Viking Artifacts: Miscellaneous Claims

There have been many claims for the discovery of Viking artifacts in North America, but most of them have been proven to be hoaxes, or are not accepted for other reasons. There is still some doubt in a number of cases and people who have strong opinions will continue to support or deny authenticity.

For people in Minnesota, the Kensington Rune Stone is the best known and the arguments both for and against its authenticity are given in the bibliography included in the Kensington link. The remainder of the sites are taken from Redmond (1979). His title, Viking Hoaxes in North America reveals a certain bias, but I generally agree with those biases. In fairness, I will try to note those artifacts where some question may still exist regarding authenticity. Redmond did include letters from Thomas E Lee of the Universite' Laval in Quebec who questioned some of his conclusions while supporting others. Lee did feel that many of the experts that refuted the authenticity of inscriptions had "tightly closed minds."

1. Viking Age Weapons discovered at Beardmore, Ontario. Stepchildren of the "discoverer" have admitted they saw the artifacts in his basement before they were discovered.
2. Runic Inscription "Leif Ericsson 1001" at No Man's Island, Mass. These appear to be late runes cut in stone soft enough so that an inscription should have worn away since 1001. The spelling of Leif and Ericsson are not in Old Norse style.
3. Runic Inscription "G Nomesdal" in Le Flore County, Oklahoma. The type of runes used on this inscription are from before 800 AD. They were moss covered when discovered in the early 20th century and were know to the Choctaw Indians from about 1830. Redmond suspects that a Scandinavian member of a French expedition in the area 1718 to 1720 may have carved his name in old runes for fun.
4. Tower (Viking fort) at Newport, Rhode Island. This seems to have been an old colonial tower built about 1663 and rebuilt after a fire in 1670. In one of his letters to Redmond, Thomas E Lee claimed an air photo of the site reveals a rectangular foundation of earlier date under the round tower.
5. Dighton Rock Inscriptions at Berkley, Mass. What appear to have been Indian carvings were claimed as Norse.
6. The Vinland Map at Yale University. This was shown to have been drawn with ink containing chemicals not used before the early 20th century.
7. Three rune stones from Spirit Pond, Maine. The runic style dates from before 1000 AD, but the grammar is not Old Norse. Contains many indecipherable symbols.
8. Miscellaneous "Mooring Stones" from places scattered around Minnesota and other locations. It is difficult to prove or disprove that a hole of the correct shape and size was natural or was cut by men and ever harder to prove that it was specifically used for mooring.
9. Inscription at Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. Shown not Norse.

In addition to the above, I have heard of a coin found in North America from the reign of Olaf Kyrre of Norway who ruled in the last half of the 11th century. This may be a genuine artifact traded among Native Americans, or could be a plant. Like many of these artifacts, it is almost impossible to prove or disprove their authenticity. Only in the case of the Ingstads work at L'Anse aux Meadows, where artifacts are discovered in strata with other data that date to the period of Viking activity in North America, can we be reasonable sure they are genuine.

An additional comment could be added, that even though artifacts were real, the Vikings did not influence the culture of Native Americans in any significant and observable way.