ABC News' David Ruppe writes "A Viking Chapter in American History" April 28th.
The article notes the exhibit, L'Anse aux Meadows site, and how radiocarbon dating
and species introduction studies have been used to confirm what we know of the norse settlements. A "interactive portion" of the article shows a short captioned slide-show of items from the exhibit.
Other Smithsonian News Stories
The NewYork Times ran an article on the opening that can be found at http://www10.nytimes.com/library/national/science/042800sci-archaeo-canada.html
Royal Praise for Exhibition That Recasts the Vikings reads a bit like a gossip page. It links to
The NYTimes Archaeology Forum and recent Archaeology Articles.
Discovering Archaeology has a short note of the exhibit opening listed in the March/April Research & News page as New World Vikings, The Smithsonian Honors Norse Explorers in North America.
Time Magazine did a Cover Story called "The Untold Saga of the Vikings" for their May 8th print edition. Michael D. Lemonick and Andrea Dorfman's article touches on some Viking Age History
and launches into a capsule of the Scandinavian settlements in the North Atlantic for the general reader. The text parallels many of the features of the Smithsonian Exhibit and the whole article can be read at http://www.time.com/time/magazine/articles/0,3266,44020-1,00.html without the magazines'
colorful pictorals.
A one webpage article including more graphics is at Time For Kids and called "Lords of the Sea" is at http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/worldreport/top.html
Viking Age Rock Crystal
BBC News at
http://news2.thls.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid%5F702000/702478.stm on analysis of polished stones found on the island of Gotland, Sweden. The optics of these
stones are good enough for them to have been used as lenses, technologically 'before their time'. These were probably imports from slavic areas. Several stories have shown up on this topic over the past year.
The Dunmore Cave Finds
"Ancient and unique trove found in Kilkerry cave" by Séan Mac Connell of the Irish Times reviews some information about
artifacts found by one of Dunmore Caves' heritage guides. The items are believed to be deposited around in the 10th century.
BBC World Service also had a short story on the discovery,
"Tourist guide uncovers treasure". See the different Reuter's version at
"Baffling Viking Artifacts found in Cave."
Vikings on TV
There've been 2 broadcasts on PBS in the United States this Quarter. Rather comprehensive webpages can be found at Nova's The Vikings companion website. Nova's program covered Viking Age history
overall, though several parts of the broadcast were rather slow in the introduction of topics.
The PBS mini-series, Secrets of the Dead, included a large segment entitled "The Lost Vikings of Greenland" and investigated some of the questions of settlers disappearence from the Greenland areas by the 15th century.
The website addresses the factors contributing to the decline of the Greenland settlements and has some nice graphics on the topic.
Article in the May 2000 National Geographic
There's a short description of the article at http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0005/hilights.html#a
I've checked it
out at the library and found the expected article and marvellous photos. The text is a bit more in-depth than Times' article and name-drops some of the current leaders of Viking Age archaeology today. Again, there is a cursory review of Viking Age
history and a discussion of North Atlantic history. In a few years will probably have a copy of two from a used bookstore or garage sale, this issue also includes (a nice article on the Danish Iron Age finds at Nydam Mose). See Priit J. Vesilind, with photographs by Sisse Brimberg, 2000. "In Search of Vikings." National Geographic, Vol. 197, No. 5, pp. 2-27.
Theory on the Location of Vinland
The Independant story "Viking 'land of wine' pinpointed in Canada" discusses a survey by Lund University's Dr Mats Larsson correlating Saga information with the location of 'Vinland'.
See http://www.independent.co.uk/news/World/Americas/2000-06/viking040600.shtml
Debate on the Location of Straumfjord
The Washington post has a short article on western settlement. "Sagas Fuel an Epic Debate on Viking Settlements" by Guy Gugliotta illustrates yet another debate based on theories and stories of the sagas about the steaders in the north Atlantic.
Replica Ship Launched June 18th
The CBC has a short Story on the launching of the Islendinger on its way to L'Anse Aux Meadows at http://cbc.ca/cgi-bin/templates/print.cgi?/news/2000/06/18/viking000618.
Fox News covered the festivities and welcome ceremony in Newfoundland in Viking Ship Arrives in Canada for Millenium Feast.
CONFERENCES & LECTURES
Viking Millenium International Symposium
Takes place Sept. 16-24 at the L'anse au Meadows, Labrador Straits, Corner Brook Labrador, Canada. The slated speakers include some well-known authors and archaeologists. See their website for full details at http://www.vikingsymposium.nf.ca/
More Viking Theme Festivals
The Montreal Gazette has a travel feature caller "Viking Summer" as reported on May 17th. The article contains information on activities for this summer of 2000 near and around L'Anse aux Meadows in Greenland. The
article was found at http://www.montrealgazette.com/travel/pages/000513/4092631.html
MUSEUM EXHIBITIONS
The Smithsonian Exhibit...
Vikings The Norse Atlantic Saga as the top story this issue, above, runs through the summer in Washington D.C.
Full Circle First Contact
Vikings and Skraelings in Newfoundland and Labrador opens in St. John's June 2nd for the summer. The Canadian Exhibit and other information about activities in Newfoundland can be found at http://www.gov.nf.ca/vikings/.
BOOKS
No New Books or Book Reviews this Quarter.
