POINT ROSEE, NEWFOUNDLAND—A second possible New-World Viking site has been found on the southwest coast of Newfoundland, about 300 miles south of “L’Anse aux Meadows,” which was discovered in 1960. The site was spotted by archaeologist Sarah H. Parcak of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, while she was looking at high-resolution satellite images of New World coastlines. The site, called Point Rosee, appeared as a dark stain with buried rectilinear features. On the ground, magnetometer readings showed elevated iron readings, and test trenches exposed turf walls, ash residue, a fire-cracked boulder, and roasted ore called bog iron. “It screams, ‘Please excavate me!’,” Parcak told The New York Times. Team member Douglas Bolender of the University of Massachusetts, Boston, thinks the buried structure could be a smithy for forging longboat nails and weaponry. “There’s no lock that it’s Norse, but there’s no alternative evidence,” he explained. To read more about Norse settlements, go to "The Vikings in Ireland."
