Writings Of Vikings Lead To DiscoveryOf 1000 A.D. North America VillageThe New York TimesWASHINGTON — A Norwegian explorer has unearthed the ruins of the only Viking settlement ever proved in North America, pre-dating Columbus’ voyage to the New World by almost 500 years.The settlement at Newfoundland’s northern tip contains the remains of a large house that Leif Ericsson, the Norse discoverer of this continent, may have lived in. It dates back to about 1000 A.D.Dr. Helge Ingstad announced his find at the National Geographic Society. Experts from the Smithsonian Institution and the American Museum of Natural History supported Dr. Ingstad’s claim that the remains are Norse and pre-Columbian.“Until now, no one has had proof of ruins or burials — Viking visits to North America before Columbus’ voyage in 1492,” the National Geographic Society said.All finds indicating the Vikings were here have been inconclusive or suspect.Columbus sailed the ocean blueIn fourteen-hundred, ninetytwo;He missed the boat by 492 years!The Norwegian expedition, sponsored this year by the society, excavated traces of nine buildings and a primitive smithy near L’Anse Aux Meadows, a tiny Newfoundland fishing village. Digging began in 1960.Dr. Junius Bird, curator of archaeology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, said it can still be debated that the house at L’Anse Aux Meadows is Leif Ericsson’s. But he said it is “without question of pre-Columbian Norse origin.” Dr. Bird said, “I am positive.”Dr. Henry B. Collins, a Smithsonian Institution anthropologist, is equally certain. Both visited the diggings last month.Carbon tests show the site was occupied about 1000 A.D. This was the traditional time established in Norse sagas that Leif Ericsson and other Viking seafarers sailed to North America.Many scholars long have believed Ericsson landed on the North American coast, but guesses ranged anywhere from Newfoundland to Virginia. The favored nominees were New England and Nova Scotia.Earlier finds in North America have been dubious or downright fakes.The Vikings flourished from the 9th through the 11th centuries, pushing to Greenland and farther west as seafaring explorers and colonizers.“Only ruins and traces of actual buildings would present incontestable proof that the Vikings were here,” said a National Geographic Society spokesman. “Objects such as tools could have been brought to North America by people who lived after the Vikings.”Dr. Ingstad said he studied the ancient Norse prose narratives and an old Viking map. Then, by hunt and plane, he explored the coasts of Rhode Island, Nova Scotia, Quebec, Labrador and Newfoundland.The setting and location of L’Anse Aux Meadows correspond with startling precision to descriptions in the saga of Leif Ericsson’s settlement. It was called “Vinland.”The settlement was on a sandy beach terrace. Walls of the houses, built mainly of handy turf, were about five feet thick. The buildings had fireplaces and hearths.The biggest was 80 by 45 feet, with a great hall in the Viking manner and a hearth in the middle. Some of the smaller houses had inside partitions and stone-lined pits where coals were kept alive at night.The ember pits are like those found at Norse settlements in Greenland.Also found was a smith’s stone anvil. The expedition uncovered several hundred pieces of slag and small bits of iron. Extensive deposits of bog-iron were found nearby.Acid impact and porous subsoil combined to destroy most of the artifacts at L’Anse Aux Meadows.The readings cluster around the year 1000, with the latest dating from 1080, plus or minus 70 years.Probable Viking Route To Newfoundland