Humans arrived at the remote North Atlantic islands centuries earlier than imagined

Humans arrived at the remote North Atlantic islands centuries earlier than imagined

The Faroe Islands settled down before the arrival of the Vikings, and the lake bottom sediments exhibited

New evidence from the bottom of the Faroe Islands in the far North Atlantic indicates that a group of unknown humans settled there around 500 AD—about 350 years before the Vikings, and until recently, the Vikings were considered the earliest Human inhabitants. The settlers may be Celts, who crossed the rugged, unexplored ocean from what is now Scotland or Ireland. Survey results appear Today in the magazine Communication Earth and Environment.

The Faroe Islands are a small rugged archipelago located between Norway and Iceland, about 200 miles northwest of Scotland. Towering cliffs dominate the coast; affected by strong winds and cloudy weather, the rocky landscape is dominated by tundra. There is no evidence that aboriginal people have ever lived there, which makes it one of the few lands on the earth that was uninhabited until the historical period. Past archaeological excavations have shown that seafaring Vikings first reached them around 850 AD, and they developed long-distance navigation techniques shortly afterwards. This settlement may be a stepping stone to the settlement of the Vikings in Iceland in 874 and their brief colonization of Greenland around 980.

This new research led by Columbia University scientists Lamont-Dougherty Earth Observatory, Based on the evidence contained in lake sediments, domestic sheep suddenly appeared at around 500, well before the Nordic occupation. In the past, these islands did not have any mammals, whether domestic or other; sheep could only reach with people. The study is not the first to assert that other people got there first, but the researchers say it proves it.

In the 1980s, researchers determined Plantain, A weed usually associated with disturbed areas and pastures, often used as an indicator of early human existence in Europe, appeared in the Faroe Islands around 2200 BC. At that time, this was considered possible evidence of human arrival. However, seeds can arrive with the wind, and plants do not need the presence of humans to establish themselves. Similarly, studies of pollen collected from lake beds and swamps indicate that woody vegetation has largely disappeared some time before the Nordic period—either due to continued chewing by sheep, or due to natural climate change.

Some medieval documents indicate that Irish monks arrived on these islands in about 500 years. Firstly, Saint BrendanIt is said that a well-known early Irish navigator who traveled across the Atlantic with his comrades from 512 to 530, he was said to have discovered a piece of land called Blessing Island. Later speculations and maps said that this was the Faroe Islands—or the remote Azores, or the Canary Islands—or Brendan had actually reached North America. There is no evidence to prove this. Centuries later, in 825, Irish monk and geographer Dicuil Writes that he learned that hermits have lived on some unidentified northern islands for at least 100 years. Once again, the later speculation fell on the Faroe Islands, but there was never any evidence.

For centuries, Faroese sheep have been the staple food of the culture and can be found almost everywhere on the island. (William DeAndria/Lamont-Dougherty Earth Observatory)

The first physical evidence of early occupation comes from Research in the journal in 2013 Quaternary Science Review, It records two pieces of charred peat found under the floor of a Viking longhouse on Sandoy Island in the Faroe Islands, containing charred barley grains. Researchers determined the age of these grains to be between 300 and 500 years before the Nordic people; barley was not found on the island before, so someone must have brought it. For many archaeologists, this constitutes conclusive evidence before the Vikings inhabited. However, others would like to see some kind of corroboration before the case is declared closed.

The researchers in the new study used non-archaeological methods. They took a small boat to a lake near the village of Eiði, where an ancient Viking was located on the island of Eysturoy. Here, they threw the heavier open pipe to the bottom to collect the silt-the sediment has been declining year by year and accumulated for thousands of years, forming a long-term environmental record. The core is about 9 feet deep and records approximately 10,000 years of environmental history. Scientists began to hope to better understand the climate during the Viking occupation, but the results were unexpected.

Starting at 51 cm (20 inches) below the sediment, they found signs of sudden arrival of large numbers of sheep, most likely sometime between 492 and 512, but probably as early as 370 years. The obvious signs: recognizable sheep DNA fragments, and two different types of lipids produced in the sheep’s digestive system-so-called fecal biomarkers. (Researchers also found fragments of human DNA in the same layer, but suspected of being contaminated by modern times during sample processing.) A layer of ash deposited by a known volcanic eruption in Iceland in 877 helped them reliably determine the sequence of the sediment below Years.

“We think it’s nailing a nail in the coffin, and people were there before the Vikings,” said lead author Lorelei Curtin, who conducted the research when he was a graduate student in Lamont-Doherty. She pointed out that although the Faroe Islands today look rugged and wild, in fact every square inch of vegetation is chewed by Faroese sheep, which is the staple food of the almost ubiquitous Faroe Islands diet.

Researchers William D’Andrea (left) and Gregory de Wet extract sediment cores from the lake bed. (Nicholas Baracio/The College of William and Mary)

Except for the barley grains discovered earlier, no one has found the body remains of the former Nordic people, but the researchers said this is not surprising. There are few places suitable for settlement in the Faroe Islands, mainly flat areas at the top of protected bays, where the Nordic people would build earlier settlements.On the other hand, “you will see sheep DNA and biomarkers turn on at the same time. It’s like a switch,” said Lamont-Doherty paleoclimatologist William DeAndria, Who co-led the research. He pointed out that these marks fit very well with the narratives of Irish monks. But, he said, “Those early works are fragile-it’s all accidental.”

So, who are these early settlers? D’Andrea and Curtin speculate that they may be Celtics, but not necessarily monks. On the one hand, many Faroese place names are derived from Celtic words, and ancient but undated Celtic tombstones dot the island. In addition, DNA research in the modern Faroe Islands shows that their paternal line is mainly Scandinavian, while their matriline is mainly Celtic. The rest of the North Atlantic exhibits this asymmetry—male Viking settlers are thought to have brought Celtic brides—but the Faroe Islands have the highest level of Celtic matriarchal ancestry, which indicates the existence of Vikings. Celtic population before people.

Kevin EdwardsArchaeologists and environmental researchers at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland and co-author of the 2013 barley grain paper stated that this new study “from another island within the archipelago” provides a compelling and exciting view of early human occupation evidence of. He added: “Can similar evidence be found in Iceland, where similar arguments have been made regarding the pre-existence of Northern Europeans, and strikingly similar archaeology, pollen analysis, and human DNA are about to appear?”

The other authors of the study are Nicholas Balascio (Nicholas Balascio) of the College of William and Mary; Sabrina Shirazi and Beth Shapiro of the University of California, Santa Cruz; Gregory de Wet and Raymond Bradley of the University of Massachusetts Amherst; And Jostein Bakke from the University of Bergen, Norway. Lorelei Curtin is now a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Wyoming. The research is the result of a joint project awarded by the Department of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences of the National Science Foundation to Columbia University, the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and the College of William and Mary.

related: The link between Viking settlements and climate