As much as they are a staple feature film of modern dad polish , there is still much we do not know about the Northern European traveller who became known as the Vikings . In particular , until recently , scholars have struggled to distinguish a reason why a disparate bunch of Scandinavian Farmer transformed into violent raiders and extensive traveler in the space of a few decades .
What induce these celebrated people to set out on a life of geographic expedition and occasional violence ? To serve this question , archeologist and medieval scholarly person have bulge turning to an unlikely seed for extra selective information – theSun .
The birth of the Viking Age?
The Vikings are a tricky subject field for diachronic analysis . There is no denying the impact they had on the other medieval earth – but because of centuries ofstorytelling , misconception , mythology , and political appropriation , the idea of the Vikings as hypermasculine blood athirst raiders has become the predominant image we have today . The post is not help by the fact that the Vikings themselves – defined here as scatter mathematical group of people from Scandinavia – were mostly illiterate , so left few drop a line records related to their early activities .
As such , much of what we do know comes from 2d - hand reports , most of which were bring about by Christians who benefited from impersonate them as crimson pagans . But this approximation is inaccurate . Instead , scholars believe the impulsion for Viking expansion and exploration was initiate by the want for swop , specially for flatware . According to this explanation , the Vikings take part in the growing trade net that expanded from the Middle East through Russia .
This expansion was the result of the develop influence of the Islamic empire that would finally help connect trade web that connect Europe to North Africa , the Middle East , and even piece of Asia . However , enquiry take over the last few years has challenged this interpretation . It seems there is grounds that the Vikings had already established extensive trade meshing decades before impulses from the Middle East caused further expansion .
In 2021 , Søren Sindbæk and his workfellow at Aarhus University in Denmark reconstruct the timings of some of the Vikings ’ earliest voyages by assessing evidence produced by a monolithic solar flare that occurred in 775 CE . This solar flare has helped amend carbon 14 see techniques that they have applied to artifacts base at an excavation site inRibe , Denmark .
This site represent one of the first “ cities ” of the Viking Age and is locate in a place where no one had ever established a settlement like it before . premature inquiry had shown that there were lasting structures at the site no later on than the 720s CE . This suggest that people lived here on apermanent basis , rather than using it as a seasonal situation , and , more importantly , that it was a centre of deal and craftsmanship . But prior to Sindbæk and colleague ’ work , it was not easy to constitute a solid timeline for this urban center ’s development . That ’s where the Sun comes into drama .
" The applicability of carbon 14 geological dating has hitherto been limited due to the broad age orbit of this method acting . Recently , however , it has been discovered that solar molecule events , also sleep with as Miyake event , induce sharp spindle in atmospheric radiocarbon for a unmarried year . They are named after the female Nipponese investigator Fusa Miyake , who first identified these case in 2012 . When these spikes are distinguish in elaborate book such as tree diagram pack or in an archeological sequence , it reduce the uncertainty margins substantially , " Bente Philippsen , booster cable source of the sketch explain in astatement .
By applying an improved standardisation curve , based on annual samples , the team was able to key evidence of the 775 CE Miyake event in one layer at the Ribe web site . This provided a kind of chronological linchpin point from which they could create an entire sequence of bed and 140 radiocarbon dates around this undivided year .
" This result shows that the expanding upon of Afro - Eurasiatic trade wind net , characterize by the arrival of with child number of Middle easterly string of beads , can be date in Ribe with precision to 790±10 CE – coinciding with the outset of the Viking Age . However , imports brought by ship from Norway were arriving as early as 750 CE , " said Professor Sindbæk .
The macrocosm of this newfangled standardisation curved shape is a plot modifier . It allow archaeologist to clear a far greater image of historical time for periods and beau monde where we lack written book that date specific finds . It also exemplify the fruits of a huge collaborative effort that was age in the making .
" The construction of a calibration curve is a immense international effort with donation from many science lab around the cosmos . Fusa Miyake ’s find in 2012 has revolutionized our body of work , so that we now act with annual time resolution . New calibration curves are recurrently released , most late in 2020 , and Aarhus AMS Centre has contributed importantly . The unexampled high - resolution data from the present work will enter into a future update of the calibration curve and thus contribute to improve the precision of archaeological day of the month worldwide . This will provide better opportunities to interpret speedy developments such as trade flows or environmental alteration in the past , " state Jesper Olsen , Associate Professor at Aarhus AMS Centre .
Exploration into the New World
This habit of solar activity as a historical marker has not been limited to analytic thinking of the Ribe site either . Again in 2021 , another squad of researcher published a field showing that , by assessing evidence of a supermassive solar tempest that occurred in 992 CE , it is possible to plant a day of the month for when Vikings arrived in America .
Today , we are familiar with the fact that the Vikings were the first Europeans to arrive in North America . hundred beforeChristopher Columbus made his illustrious discovery in 1492 , they had already settled in Newfoundland . However , exactly when they managed to arrive has long been a mystery . archeologic evidence provided less than precise info while Icelandic Sagas , one of the few form of in - depth writing relate to Norse acculturation and chronicle , were hoard centuries after and often embellished withfictionaldetails .
But the research , published in the journalNature , nail an exact date for Viking presence in North America – 1021 CE . This engagement stand as the earliest known crossing of the Atlantic by Europeans .
“ Vikings were present in Newfoundland in advertizing 1021 , ” corroborate the report . “ Our new date lays down a marker for European awareness of the Americas , and [ … ] provides a authoritative tie point for future research into the initial consequences of transatlantic activity , such as the transfer of knowledge , and the potential rally of genetic information , biota , and pathology . ”
This discovery was only possible because evidence of the solar tempest present in tree rings was also identifiable in wooden artifacts leave at the Viking sites in Newfoundland .
The use of this newfangled type of depth psychology is extremely promising for the future . It mean we have a hard chronology for activities in the Viking Age that were previously hard to pin down . Further analysis of other cosmic - ray event will aid archaeologists spill new light on other historical dark spot .
