Study: Vikings were not the first to settle the Faroe Islands

[Judi Lynn]

Photo: Lynn Fae / Unsplash
POSTED BY: NORWAY TODAY STAFF 30. AUGUST 2022

For a long time, scientists believed that the Vikings were the first people to settle the Faroe Islands. However, recent research indicates otherwise.


Based on archeological evidence, the long-standing consensus among scientists was that the Faroe Islands, located between Iceland, Norway, and the British Isles, were settled by Norse explorers, The Viking Herald reports.

However, in a study published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment, researchers put forward unequivocal evidence, based on the analysis of ancient feces, that the Vikings were not, in fact, the first people to settle the Faroe Islands.
Researchers used an advanced technique to date the oldest settlement to 500 CE, roughly 300 years before the Norse raiders developed the sailing technology that would help them fuel their maritime expansion.

Human presence
Lorelei Curtin of American Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, the lead author of the study, and colleagues collected the evidence from sediment cores taken from the Eiðisvatn catchment, home to the remains of an old Norse summer farm settlement called Argisbrekka.

More:
https://norwaytoday.info/culture/study-vikings-were-not-the-first-to-settle-the-faroe-islands/

[2naSalit]

1. K&R