue has shown vikings could have coped working outside in a seven degree lonsa meadows winter
24:13very impressed with the viking clothing
24:16i mean if it would have gotten any colder
24:18we could have thrown on another layer or two
24:20so the vikings definitely had the technology to keep warm
24:25we've got evidence that the vikings could survive newfoundland winters
24:29it supports the theory that lonsa meadows was used for longer than previously thought
24:34but we still need more evidence
24:37if the vikings were in north america over decades
24:40there's only one place where it might be recorded
24:43in one of the most treasured viking relics on the planet
24:47we're in iceland home of the vikings
24:53wow
24:55look at this
24:56these people
24:59these are my cousins
25:00mm-hmm
25:01Reykjavik's beautiful
25:04i mean this is like family to me
25:05i see a bunch of guys walking around here
25:07look just like me
25:08nice beards and everything
25:09but mike and i aren't here for fun and games
25:11we're here for business
25:12we've come to the arnie magnuson institute in Reykjavik
25:17which houses some of the oldest surviving records of the vikings
25:21their sagas
25:22and we've been given special access to the delicate volumes
25:26many believe lonsa meadows is the viking utopia of inland
25:32but does it match the description in these pages
25:35these documents could be our biggest clue yet
25:39these ancient sagas are based on oral histories
25:43passed down through the generations
25:45and transcribed by monks 600 years ago
25:48oh man look at these
25:51incredible
25:53unbelievably the old norse in this handwritten calfskin document
25:59is a variation of modern icelandic
26:01making understanding them very easy
26:04if you speak viking
26:05which is where professor gisly sigurdsson comes in
26:09we were hoping that this right here will give us some insight
26:12into the voyages into north america
26:14one of the most amazing stories we have
26:17are the stories about the voyages to vinland
26:19vinland is the viking name for a land beyond greenland
26:23and professor sigurdsson believes it's somewhere in north america
26:26but the exact location is a mystery
26:30leaf ericsson is the central character in these voyages
26:35the sagas describe what leaf ericsson finds in vinland
26:38they find wild grapes a frost free winter and wheat and so on
26:43and there's plenty of summer
26:45the biggest summer than they have ever seen before
26:47due to the abundance of grapes and his love of wine
26:50leaf names it vinland
26:52and you have vinland here with an accent
26:56so right there is the oldest documentation of north america anywhere in the world
27:03the first reference to north america in any written form as a professional archaeologist
27:09this is like dream come true stuff
27:12but this ancient description of vinland has thrown us a major curveball
27:18the big one for me was the frost free winter
27:22yeah
27:24no sir
27:25no not newfoundland
27:27not newfoundland
27:28wheat
27:30salmon
27:31wild grapes
27:32i didn't see any of that in lonzo meadows but all
27:35it seems lonzo meadows is not vinland
27:39but gisly thinks he's found some other text that can help us
27:44the text says that they settled in a camp called leaf's camp
27:49and that camp is on an island
27:51with calm seas on the west
27:54and rough seas on the east
27:55so that is a match
27:58all right
27:59all right
27:59hey high five the archaeology
28:01boom
28:01nice
28:02this could be an actual mention of lonzo meadows in the sagas
28:06and if that's true then the camp was founded by leaf erickson
28:10but we still don't know why he chose that windswept peninsula
28:15what drove him to risk everything and sail into the unknown
28:20we are on the quest to discover why the first viking settlement to be found in north america
28:38was established in a barren wilderness on the tip of newfoundland
28:42incredible
28:44this trail has led us to its likely founder leaf erickson
28:48now we want to know why he risked his life to get there
28:51what a story
28:52he travels into an unknown land
28:54he discovers vinland
28:55it's just remarkable
28:57i think what we need to do is figure out more about leaf erickson
29:00funny you should say because
29:02i actually know some of you who i think can help us out
29:04i'll drink to that
29:05but first i want to start by ordering the kind of food leaf himself
29:11along with blues viking ancestors would have eaten
29:15the food of the ancestors
29:19all right
29:22first up is a viking favorite
29:25roasted sheep's head
29:26vikings took their sheep with them wherever they traveled and made sure nothing went to
29:31waste
29:32eat me
29:33the rest of our menu consists of viking seafood staples of every shape and size
29:39wow
29:40that's definitely a fish
29:41they consume dried fish on long ocean voyages but the true delicacies were whale blubber
29:48and blues appetizer for today
29:51fermented shark
29:52it kind of smells the way it looks
29:55it smells like death
29:57yeah i'm feeling more viking by the moment
30:01all right that's shark right there
30:03it's high concentration of urea means the flesh of the huge greenland shark is usually toxic
30:08so traditionally it was buried in the ground for five months before it was safe to eat
30:14this is your heritage my friend
30:17come on
30:19oh man that was delicious check out this texture
30:27historical sources suggest vikings drove whales ashore to feast on their blubber
30:33go for it
30:35go for it bon appetit
30:36bon appetit
30:38wow
30:46that's something else you gotta try this
30:48oh i don't think i do it's not faces you just made
30:50you gotta try a nugget
30:55no wonder they wanted to find new lands they're looking for better food
31:09once blue's stomach is settled it's back to business
31:15we're heading to meet viking expert ziggy yolkelson in the snow covered percadala valley
31:21he's promised to reveal what might have driven leif erickson to discover north america
31:41here we are holy cow beautiful 52 square meters long house this 560 square foot building
31:51is a vital landmark in american history it is on this very spot around the year 970
31:57that leif potentially the first european to set foot in north america was born
32:03they were living here together his family his father eric the red and his mother was called
32:08so why did they end up leaving here eric the red was maybe not the nicest person in the world
32:15he killed two of his neighbors in a fight and because of that he was more or less forced to
32:19leave this valley this guy literally sounds like the worst neighbor to have
32:26in the viking age violent deaths were commonplace but leif's father went too far even for this
32:32bloodthirsty society according to the sagas he kills two more neighbors and is banished from iceland
32:43in search of a new home he sails into uncharted waters
32:47200 miles west he finds a country even more inhospitable than iceland
32:54incredibly leif's father eric the red discovers greenland
32:59he named it greenland because yet if the island has a good name then people will follow us from
33:05iceland over to greenland leif had some very big shoes to fill his father goes off and discovers a
33:10new land yes the son decides you know strap on them boots and try it himself yes can you tell us
33:16a little bit about leaf like you know what were his motivations he was of course raised up as a rich
33:21man's son and he described in books and what you know about him that he was very handsome and seems to
33:26be very clever too handsome clever i told you i was a viking so of course he wanted to do something
33:34like his father find something explore the world driven to outdo his father's feat of exploration
33:42leaf traveled across the atlantic and established a base at lonson meadows
33:47and it was he not columbus who the saga suggests became the first european to set foot on the americas
33:57it's just amazing for me to consider that this house right here was the home and the birthplace
34:04for the first european to set foot on north america yes this is an important spot it's a holy ground
34:10we now know leaf was driven to be a truly great viking explorer but why settle it this barren site
34:24newton it's the final piece of the mystery and there's only one place we can find the answer
34:32back at lonson meadows
34:40we've returned to lonson meadows to find out why viking explorer leaf erickson chose this frozen
34:57hinterland to set up the only viking camp found in north america to date and i think i'm onto something
35:04we know the vikings were farmers and we also know that they didn't farm here
35:13the site's more bog than land in fact i think that might be the answer
35:21on the surface of the bog is something any self-respecting viking would instantly recognize
35:27rusty colored water with an oily sheen
35:30the bog would have been a big draw for the vikings because it would have provided something
35:36very very important to them bog or
35:42the bog acts like a sieve trapping iron ore and heavy concentrations
35:47bog or was the source of most viking iron
35:49they use iron for many things including their tools their weapons and nails for the ships the
35:59question i have is is this bog big enough to justify such a large settlement and would it be enough to
36:04make them stay to find out i'm asking a real viking
36:13well okay one of the guys that works here resident viking mark pilgrim
36:21so this is a pretty expansive bog yeah how much bog ore do you think is in the area tons if you look
36:28up and down this brook area you go down a certain distance you're going to find bog or you want to
36:33find some i do i got a trowel i got a a what a little excavation tool you're not going to use trowel
36:39trowel ain't going to trowel ain't going to help you all right well i guess we're going to do this
36:43the old-fashioned way we're the old-fashioned way all right well i never saw this day coming
36:48stripping off in front of a viking
36:49all right so give you a a clue it's about a foot down and a foot in so reach underneath and try to
36:59get your hand underneath the bog and start feeling for what might feel like rocks all right well let's
37:05see if i can do this our investigation depends on there being enough iron ore here to justify the
37:13vikings setting up camp do anything i think i do i got a handful of clay let me try this again a
37:27thousand years ago this is exactly what the vikings would have been doing this water is really cold
37:33while the indigenous people of america were still using stone the vikings were extracting iron here
37:38no that's a flake i'm embarrassed of my ancestors now wow
37:51successful so we've successfully got ballgore i'll be honest with you this isn't exactly what
37:59i was expecting this i just like rock that's incredible ballgore can contain up to 53 iron
38:06the iron contained beneath the ground it's like a gold mine this whole area would basically be a bog or
38:14mine it kind of feels spiritual you know without this resource here the vikings don't settle here
38:25transforming ballgore into iron was an essential part of life for vikings allowing them to compete with
38:30other cultures of the time they were master metal workers and iron was vital to their way of life
38:39most farms had a simple forge and specialist smiths made everything from knives cauldrons and keys to
38:46exquisite double-edged swords after processing in a 2000 degree furnace the bog ore releases the iron
38:54allowing the blacksmith to get to work back then vikings couldn't find good ore in greenland
39:03so finding a resource like this would have easily justified setting up camp here
39:10but in lonson meadows the archaeological evidence suggests they were making just one thing nails
39:1799 nail fragments were discovered far more than found in any single viking farm in scandinavia
39:28why were so many nails being used here
39:38so what you got man well they had resources here i mean this was heavily forested during their time
39:44they also had plentiful ballgore so they could make nails
39:50the evidence is starting to add up lonson meadows is located on the coast
39:56the vikings were making a large quantity of nails from the local iron supply
40:00and they had access to as much wood as they wanted which all leads to one thing
40:07basically what we're looking at is archaeological evidence that suggests ship repair and blacksmithing
40:13yeah i agree the only other sites where this quantity of nails were found
40:19are european viking shipyards i think that truck stop is probably the best analogy you could use for
40:26this location repair your ship take a break resupply and then head out we believe lonson meadows was the
40:35ultimate way station a beacon at the edge of the known world
40:41if you look at uh the map you'll see lonson meadows is right here at the end of the peninsula
40:49this would have been an easy location to direct other viking ships to from greenland
40:54you're coming down the coast of labrador you see belle isle and dead ahead is your viking truck stop
41:01there's no doubt that this is a route that they would have taken but then it begs the question
41:06if this is just a stopover then where were they going
41:14lonson meadows has finally revealed its secrets we now believe it wasn't vinland but a base used to
41:22help explore the rest of north america this wasn't the end of the journey it was the beginning
41:31before we followed the trail we've invited a group of modern vikings to share a beer
41:39hey hey is this where the party's at welcome hey y'all how are you thank you very much i'm good
41:45man with mine looks better than yours to be honest with you i feel like i've got in touch with my viking
41:50roots so what do you guys think of a fermented shark i'd kill him and eat him before i ate the shark
41:56maybe not the best plan for colonization i'm really excited about what we've learned and i feel like
42:01we're on the right path we've discovered that they definitely could have spent the winter in north
42:07america and we've also seen that they may have actually stayed uh in the new world much longer
42:13than we had expected we have no idea where this is going to take us next we are definitely on the
42:18trail of vikings in north america i think this is the way to drink beer everything tastes better out of a horn