- 5/7/2025
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:01Wow, this is amazing.
00:04A mysterious set of ancient animal traps
00:07at a hidden location.
00:09I had no idea about this.
00:12Could this be a never-before-discovered Viking site in North America?
00:16This is a very effective killing factory.
00:18We decode the secrets of the ancient sagas.
00:23Could they lead us to the Viking utopia of Vinland?
00:26It's feeling a lot like work.
00:28And will we find it in America?
00:31Yeah!
00:37The Vikings.
00:38We're on the trail of where they went in America.
00:41This could change American history as we know it.
00:44I'm archaeologist and military vet, Blue Nelson.
00:49And I'm archaeologist and ocean explorer, Mike Arbuthnot.
00:53I'm having trouble standing up.
00:54We'll go to any length to uncover the real history of America.
00:58You got it, man.
00:59I think we're game on.
01:01We've worked together for almost 10 years.
01:03But we've never tackled a mystery as big as this.
01:06Holy cow.
01:07And my Viking blood means that this investigation is personal.
01:11These are my cousins.
01:12We'll be using cutting-edge technology and hands-on archaeology to reveal how the Vikings survived.
01:21I mean, this is like something from a horror movie.
01:23And how far into America they really went.
01:26Together, we're on the hunt for America's lost Vikings.
01:38Blue, I've got a tip.
01:41And it's a good one.
01:43I got a call about another possible Viking site.
01:47I'd tell you where it is, but I have to kill you.
01:50You've got me with this secretiveness.
01:53I don't know.
01:54I mean, I'm intrigued.
01:56We're on the remote northern peninsula of Newfoundland, hoping to solve the 1,000-year-old mystery of where the Vikings traveled in North America.
02:05What do we know at this point?
02:08One thing we know for certain is that the Vikings were in North America.
02:12That's the nice part about Lonsau Meadows is it puts that debate to an end, right?
02:18The discovery of Lonsau Meadows on the northern tip of Newfoundland proved definitively that the Vikings discovered North America 500 years before Christopher Columbus.
02:30Our careers have taken us miles below the ocean surface to survey the Titanic and around the world to uncover hidden war graves.
02:40But for us, the mystery of the Vikings in America is as big as it gets.
02:45Our mission is to follow the trail described in their ancient sagas towards the Viking utopia of Vinland.
02:53The hidden site we're headed to is 140 miles south of Lonsau Meadows in an area called Sop's Arm.
03:01Just a short ship ride for a Viking.
03:05Man, I'll tell you what. I'm excited. I mean...
03:07We'll get you up there.
03:08All right. Yeah.
03:09Man.
03:10But then we'll have to give you, like, the men in black, you know.
03:13You've got to forget everything you saw.
03:14I've never actually dealt with a site that was on such lockdown before.
03:19This site has the potential to be one of Canada's archaeological treasures.
03:23So they're very protective of it.
03:26All we have to go on is a set of GPS coordinates and instructions to meet a warden.
03:33Why don't you go ahead and park over here to the right?
03:38All right. Where to now, buddy?
03:40That way.
03:42I'm excited to get there.
03:43This could be further evidence of Viking settlement of North America.
03:49First, we have to find our contact.
03:51And the GPS is telling us the location's right at the top of this hill.
03:55I hope you're up for this. It looks a little steep.
03:57When he's out there working his way through an archaeological site, watch out.
04:01Can we hustle it up? I got a site to see.
04:03The dirt beast has a stride.
04:05Mike is the desk beast.
04:07Some elevation going on. 800 meters.
04:10Wow.
04:12By the time he got to the top of that hill, he was doubled over.
04:16Mike, treadmill.
04:19Dude, check this out.
04:21Look at that view.
04:22Yeah.
04:23That is gorgeous.
04:25It's amazing to consider that this is a vantage point that surely the Vikings would have seen.
04:31I bet this view hasn't changed a lick in thousands of years.
04:38Hey, we got something over here. It looks like an orange vest.
04:41Our contact tells us he doesn't want to appear on camera.
04:45His job is to keep the site's location secret so members of the public don't damage it.
04:51He directs us to the tree line.
04:54Here it is, man. Check this out.
04:56Wow.
04:59This is amazing.
05:01This is quite deep, huh?
05:02That's huge.
05:04I want to get into the middle.
05:06At first glance, this depression looks natural.
05:09But on closer inspection, we can see it's clearly man-made.
05:14That's an effort to construct.
05:18Jeez.
05:20This is a good-sized hole.
05:23There's another one over here. There's a whole series of them.
05:26They're lined up here in a linear fashion.
05:28What is this?
05:29Take a guess.
05:31Pitfall?
05:32Yeah.
05:34Pitfall trapping is a hunting technique used by humankind for millennia.
05:39First, deep pits are dug with sloping, funnel-shaped entrance.
05:43Then, hunters drive big game towards the traps where they fall to their doom.
05:47These were found about 100 years ago by the locals.
05:51Mm-hmm.
05:52They didn't dig them.
05:54There are tens of thousands of pitfalls dug in Scandinavia.
06:00It's intriguing, isn't it?
06:01It is.
06:03Hunting was ingrained in Viking culture.
06:06They used dogs resembling the elk hound to help them track and chase animals like moose and reindeer.
06:12Once slaughtered, meat from these animals could be dried and stored for months.
06:19By digging more holes, you're giving yourself more opportunity to catch food.
06:24This could be a track here, potentially from game coming through.
06:28This is a very effective killing factory.
06:30Yeah, there's definitely a game trail in here.
06:33I've never seen anything like this before.
06:34In fact, I've never even heard about anything like this in North America.
06:37Let's take some pictures, get some measurements.
06:40This is exciting, but good archaeology is based on asking the right questions.
06:46Give me a handout.
06:47Yeah.
06:48Vikings may have dug pitfall traps, but right now, we don't have any proof that they dug these.
06:53Do we even know if Native Americans in this area dug hunting pits?
06:58Let me find out. I'm going to make a call.
06:59Yeah, I'm going to go record some of this stuff.
07:02Okay, excellent. All right, fine.
07:04Since we cannot do any excavations on site, I want to see, you know, how wide these things are, how deep they are, how far apart they are.
07:14At this point, I'm a one-man operation.
07:16This thing uses a laser to measure from one side to the other, and it's accurate within a millimeter.
07:23A laser distance meter works by sending a pulse of finely focused light to a target.
07:28It then measures the time it takes for the reflection to return and converts it into distance.
07:35I just want to get the measurements so we can compare this against known pits in Scandinavia.
07:40To find out more about these clues, I'm reaching out to Kevin MacLeese, an archaeologist who has worked on the site.
07:47Do you think that these pits could have been dug by First Peoples or the indigenous of the area?
07:53They usually hunted with spears and bow and arrow, but we don't have evidence for them actually using this hunting technique.
08:02Is there any reason to believe they could have been dug more recently, maybe for mineral mining?
08:11The alignment of the pits, which is in a sense such a perfect line, it's not a rocky outcrop, it's a slope of a hillside, would suggest that they were not dug for mining.
08:24Who do you think dug the pits?
08:25Well, they certainly resemble hunting pits that were used in Norway and in Sweden.
08:34And there's a long tradition, thousands of years old, of capturing reindeer in whole sets of pits.
08:43Well, Kevin, thank you very much. I appreciate your information. It's been very insightful.
08:46I've been up and down this ridge line, measuring and documenting pit after pit.
08:53The depth of these suggests that they were hunting big game.
08:57At one time, these holes were probably wider and much more sheer.
09:02I've known about Lonsaw Meadow for the better part of my life. I had no idea about this.
09:10Hey man, how'd it turn out?
09:11How'd it turn out?
09:12Well, I got some measurements.
09:14Good.
09:15Believe it or not, we've got six pits in a linear configuration right here, right at about 250 feet.
09:22Today, they averaged six feet deep, but they were up to 10 feet deep.
09:27So I got an expert on the line, and he says that technique for hunting was never used in this area by indigenous populations.
09:35Okay.
09:37Everything in me wants the SOPS arm pitfalls to be Viking, but we need more evidence.
09:44Looking out in the valley, you can see plenty of resources. It's a nice winding river. You've got big trees.
09:51It's not a stretch of the imagination to imagine the Vikings here.
09:55Back at the car, I get more information in an email from Kevin.
09:59He sent through examples of ancient pitfalls in Scandinavia.
10:06The one thing I'll say is they look very similar to what we saw.
10:09That really does.
10:11Depth-wise, what do you think?
10:13I mean, the ones that we saw up there were much deeper than any of these.
10:17So we can't draw any conclusions yet, but if Vikings did dig the SOPS arm traps, what big game were they trying to catch?
10:27Holy cow.
10:28We're investigating mysterious pitfall animal traps.
10:30So far, Lonsaw Meadows is the only confirmed Viking site in North America.
10:33But maybe this place could become the second and help lead us to the Viking utopia of Finland.
10:46What do you think they were hunting out there?
10:47The dimensions suggest something large.
10:53Yeah.
10:54and help lead us to the Viking utopia of Finland.
10:57So what do you think they were hunting out there?
10:59The dimensions suggest something large.
11:02Yeah.
11:03My measurements show these pitfalls are deeper than the ones found in Scandinavia,
11:07and that could mean they weren't dug by Vikings.
11:11The problem is I don't know what kind of big game would potentially fall in these pits.
11:181,000 years ago, the wildlife here would have been different from today.
11:24We know the native wolf went extinct,
11:26but what about the animals the Vikings may have hunted?
11:30I think we need to get some expert insight on that.
11:34As archaeologists, we've learned that local people can provide vital clues in any investigation.
11:43Hey, how's it going?
11:44How you doing, bud?
11:45It's Keegan.
11:46Blue Nelson.
11:47Keegan Cunard is a tracker with over 15 years of experience.
11:50He knows every species of animal in the area.
11:55What we're curious about is what kind of big game might have been around
11:59that would, you know, potentially have been caught in these hunting pits 1,000 years ago.
12:04Well, basically, the only thing that would have been here at that time were the caribou.
12:08I know we do have moose here now, but they weren't introduced.
12:10The caribou were native to the Newfoundlands.
12:12They were here before we were here.
12:13Okay, we've narrowed down what the Vikings could have been hunting,
12:19but the Sop's arm traps were up to 10 feet deep.
12:22So do the pits really match the prey?
12:25I think what would be useful is to get out in the field and see if we can spot them.
12:29Yeah?
12:30Want to try that?
12:30Yeah, please.
12:31Let's go.
12:32You've been spoiled these last several years sitting behind a desk.
12:36So I'm going to let you do the field work.
12:37I've got something to take care of.
12:39I'm going to do that.
12:40You guys have fun.
12:41Sounds good.
12:42All right, guys.
12:42Enjoy.
12:43I'll get my stuff.
12:46I never really thought about Mike hunting.
12:50I'm going to be cautiously optimistic.
12:53I think he's going to do just fine.
12:55Hey, look at this guy.
12:57Already?
12:57Oh, wait.
12:58Wait a second.
12:59Stop right there.
13:00We've got a hunter.
13:01He looks like a country boy.
13:02Do me a favor.
13:03Give us a little twirl.
13:05Yeah.
13:06Uh-huh.
13:07Shut up.
13:08Let's see the walk.
13:09I'll give you the walk.
13:11Yeah.
13:17Keegan takes me north of Sopsarm to an area of wilderness known
13:21simply as Division No. 9.
13:25This is seriously boggy.
13:27I feel like we're standing on a giant sponge.
13:30Yeah, it's pretty wet.
13:31This is what we call the wetlands here in Newfoundland.
13:34Tell me a little bit about caribou.
13:35You can't see color.
13:38They basically go under their sense of smell more than they're hearing even.
13:42The scientific name for caribou is Rangifer tyrantes, and they come to the bogs to eat the lichen that grows here.
13:51Thanks to Keegan's keen eye, it isn't long until he spots something.
13:55I see a couple of deer.
13:57I see a couple of deer.
13:59They're about two miles.
14:00Mind if I give a gander?
14:03Yeah.
14:04I'm getting to know you pretty well here, buddy.
14:09Yep, there they are.
14:11I promise I'll bring my own binoculars next time.
14:13One thing's for sure, even from this distance, they look huge.
14:19For the top of the antlers, to the ground, you're looking at seven, seven and a half feet.
14:23That's a beast.
14:24I think I've just realized why our pitfall traps are so deep.
14:29Reindeer are, you know, what, they're maybe a foot shorter, or what would you say?
14:34Yeah, move that.
14:35Okay.
14:35Caribou are bigger than reindeer, which could explain why the pitfalls here are deeper than
14:43they are in Scandinavia.
14:45That answers one question, but raises another.
14:49Newfoundland is over 42,000 square miles.
14:52So how on earth did the Vikings know where to dig the pits?
14:58While Mike's chasing caribou, I'm also hunting for clues as to where the Vikings went next.
15:05I'm looking for physical evidence that puts the Vikings in the same area as the pitfalls.
15:11I've arranged to have special access to a museum that's been closed to the public for some time.
15:18This museum could have artifacts associated with the Vikings.
15:22Well, I'm excited.
15:23I mean, if they've got something that could tie this story together for us, that'd be great.
15:32The museum's just a stone's throw away from the secretive pitfall site.
15:35In the village of Sop's Arm.
15:40It's doors closed 10 years ago after its owner, Kent Budden, passed away.
15:48Hey, hey.
15:49But I've got a contact who can get me in.
15:51Great.
15:51It must be Kel.
15:52I am.
15:53Blue Nelson.
15:53Blue, welcome.
15:55Kel Wionzek, an expert in local history, has been entrusted to preserve Kent's archaeological legacy.
16:01He died of pancreatic cancer.
16:04He was very enthusiastic about the Vikings in this area.
16:08He did a lot of beach combing, finding a lot of various artifacts.
16:12Set him up in a little museum, called himself the Stonekeeper.
16:16You want to have to have a look?
16:17Absolutely.
16:17All right.
16:17Come on in.
16:18Thanks, man.
16:18This museum's artifacts could make or break our investigation.
16:24What's going to be on the other side of this door, you know?
16:28I have no idea what treasures lie in that room.
16:30Wow.
16:33He's got quite a collection, huh?
16:35He does.
16:36He was at it for a few years before he passed.
16:41Most of this is what Kent called the boat builder's beach.
16:46He did some beach combing on the far side of Sops Island and found a lot of this material along the beach there.
16:53Located 140 miles south of Lonsaw Meadows, Sops Island is just one of over 7,000 that surround Newfoundland and Labrador.
17:05Situated directly east of Sops Arm, it's close enough to the pitfalls to suggest the Vikings may have been in this area.
17:14The question is, are these artifacts Viking or not?
17:17It all looks old, but this metalwork could be 1,000 years old or just 100.
17:23There's a lot of pressure to be able to, you know, go into a situation like this and analyze so many artifacts at once.
17:29You know, I'm basically just going in there blinding.
17:33I know the Vikings were accomplished blacksmiths, producing iron and steel swords, chainmail armor, and their legendary fearsome battle axes.
17:42But they also made the more mundane stuff, like tools and nails.
17:49Some of the nails are quite interesting, of course.
17:52Pretty much looks hand forged.
17:54You're right. I mean, it does look hand forged.
17:56I've seen nails like this before.
17:59At Lonsaw Meadows, we discovered the site was used for repairing Viking ships.
18:04And for that, you need plenty of nails.
18:08You've piqued my interest.
18:09All right.
18:09There's no doubt that some of this stuff has been hand wrought.
18:13This is older metal.
18:15It has been handmade by a blacksmith.
18:18Whether it's Viking age or not, you know, that would remain to be seen.
18:23Has anybody looked at these or done any kind of testing?
18:25There has been a number of people look at them.
18:28There were people from the Memorial University of Newfoundland.
18:31Nothing has been done officially as far as testing goes.
18:34Okay.
18:34This chisel here looks like a stone worker's chisel.
18:39Is there any way that we can take this and have it tested?
18:43Kent, when he did pass, he did have a legacy that he did not want any artifacts leaving the museum.
18:50Okay.
18:51Man, I have not come all this way to leave empty-handed.
18:56In order to, you know, to test these, we would need to take them with us.
19:00Could this be the evidence that we need to find a second Viking site and lead us to Vinland?
19:06Come on!
19:19Are you not excited?
19:21The hunt for a second Viking site in North America...
19:23Well, this isn't going to be easy to excavate.
19:26...has led us to Sop's arm in Newfoundland.
19:30While Mike is investigating why the Vikings dug pitfall traps...
19:34You could have a caribou this big.
19:36Yeah.
19:37I'm looking for physical evidence that puts the Vikings in the same area as the pitfalls.
19:43But everything hinges on Kel allowing me to test whether the museum's artifacts are Viking.
19:50One of the things I'd like to do with something like this in particular is to use a PXRF gun,
19:55and that would give us a chemical composition for this.
19:57We know that the Vikings use bog ore.
19:59So if this has a similar composition of bog ore, we could say, you know,
20:04somewhat definitively that this could be Viking.
20:07Yes.
20:08Not being able to take artifacts out, you know, it's frustrating as an archaeologist,
20:11because that is what's going to give us our answer.
20:13As an archaeologist, I wouldn't want to, you know, destroy any of these artifacts.
20:21I've uncovered hundreds of metal tools at North American dig sites,
20:24but the ones here have the potential to be some of the most important.
20:29I would be willing to talk to the rest of the group and see if they would be willing to do that.
20:34Okay.
20:34If we could do that, that would be awesome.
20:39We want to know.
20:41Well, I agree.
20:42I want to know as well.
20:44I'd love to get my hands on that chisel, but Kel thinks my best bet is this small nail.
20:50He'll mail it to me if he can convince the committee.
20:54Kel, this could hold key information to Viking settlement in this area.
20:59That would be great.
21:01It would be incredible.
21:02Yes.
21:03For the moment, Kent's legacy has put this part of our investigation on hold.
21:09I know we have an uphill battle, and it's a little frustrating.
21:13I've learned the pits in Sop's arm may be deeper than in Scandinavia,
21:17because caribou are larger than the reindeer they hunted back home.
21:22This trail here, game trail, is actually just run down by caribou.
21:26One following the other one in a line, straight line.
21:29Every caribou that comes down through here is likely to be on this one trail.
21:33The Vikings would have noticed a clue like this.
21:36It would tell them where to build their traps.
21:39This is a hoof imprint right there.
21:41Right there, caribou hoofprint.
21:42Pretty easy to see.
21:43Oh, yeah.
21:43So the bog gives the caribou that open corridor that they're looking for on their long migration.
21:51They'll do the same thing every year.
21:52They'll come back through this run of bogs all the way up.
21:56Caribou freeway.
21:57Yeah.
21:57So like the reindeer they hunted back home, the Vikings would have studied the caribou's migration patterns across Newfoundland
22:05and dug their pitfalls to intercept them.
22:09Pitfalls make sense.
22:10It's what they did in the old world.
22:11But they did.
22:12On the game trails where the caribou is following through, sit up the pit bull, sit up around them when they come, push them into the pit.
22:18A single caribou, a big one, let's say a 450-pounder, can feed a family of five for a month.
22:24I mean, that's pretty good.
22:26Maybe I need to get my shovel.
22:28Yeah.
22:29Start digging off.
22:30Pitfall.
22:30Yeah.
22:34Yeah.
22:35I've been working the phones.
22:37I understand.
22:38I understand.
22:39And writing plenty of emails to Kent's family, begging for permission to test that nail.
22:46Back at my hotel, a package has arrived.
22:49Expressed delivery.
22:50And it looks like my persistence has paid off.
22:54I'm using the gloves because I don't want to contaminate my sample.
22:59It's kind of spiritual.
23:01You know, I mean, these were handled by people who are no longer here.
23:05It's always this kind of spiritual connection to the past.
23:09This next bit of kit might look like something out of Star Trek, but it's an archaeologist's best friend.
23:16This is a PXRF gun, and it fires X-rays into metal, causing atoms within it to release energy.
23:24Different metals release different amounts of energy, allowing the gun to reveal the exact composition of an artifact.
23:30But it does contain radiation, so I don't want to stand in front of this thing when I'm using it.
23:36If this nail is made from ball gore like the Vikings used, the second Viking site in North America could be ours.
23:43These are deep.
23:57We believe the pitfall traps in Sop's arm could be proof of a second Viking site in North America.
24:05We need that smoking gun artifact.
24:07And this nail, found in close proximity to the pitfalls, could be the evidence of where the Vikings sailed to after Lonsaw Meadows.
24:19If it's made of Viking iron, I'd expect it to contain significant impurities from the Viking smelting process.
24:26Oh, man.
24:27Well, the results are showing us that this is iron.
24:33There are some negligible impurities.
24:36It's almost 99% iron.
24:39Dang, this ain't Viking.
24:41I'd say that this nail is at least 150 years old.
24:46Probably pre-industrial revolution, but maybe not much more than that.
24:52But this is just one item from the museum, and it doesn't rule out that the Sop's arm pitfalls weren't dug by Vikings.
24:59Until we get permission to dig there, though, we can't prove it's our elusive second site.
25:05And Vinland remains out of reach.
25:07Well, we've checked out the pits, and I feel at this point we've kind of exhausted our avenues of research here.
25:18Yeah, no, I agree with you.
25:21Having lost our main suspect, we need a new lead in the investigation, as the Vikings could have sailed anywhere after Lonsaw Meadows.
25:30Luckily, we've unearthed some new evidence.
25:33I've done some oceanographic research, and what I found was that in Canada, some of the strongest winds and largest waves are actually found along Newfoundland's east coast.
25:43So I think that they probably were more likely to take a westerly route around the island.
25:47This clue could put us back on the trail of the second Viking site.
25:54The ancient sagas recorded the Vikings' epic voyages from Iceland and Greenland to what is believed to be North America, and south towards their utopia of Vinland.
26:05Many historians believe they contain accurate sailing directions, but to interpret the sagas, we need to understand the Vikings' most important technology, their ships.
26:17I'm a little rusty on my maritime technology, but I do know about a Viking shipyard in Denmark that is the best in the world.
26:29And anything you want to know about Viking ships, you can learn about there.
26:37Copenhagen, Denmark.
26:38We're here to visit a nearby town, Roskilda, to learn how their boats help them colonize sections of the known world.
26:51Well, here we are, man.
26:52Roskilda.
26:53Yeah, bud.
26:53The premier Viking ship museum.
26:55This is incredible.
26:56This is a bucket list item for me.
26:57Completely.
26:59Have fun, man.
26:59Catch you in a bit.
27:01While Blue meets some of the replica boat builders, I'm going to check out a ship that could help us understand the sagas and where they are.
27:08Here's how the Vikings went.
27:10Hello.
27:10Hello.
27:11And Roskilda expert, Rika Johansson, knows everything about this 1,000-year-old treasure.
27:19Most people still think of Vikings sailing sleek, fast warships jammed with warriors.
27:25But the artifacts here turn that idea on its head.
27:32Wow.
27:33They look so well-preserved.
27:35Sunk in the Roskilda fjord by Vikings over 1,000 years ago, these ships have been meticulously rebuilt out of over 100,000 separate original pieces.
27:48When these ships saw the light of day after 900 years in the water, it was the first time that you actually could recognize that the Vikings built ships that had different shapes, meaning that they were used for different purposes.
28:03The Vikings' transformation to becoming a true seafaring culture began in the 7th and 8th century, when they equipped their longships with sails instead of just oars.
28:15Initially, they sent raiding parties to ransack coastal settlements in neighboring countries like Britain and Ireland.
28:23But 200 years later, they built trading routes from Greenland in the west to the Caspian Sea on the edge of Asia.
28:30Some even say they explored the north coast of Africa, and their ship designs changed as the distances they traveled increased.
28:41Skaldalev 1 proves the Vikings had specially designed ships for crossing the Atlantic and potentially going even further.
28:49On the voyages across the North Atlantic, you should expect eight people on a ship like this.
28:59Was it uncomfortable?
29:01We know that they didn't have cabins, or you couldn't go below decks.
29:04They might have had a small tent that they stretch over the cargo, and this is where you could go sleep when you were not in duty.
29:12It would take you one month to go from Norway to Greenland.
29:16Oh, wow. This is tough business.
29:18Of course it's tough, but it was a necessity. It was a way of life, so they had to do. That was their living.
29:26Skaldalev 1 proves the Vikings had specially designed ships for crossing the Atlantic and potentially going even further.
29:35Do you think they could have made it to the United States?
29:37Yes, I think they did.
29:41The incredible preservation of the Ruskilda ships allowed archaeologists to produce working reconstructions.
29:48Learning how they sailed, and crucially, how they were built.
29:52Hey, hey, Søren.
29:54Hello.
29:54How are you?
29:55Blue Nelson.
29:55Søren is an archaeologist turned Viking boatmaker.
29:58He's learned all he knows from studying the five Ruskilda ships.
30:02What kind of wood did they use?
30:04It depends on where the boat was built.
30:06Here in the south part of Scandinavia, it was oak, mainly oak.
30:09What kind of methods did the Vikings use to construct these?
30:12It's a clinker built boat.
30:14And a clinker built boat means that the planks are overlapping each other.
30:20The Viking clinker method gave the boat strength along every single overlap and an unrivaled flexibility on rough seas.
30:27There is a lot of benefits with building a boat like this, because you can build it light and strong at the same time.
30:34It's this clinker style that allowed the Vikings to sail the North Atlantic 500 years before any other European.
30:40Seeing how these ships went together allowed me to understand why these were the best sailing vessels of their time.
30:50Hey, bud.
30:51Our trip to Denmark has been a success.
30:54We've learned the Vikings had specialized ships specifically designed for long-distance sailing.
31:00Now that we understand the capabilities of their ships, we can interpret the sailing directions from the sagas and attempt to find out, did the Vikings make landfall in the USA?
31:26We've come to Gloucester, Massachusetts.
31:28We want to narrow down the hunt for North America's second Viking site and to find their utopia called Vinland.
31:35Cool spot, huh?
31:36Yeah.
31:38In Denmark, we saw the type of ships that the Vikings explored with.
31:43But the key to solve in this 1,000-year-old puzzle could lie in the sagas.
31:49This proves that the Vikings were here, but we still don't know how far south they traveled.
31:54The clues in the writing suggest they may have traced the coast of Canada before leaving the southernmost point of Nova Scotia.
32:03The descriptions say they sailed out-of-sight land for two days before arriving at a place they called Vinland, named after the grapes they found growing there.
32:12The only way to solve this mystery is to sail, just like the Vikings did.
32:19The only way to solve this mystery is to sail, just like the Vikings did.
32:23Wow, look at this.
32:25Yes!
32:26Ooh!
32:27That is beautiful.
32:29Wow.
32:30Polaris is the only Viking vessel of its kind in North America.
32:35Establishing how fast this ship can sail will help us narrow down the possible location of Vinland and a second Viking site.
32:42We know from the sagas that they were on the open water for two days.
32:48Yeah.
32:49Doing a speed test on Polaris will tell us how far they could have gotten in those two days.
32:54Man.
32:55Can we get down there?
32:56Ready to row?
32:56Let's do it.
32:59The 38-foot Polaris is an exact replica of one of the Reskilda relics.
33:05Hey, hey.
33:06Hey!
33:07How are you?
33:08Good.
33:08How are you guys?
33:09Doing very well.
33:10Eris the Holden has a master captain's license and will be overseeing our speed test on the Polaris.
33:15How are you?
33:18It's a copy of Skuldelev VI, which is the Krak of Fear in Roskilda, Denmark.
33:26Krak of Fear.
33:27That's what they call blue sometimes.
33:31Skuldelev VI dates from the year 1030 and would have been used for coastal voyages.
33:38How fast does puppy go?
33:39You want to go find out?
33:40Oh, I'd love to find out.
33:42All right.
33:42Permission to come aboard?
33:43Yeah.
33:46Once dressed in our very non-Viking life vests, it's not long till Captain Arista is calling
33:51the shots.
33:52Prepare to make way.
33:53Two strokes.
33:54And together.
33:56One.
33:59Come to Oregon.
33:59The plan is to row out of Gloucester Harbor, then raise the sail and start our speed test.
34:08Yeah.
34:09Looking good.
34:12It's feeling a lot like work.
34:14This is way harder than I thought it would be.
34:16Paddles are kind of long and ornery.
34:18Now on the open ocean, it's time to prepare Polaris for maximum speed.
34:28Just seeing those bright colors, that's what makes the ship come alive.
34:37That big square sail, there's your biking ship.
34:41My job is to sit here and do nothing else than hold this line, which I think says something
34:49about the confidence Captain has in my crewing ability.
34:53You suck, Mike.
34:54But with the swell increasing, Bloucester Harbor's only job is to keep his lunch down.
35:02Bloucester Harbor should be seriously considering a name change to green.
35:09I get motion sickness from playing video games, so I knew it wasn't a stretch that I was going
35:12to get sick out here getting tossed around in the sea.
35:16Half an hour later, Bloucester Harbor starts feeling better.
35:19He's finally finding his sea legs.
35:21Just in time for our experiment.
35:27Wanting our speed test to be as historically accurate as possible, we need to set a course
35:32south, as documented in the sagas.
35:35No easy feat, as the Vikings didn't have modern navigation tools.
35:39Instead, they relied heavily on the stars, moon, and sun.
35:45What are you going to do if the clouds overtake it and you can't see the sun?
35:48So another tool that we think the Vikings used was a sunstone, which is a piece of Icelandic
35:55spar.
35:57The use of sunstones is mentioned in the sagas, but most experts wrote them off as fantasy.
36:03Until 2002, when one was discovered in an ancient shipwreck.
36:07How on earth does a rock from Iceland show us where the sun is?
36:12I've added this dark dot to create a double image.
36:16So if you look through, you can see two circles, right?
36:21When light enters a sunstone, it gets split into two separate beams.
36:25Due to the different routes they take through the sunstone, the two beams move at different
36:30speeds, and this causes the dots to vary in brightness.
36:34As the light leaves, the dark dot appears to double, creating two circles of varying brightness.
36:40Now if I'm tracing it around the horizon, looking for where the sun might be, I see two circles
36:50that are different shades of black, and when you follow this around, when both circles kind
37:02of match in their luminosity, in their shading, that's where the sun is.
37:11Amazing.
37:12And the Vikings worked this out over a thousand years ago.
37:16But can I get it to work for me?
37:18Time to set a course for our speed test.
37:22I need to estimate the sun's high point, or zenith, which will mark due south.
37:28The sun is just partially in its arc.
37:30We're not at the highest point yet.
37:31We haven't hit the zenith.
37:32So this would be local noon.
37:35So I'm going to say east, west, north, south.
37:42I set a course for what I think is due south.
37:46The accuracy of our speed test depends on my ability to navigate like a Viking.
38:01Our search for a second Viking site in North America hinges on this speed test.
38:09It will reveal the location in America the Vikings might have made landfall.
38:14Earlier, I set a course using just a Viking sunstone.
38:17Look at that, we're still true to course.
38:21If I'm right, we can start the speed test.
38:25All right, you want a little confirmation?
38:27What's the science say?
38:28All right, we'll bring in some modern technology.
38:31Drum roll, please.
38:32All right, the moment of truth.
38:34On a modern compass, south is at 180 degrees.
38:38Look at that.
38:40We just hit 177 degrees.
38:42So, you know, we're anywhere from three to eight degrees off.
38:47Which, I mean, again, considering that we can't see the sun at all, it's pretty good.
38:51To be able to get within a few degrees, I mean, that's incredible.
38:55So who needs this, right?
38:57Do it!
38:58Great work, Blue.
39:01And now our course is set.
39:03It's time for the speed test.
39:05The ancient saga suggests the Vikings sailed south across open ocean for two days.
39:11We think they could have left land at the southernmost point of Nova Scotia.
39:17So, two days travel from there is a good yardstick for the location of the place they christened Vinland.
39:24By calculating how fast Polaris can sail, we can work out roughly where the Vikings could have hit land.
39:32Time to test the theory.
39:35What I suggest we do is we take speeds every 30 seconds over a course of two minutes,
39:41and then we'll do an average and see what it comes up as.
39:44All right, sounds good.
39:44You good with that?
39:47Now to get Polaris up to maximum speed.
39:51Probably blowing 10, 12 knots right now.
39:56It's all hands on deck as the sail is trimmed.
40:00You need more power.
40:02Arista focuses on holding our course.
40:05All right, ready?
40:06At last, we're ready.
40:08All right, I've got our speed up on the GPS, and when you are ready, Arista, we will get going.
40:15All right, I'll mark in three, two, one, mark.
40:19Boom.
40:20All right, 3.9.
40:24Not a bad speed.
40:25Arista says it's about average for a craft like Polaris.
40:29Three, two, one, mark.
40:32All right, four knots.
40:35That's the one minute mark.
40:37Arista makes the best of the wind, and it's showing.
40:42We're increasing our speed.
40:46Three, two, one, mark.
40:504.3.
40:52That's the fastest we've gone all day.
40:56All right, let's add those together, divide them, and see what we get.
40:58We're averaging 4.18 knots.
41:044.18 knots.
41:07That's about right.
41:08Yeah, I mean, that's a good clip.
41:10But how far would this have got the Vikings?
41:14We want to imagine how far they could travel at this speed over the course of two days.
41:20We want to multiply this by 48 hours, and what do we get?
41:25200.64 nautical miles.
41:27Yeah.
41:28Wow.
41:28I mean, that's a good distance.
41:31I think we can say with some confidence that this average speed would be enough to get the Vikings
41:37from Nova Scotia all the way down to New England.
41:41Two days sailing and 200 nautical miles could mean the Vikings made landfall in the Cape Cod area
41:49of Massachusetts.
41:51We feel great.
41:53Overall, this was a huge success.
41:55The fabled Viking utopia of Vinland described in the sagas could be right here in Cape Cod.
42:02I think we've demonstrated conclusively that they had the technology and the capability.
42:09They certainly had the fortitude.
42:10Of course, we're still lacking the physical archaeological evidence.
42:13It doesn't mean it's not there.
42:15It just means we haven't found it yet.
42:20The hunt for America's lost Vikings continues.
42:26Back to America.
Recommended
42:29
|
Up next
52:51
2:42
1:50
1:50
52:46
1:00
2:11