The Vikings Uncovered

0:00:03 > 0:00:05The Vikings.

0:00:05 > 0:00:07Blond, brawny and brutal.

0:00:07 > 0:00:10They plundered and pillaged across continents

0:00:10 > 0:00:13in the days before the Norman Conquest.

0:00:13 > 0:00:17- Whoa! That is a sword cut into someone's head.- A sword cut mark.

0:00:17 > 0:00:20Their longships wreaked havoc across the North Atlantic...

0:00:20 > 0:00:23but how far did these seafarers voyage?

0:00:25 > 0:00:27The Vikings are still a mystery.

0:00:29 > 0:00:33Now I want to shine a light into the Vikings' dark past.

0:00:35 > 0:00:36I'm joining forces

0:00:36 > 0:00:40with world-renowned satellite archaeologist Dr Sarah Parcak.

0:00:42 > 0:00:44Together we'll search for the greatest prize

0:00:44 > 0:00:47in Viking archaeology.

0:00:47 > 0:00:49It screams, "Please excavate me!"

0:00:49 > 0:00:52SAGA SPOKEN IN OLD NORSE

0:00:52 > 0:00:55The Vikings' own stories, the sagas,

0:00:55 > 0:00:58reveal they explored deep into North America

0:00:58 > 0:01:00some 500 years before Columbus.

0:01:00 > 0:01:03If this is a Viking site, you've just discovered

0:01:03 > 0:01:05the furthest known western point

0:01:05 > 0:01:08of the entire Viking expansion.

0:01:09 > 0:01:11We'll hunt for those lost Vikings

0:01:11 > 0:01:13and I'll discover how they voyaged further

0:01:13 > 0:01:16than any European had ever done before.

0:01:17 > 0:01:21Lovely! That reindeer droppings are really cutting through there.

0:01:21 > 0:01:22On this journey, I'll uncover

0:01:22 > 0:01:25just how closely related to the Vikings we are.

0:01:25 > 0:01:29I hate to admit, but we are probably the same species as the British.

0:01:29 > 0:01:31And they weren't just Hells Angels,

0:01:31 > 0:01:33they were shrewd entrepreneurs.

0:01:33 > 0:01:34Mesmerising, isn't it?

0:01:34 > 0:01:37We're setting out to prove that they were the first Europeans

0:01:37 > 0:01:41to settle in the New World 1,000 years ago.

0:01:41 > 0:01:43This is a very good day indeed!

0:01:43 > 0:01:46It would just be really good to have the dates work out.

0:01:46 > 0:01:47So, are you ready?

0:02:02 > 0:02:05Lerwick on the Shetland Islands.

0:02:07 > 0:02:10Every January, it hosts Up Helly Aa.

0:02:10 > 0:02:13One of the most colourful celebrations of our Viking past.

0:02:13 > 0:02:15RAUCOUS CHEERING

0:02:19 > 0:02:21You know what? When you see these big, tough men

0:02:21 > 0:02:24walking down the street in glittering armour,

0:02:24 > 0:02:26they do convey an amazing impression.

0:02:26 > 0:02:31- Three cheers for the Guizer Jarl. Hip, hip!- CROWD:- HOORAY!

0:02:31 > 0:02:32Scary!

0:02:32 > 0:02:34THEY CHEER

0:02:36 > 0:02:40The Vikings arrived here in their longships 1,200 years ago.

0:02:40 > 0:02:42BAGPIPE MUSIC

0:02:43 > 0:02:45They famously plundered and pillaged,

0:02:45 > 0:02:47but they also settled much of Britain

0:02:47 > 0:02:49and explored the North Atlantic.

0:02:51 > 0:02:54They left powerful marks on our identity

0:02:54 > 0:02:56and our gene pool.

0:02:56 > 0:02:58We are more Viking here than Scottish.

0:02:58 > 0:03:01Aaagh! I know who I am.

0:03:02 > 0:03:04Yet much of what we know about them

0:03:04 > 0:03:08still comes from comic books rather than history books.

0:03:09 > 0:03:13No real Viking ever wore a winged or horned helmet.

0:03:17 > 0:03:20If even our most familiar image of the Vikings is wrong,

0:03:20 > 0:03:22what other myths are there left to explode?

0:03:30 > 0:03:34I'm heading to Copenhagen, the heart of the Viking homeland,

0:03:34 > 0:03:38to start my quest to discover how far beyond our Shetland friends

0:03:38 > 0:03:40Viking power extended.

0:03:43 > 0:03:47Waiting for me is an old Norse saga named after one of the Vikings'

0:03:47 > 0:03:50most heroic and notorious characters.

0:03:52 > 0:03:55So, this is the Saga of Erik the Red

0:03:55 > 0:03:59and this is the oldest surviving text that we have of this saga.

0:03:59 > 0:04:02Dr Emily Lethbridge is an expert on the sagas,

0:04:02 > 0:04:06the Vikings' own stories, written down by their descendants.

0:04:08 > 0:04:11So, this is 700 years old, this book?

0:04:11 > 0:04:13SHE SPEAKS OLD NORSE

0:04:20 > 0:04:24This saga tells of a voyage by Erik the Red's son, Leif,

0:04:24 > 0:04:26to a place west of Greenland.

0:04:26 > 0:04:29The sagas describe the discovery of this country

0:04:29 > 0:04:34and it's an incredibly lush place, absolutely teeming with wildlife.

0:04:35 > 0:04:39So that's how, according to this saga, North America was discovered.

0:04:39 > 0:04:43So, this is hundreds of years before Christopher Columbus,

0:04:43 > 0:04:47- here it is, in this manuscript, right here.- Yeah!

0:04:47 > 0:04:49And that's not all.

0:04:49 > 0:04:53The first people to explore this place they named Vinland

0:04:53 > 0:04:55may actually have been British.

0:04:55 > 0:04:57SAGA IS SPOKEN IN OLD NORSE

0:04:57 > 0:05:01A couple of Scots are sent ashore to explore the land

0:05:01 > 0:05:05and they come back, one of them with a handful of self-sown wheat

0:05:05 > 0:05:07and the other with a vine in their hand.

0:05:07 > 0:05:10Wild vines. Is that where they get the name Vinland from?

0:05:10 > 0:05:12That's one interpretation, yes.

0:05:16 > 0:05:19So, where in North America could Vinland have been?

0:05:23 > 0:05:26In 1960, at a place called L'Anse aux Meadows

0:05:26 > 0:05:29on the northern tip of Newfoundland,

0:05:29 > 0:05:33archaeologists made the remarkable discovery of a Viking transit camp.

0:05:35 > 0:05:38It contained Viking hallmarks - their long houses

0:05:38 > 0:05:40and evidence of metalworking...

0:05:43 > 0:05:45..but the sagas don't just talk about one camp.

0:05:45 > 0:05:48They describe other settlements elsewhere.

0:05:49 > 0:05:52So, what does it say about other stories in here?

0:05:52 > 0:05:55I mean, there must be a lot more to find out in North America.

0:05:55 > 0:06:01There could well be, because the sagas describe not only these guys

0:06:01 > 0:06:04stopping off in one place, but stopping off in a number of places

0:06:04 > 0:06:07and they were there for several years.

0:06:07 > 0:06:09They had a whole new world to explore.

0:06:09 > 0:06:11So, there may be some archaeology out there?

0:06:11 > 0:06:13There may be some archaeology out there.

0:06:24 > 0:06:25I'm hooked.

0:06:25 > 0:06:30Scots amongst the first Europeans in the New World -

0:06:30 > 0:06:33and then there's the promise of more sites in America.

0:06:37 > 0:06:41But how to follow in the footsteps of Erik the Red and his son Leif

0:06:41 > 0:06:43and find those lost Vikings?

0:06:46 > 0:06:51The answer might lie in an unlikely location - Birmingham, Alabama...

0:06:54 > 0:06:58..in the lab of the world-renowned space archaeologist Dr Sarah Parcak.

0:06:59 > 0:07:02Sarah has pioneered the use of satellites

0:07:02 > 0:07:05to make ground-breaking archaeological discoveries...

0:07:05 > 0:07:07from space.

0:07:09 > 0:07:13She uses infrared imagery to show up the differences between desert sand

0:07:13 > 0:07:16and building material beneath the surface.

0:07:17 > 0:07:20And lo and behold - the map of a whole city.

0:07:24 > 0:07:27She's already uncovered lost pyramids in Egypt...

0:07:29 > 0:07:33..and together we found the fabled lighthouse

0:07:33 > 0:07:34of Ancient Rome's harbour.

0:07:34 > 0:07:36That is awesome!

0:07:36 > 0:07:39Now, Sarah's joining me on the trail of the Vikings -

0:07:39 > 0:07:43but this is uncharted territory for her.

0:07:43 > 0:07:46After all, her speciality is Ancient Egypt.

0:07:48 > 0:07:51This project is my biggest challenge yet -

0:07:51 > 0:07:55I've been working in Egypt for the last 15 years -

0:07:55 > 0:07:57but then, thinking about the Vikings,

0:07:57 > 0:08:01you have a vast empire across a vast ocean.

0:08:01 > 0:08:05Also, the Vikings lived in farmsteads.

0:08:05 > 0:08:07It was much more ephemeral, you know -

0:08:07 > 0:08:09they simply didn't leave a lot behind.

0:08:11 > 0:08:13Sarah will have to adapt her methods.

0:08:13 > 0:08:17Unlike in Egypt, she'll be relying on subtle differences

0:08:17 > 0:08:21in surface vegetation that only hint at what may lie beneath.

0:08:21 > 0:08:27All from a camera 383 miles above the earth's surface.

0:08:32 > 0:08:35I can't wait to find out what Sarah's discovered.

0:08:35 > 0:08:38She's been searching all the places the Vikings went

0:08:38 > 0:08:40across the North Atlantic -

0:08:40 > 0:08:43Scotland, Iceland and Greenland...

0:08:45 > 0:08:48..but the Holy Grail is North America.

0:08:50 > 0:08:52We've really been focusing our efforts

0:08:52 > 0:08:54on the eastern seaboard of Canada.

0:08:54 > 0:08:56If you find something on the eastern seaboard of Canada,

0:08:56 > 0:08:58that would be huge.

0:08:58 > 0:09:01So, let's go into Newfoundland.

0:09:01 > 0:09:05Right now, the only known Norse site in all of North America

0:09:05 > 0:09:09is at the northern tip of Newfoundland, at L'Anse aux Meadows.

0:09:09 > 0:09:13So, if you believe the sagas, that might just have been a transit camp.

0:09:13 > 0:09:14That's right.

0:09:14 > 0:09:18Would they have had something more permanent somewhere else?

0:09:18 > 0:09:20Where are these other places?

0:09:20 > 0:09:24Over the last couple of months, we've spent a lot of time

0:09:24 > 0:09:27looking along the entire Labrador coast.

0:09:27 > 0:09:29We looked up every single river.

0:09:29 > 0:09:33It's like looking for a needle in a million haystacks.

0:09:33 > 0:09:36Tens and tens of thousands of square kilometres.

0:09:36 > 0:09:39We've even looked along the coastline of Maine

0:09:39 > 0:09:41into Massachusetts. So, we've looked everywhere...

0:09:41 > 0:09:43Come on! Show me!

0:09:43 > 0:09:47..and this very interesting site appeared in Newfoundland.

0:09:47 > 0:09:49So, when we were doing initial processing,

0:09:49 > 0:09:51all I saw was a dark stain.

0:09:53 > 0:09:57You can see this slightly darker area right here, that's all I saw...

0:09:57 > 0:09:59- OK.- ..and I almost discarded it.

0:09:59 > 0:10:01But when we processed that imagery...

0:10:05 > 0:10:09..that rectilinear structure shows up very clearly here.

0:10:14 > 0:10:18You can see the outline of what looks like a long house better here,

0:10:18 > 0:10:21but you can see actual internal divisions.

0:10:22 > 0:10:28- It's 22 metres long and seven metres wide.- Mm.

0:10:28 > 0:10:33The exact same size as the long houses at L'Anse aux Meadows.

0:10:33 > 0:10:34No way!

0:10:36 > 0:10:39This is the first site we've had in 55 years

0:10:39 > 0:10:43that merits closer examination and excavation.

0:10:43 > 0:10:48I mean - its size, its shape - it screams, "Please, excavate me!"

0:10:48 > 0:10:51If this is a Viking site, you've just discovered

0:10:51 > 0:10:55the furthest known western point of the entire Viking expansion.

0:10:58 > 0:11:00When you visit Sarah's lab for the day,

0:11:00 > 0:11:03it feels like you've got a front row seat at the making of history.

0:11:03 > 0:11:05We've seen the data on the big screen

0:11:05 > 0:11:08and now I can't wait to put my boots on and get out there on the ground.

0:11:11 > 0:11:15It's now down to Sarah and I to prove the Vikings put down roots

0:11:15 > 0:11:19even further west than anyone has ever thought.

0:11:21 > 0:11:24First of all, Sarah needs to convince the authorities

0:11:24 > 0:11:26to let her dig.

0:11:26 > 0:11:30So her team will carry out surveying work at the new site,

0:11:30 > 0:11:33while Sarah tests out her satellite technology

0:11:33 > 0:11:36by gathering evidence of the Viking route

0:11:36 > 0:11:39across the North Atlantic from Britain to North America.

0:11:42 > 0:11:46Meanwhile, I'm going to work out how they managed to travel so far west

0:11:46 > 0:11:481,000 years ago.

0:11:48 > 0:11:49Now the hard work begins,

0:11:49 > 0:11:51when we get this beast up the top of the mast.

0:11:51 > 0:11:53Fast.

0:11:54 > 0:11:56Free.

0:11:56 > 0:11:57Fast.

0:11:57 > 0:11:58Free.

0:11:58 > 0:12:01I'm getting a crash course in Viking sailing

0:12:01 > 0:12:05on an exact replica of an 11th century ship.

0:12:11 > 0:12:14There is one concession to modern convenience.

0:12:16 > 0:12:17That's pretty heavy work.

0:12:17 > 0:12:20- Yeah, you are just halfway, so... - Halfway. OK.- Yeah.

0:12:22 > 0:12:24It's getting heavier.

0:12:26 > 0:12:30The advent of the square sail at the start of the Viking era

0:12:30 > 0:12:33meant these people were no longer confined to the shoreline.

0:12:33 > 0:12:36They were now masters of the open oceans.

0:12:38 > 0:12:40I've sailed my whole life

0:12:40 > 0:12:42and I've even sailed through these waters before,

0:12:42 > 0:12:44but I've never been on a Viking ship -

0:12:44 > 0:12:46and this kind of ship is so iconic.

0:12:46 > 0:12:48This is where the whole history

0:12:48 > 0:12:52of European maritime exploration begins.

0:12:57 > 0:12:59It is absolutely beautiful.

0:13:08 > 0:13:10With a 15-strong crew,

0:13:10 > 0:13:13ships like this would carry 20 tonnes of cargo,

0:13:13 > 0:13:16including goats and cows, up to 2,000 miles.

0:13:18 > 0:13:21It's a lot more responsive than you'd think, looking at it.

0:13:21 > 0:13:24There's wind in the sail, it's responding to the tiller here,

0:13:24 > 0:13:26it's responding to the sea, it's great!

0:13:29 > 0:13:32And you realise it might be over 1,000-year-old technology,

0:13:32 > 0:13:34but it's still fit for purpose today.

0:13:37 > 0:13:39To get a flavour of how the Vikings survived long voyages

0:13:39 > 0:13:41without fresh food,

0:13:41 > 0:13:45Captain Esben Jessen is introducing me to the medieval equivalent

0:13:45 > 0:13:47of astronaut grub.

0:13:47 > 0:13:51We have a variety here of smoked lamb, it's actually smoked

0:13:51 > 0:13:54over reindeer droppings, so it has a little tang to it.

0:13:54 > 0:13:57OK, here we go.

0:13:58 > 0:13:59Lovely!

0:13:59 > 0:14:03That reindeer droppings are really cutting through there, very nice.

0:14:03 > 0:14:04It's good.

0:14:04 > 0:14:07- And then we a have dried cod. - That, I can smell -

0:14:07 > 0:14:10- even in a big wind on this foredeck, I can smell it.- Yes, it's amazing.

0:14:10 > 0:14:12- it's just fantastic. - It's amazing.- It's a little chewy.

0:14:16 > 0:14:20Oh, yeah! It's like gnawing on a bit of canvas.

0:14:20 > 0:14:23But then when you smoke it, or you dry it,

0:14:23 > 0:14:26or as these two pickled herrings, here, then this would actually,

0:14:26 > 0:14:28it could last for weeks, or months, even.

0:14:31 > 0:14:35But the Vikings didn't just design ships to ply the open seas.

0:14:35 > 0:14:37They also built them to attack

0:14:37 > 0:14:39when and where they wanted.

0:14:41 > 0:14:43So, the interesting thing about this

0:14:43 > 0:14:46is that it's a really flexible construction.

0:14:46 > 0:14:51At Denmark's Viking Ship Museum, boat builder Martin Rodevad Dael

0:14:51 > 0:14:55shows me what made the longship the ultimate attack weapon.

0:14:55 > 0:15:00- So, if you sort of move it, you can see that it's really...- Whoa!

0:15:01 > 0:15:03..move it a little bit, you can tell how...

0:15:03 > 0:15:05- That's amazing! - ..the whole thing is...

0:15:05 > 0:15:08- The whole thing is just twisting like this.- ..twisting.

0:15:08 > 0:15:11You can just see the ripples going down the hull there.

0:15:14 > 0:15:18Fast and flexible to ride the rollers of the North Atlantic,

0:15:18 > 0:15:23with a shallow keel to penetrate any waterway and land on any beach,

0:15:23 > 0:15:26this was the Panzer tank of the Dark Ages...

0:15:29 > 0:15:33..and at the end of the 8th century, it began to wreak havoc

0:15:33 > 0:15:36as the Vikings swept west out of their homeland

0:15:36 > 0:15:39into the turbulent Atlantic in search of riches.

0:15:41 > 0:15:45The first place ripe for plunder was the unsuspecting British Isles.

0:15:49 > 0:15:52After the Romans withdrew in the 5th century AD,

0:15:52 > 0:15:56England was settled by Germanic cousins of the Vikings -

0:15:56 > 0:15:58the Angles and the Saxons.

0:15:59 > 0:16:03According to the Anglo-Saxons, their peace was then shattered

0:16:03 > 0:16:06by Viking smash-and-grab raiders.

0:16:08 > 0:16:12This is the familiar story, but is it true?

0:16:12 > 0:16:13If you say a Viking to somebody,

0:16:13 > 0:16:16of course, they immediately conjure up an image

0:16:16 > 0:16:19of bloodthirsty maniacs storming ashore

0:16:19 > 0:16:21in a brutal raid in search of booty -

0:16:21 > 0:16:25but, actually, there's precious little archaeological evidence

0:16:25 > 0:16:28to support that view of how they acted.

0:16:28 > 0:16:31But there is one place, right up here in the north of Scotland,

0:16:31 > 0:16:34that takes us back to Viking shock and awe.

0:16:41 > 0:16:45In the 8th century, Portmahomack was a stronghold for the Picts,

0:16:45 > 0:16:47the Celtic peoples of Scotland.

0:16:50 > 0:16:52When Professor Martin Carver dug here,

0:16:52 > 0:16:57he discovered the first Pictish monastery underneath this church.

0:16:59 > 0:17:02We've got some reconstructions here, on here.

0:17:02 > 0:17:03So, if you move that around,

0:17:03 > 0:17:05- you've got your monastery... - OK, that's good.

0:17:05 > 0:17:07Right, so, you've - church on the hill...

0:17:07 > 0:17:08The buildings on either side...

0:17:08 > 0:17:11- It's quite a substantial settlement, this.- It's very substantial.

0:17:11 > 0:17:14They're very busy, very wealthy.

0:17:14 > 0:17:16It's almost like a town, it's thriving.

0:17:16 > 0:17:19It's in contact with monasteries in Ireland, with Northumbria,

0:17:19 > 0:17:22across the Channel and so on, a really important place.

0:17:22 > 0:17:25However, the Vikings...are coming.

0:17:29 > 0:17:32And they were coming for the treasure.

0:17:32 > 0:17:37Church silver inlaid with precious stones made by the monks.

0:17:39 > 0:17:44For the Vikings, this was a jewellery shop ripe for a ram raid.

0:17:44 > 0:17:46They were making chalices.

0:17:46 > 0:17:48This is a precious replica -

0:17:48 > 0:17:50but what we did find was little studs,

0:17:50 > 0:17:53- you see the little studs there? - These kinds of things here?

0:17:53 > 0:17:54Yeah, we found some of those.

0:17:54 > 0:17:56This was the kind of thing being made?

0:17:56 > 0:17:58- The kind of thing they were making. - Wow!

0:17:58 > 0:18:01I think it's difficult to exaggerate the amount of wealth involved

0:18:01 > 0:18:06and the amount of enthusiasm that was involved.

0:18:06 > 0:18:07Then this...

0:18:09 > 0:18:10..a monk's skull.

0:18:12 > 0:18:13It was violent.

0:18:13 > 0:18:17- You see the cut mark of the sword there?- Whoa!

0:18:17 > 0:18:18- On there?- That's...

0:18:18 > 0:18:21- That is a sword cutting somebody's head?- That is a sword cut mark.

0:18:21 > 0:18:25The cuts are being made on the top of the head and behind the head.

0:18:26 > 0:18:30He must have been, not only attacked from behind, but kneeling.

0:18:30 > 0:18:32Bang, bang, bang. Three cuts.

0:18:32 > 0:18:35For the first time, it looks like you've been able to prove

0:18:35 > 0:18:38that the Vikings came here, slaughtered the monks

0:18:38 > 0:18:42and wiped out a flourishing, wealthy monastic site.

0:18:45 > 0:18:47SOUNDS OF BATTLE

0:18:48 > 0:18:49WOMAN SCREAMS

0:18:53 > 0:18:58The sea had brought this settlement wealth and importance...

0:19:00 > 0:19:02..but not that day.

0:19:02 > 0:19:06That day it brought fire and death.

0:19:07 > 0:19:09That day it brought the Vikings.

0:19:12 > 0:19:16Soon, the raiders would return as conquerors.

0:19:16 > 0:19:19This time they would come to stay - another staging post

0:19:19 > 0:19:22on their journey west across the Atlantic.

0:19:25 > 0:19:30On the other side of that ocean, Sarah is making plans.

0:19:30 > 0:19:34Before she can dig the potential new site in south-west Newfoundland,

0:19:34 > 0:19:39she still needs to convince the authorities to grant permission.

0:19:39 > 0:19:42Step one is non-invasive surveys.

0:19:42 > 0:19:47We have to go out on the ground and use a magnetometer to measure

0:19:47 > 0:19:50what might be buried beneath the ground.

0:19:50 > 0:19:52What we do is called ground truthing.

0:19:52 > 0:19:55It literally means, we are confirming whether or not

0:19:55 > 0:19:58what we've seen from space is actually on the ground

0:19:58 > 0:19:59and it's an essential thing you have to do

0:19:59 > 0:20:01before you start excavation.

0:20:05 > 0:20:07As Sarah awaits the results,

0:20:07 > 0:20:11she sets out to learn what a typical Viking site in America looked like.

0:20:14 > 0:20:18As there's only one, she's on her way to L'Anse aux Meadows,

0:20:18 > 0:20:21the Viking camp discovered on the northern tip of Newfoundland

0:20:21 > 0:20:23in the 1960s.

0:20:23 > 0:20:24THEY CHEER

0:20:29 > 0:20:32I can't even imagine being a Viking in a boat

0:20:32 > 0:20:37and sailing by icebergs the size of a mountain.

0:20:37 > 0:20:40It gives you a sense of just how intrepid and brave they were,

0:20:40 > 0:20:42of seeking new worlds.

0:20:47 > 0:20:50One of the pioneering excavators of the historic site,

0:20:50 > 0:20:53Birgitta Wallace, is there to meet Sarah.

0:20:56 > 0:20:58There are eight buildings on the site

0:20:58 > 0:21:01and they are divided into four complexes.

0:21:03 > 0:21:05Up to 90 people lived here.

0:21:05 > 0:21:08Each building had a different function.

0:21:08 > 0:21:10This is one.

0:21:10 > 0:21:14It consists of a smelting furnace for iron.

0:21:16 > 0:21:20Metalworking was crucial evidence that this was a Viking camp.

0:21:20 > 0:21:23No-one else living in this region at the time produced metal.

0:21:25 > 0:21:30The reconstructed buildings made of cut turf are critical clues

0:21:30 > 0:21:33for when Sarah gets to dig her site further to the south-west.

0:21:36 > 0:21:37This is fantastic.

0:21:39 > 0:21:45This is the first time I've seen turf houses in person.

0:21:45 > 0:21:50So, I'm just looking at the layout of the turf

0:21:50 > 0:21:52on each of the houses and sheds.

0:21:54 > 0:21:56These thick walls

0:21:56 > 0:21:59would have been absolutely perfect natural insulation -

0:21:59 > 0:22:01and the nice thing about turf

0:22:01 > 0:22:04is you can get any piece of turf to fit together.

0:22:04 > 0:22:06It's like all-natural Lego.

0:22:07 > 0:22:10And there's one other major clue from L'Anse aux Meadows.

0:22:10 > 0:22:15It reinforces the account of Leif's voyage in the saga of Erik the Red.

0:22:17 > 0:22:24The most exciting was the finding of three butternuts.

0:22:26 > 0:22:28Butternuts - a kind of walnut -

0:22:28 > 0:22:31only grow as far north as New Brunswick on the mainland,

0:22:31 > 0:22:33hundreds of miles away.

0:22:35 > 0:22:38It suggests the Vikings were exploring much further

0:22:38 > 0:22:39into North America.

0:22:41 > 0:22:46They grow in exactly the same areas as wild grapes in New Brunswick.

0:22:46 > 0:22:50And to us that proves that, yes,

0:22:50 > 0:22:54they had really observed wild grapes

0:22:54 > 0:22:58and named their country after them - Vinland.

0:23:01 > 0:23:05L'Anse aux Meadows has given Sarah vital clues about what to look for -

0:23:05 > 0:23:08turf buildings and metalworking at her site

0:23:08 > 0:23:10400 miles to the south-west.

0:23:12 > 0:23:16Could it really be one of the lost settlements of the mythical Vinland?

0:23:18 > 0:23:20Well, we'll have to see what we find when we dig!

0:23:29 > 0:23:33In Britain, I'm exploring the Viking transformation

0:23:33 > 0:23:36from small-scale raiders to full-scale conquerors,

0:23:36 > 0:23:39in their quest for new lands.

0:23:40 > 0:23:45In 865, the Christian peace of Anglo-Saxon England was shattered

0:23:45 > 0:23:49by a pagan Viking invasion, whose leaders included warriors

0:23:49 > 0:23:53with names as vivid as Ivar the Boneless.

0:23:54 > 0:23:59For the next 13 years, what became known as the Great Heathen Army

0:23:59 > 0:24:04rampaged across the country causing chaos and destruction.

0:24:06 > 0:24:09Each winter, they would huddle together, building big camps

0:24:09 > 0:24:13containing thousands of warriors, where they'd lick their wounds

0:24:13 > 0:24:15and prepare for the next season's campaign.

0:24:18 > 0:24:21According to the Anglo-Saxons, one of the most important camps

0:24:21 > 0:24:25was on the River Trent in the winter of 873...

0:24:27 > 0:24:29..at Repton in Derbyshire.

0:24:31 > 0:24:35It was the religious epicentre of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Mercia.

0:24:39 > 0:24:42- It's a tight stair, Dan... - Tight squeeze!

0:24:42 > 0:24:45..and it's probably pretty ropey.

0:24:45 > 0:24:47Archaeologist Professor Martin Biddle

0:24:47 > 0:24:51started out looking for Anglo-Saxon remains.

0:24:51 > 0:24:55It is about 30 years since I've been up here.

0:24:55 > 0:24:59He had little idea he'd soon uncover one of the most important sites

0:24:59 > 0:25:02in the history of the Vikings in Britain.

0:25:02 > 0:25:04Right, now these are quite a long pull,

0:25:04 > 0:25:07and I hope I don't go flat on my face. No. We've done it.

0:25:07 > 0:25:10Out into safety in the bright sun.

0:25:10 > 0:25:11Gosh!

0:25:15 > 0:25:18- What a great view! - The great valley of the Trent.

0:25:18 > 0:25:21- And we are as far from the sea as you can get in the UK?- Just about.

0:25:21 > 0:25:22Just about. Yeah.

0:25:24 > 0:25:27The Viking camp was lost until Martin started to dig

0:25:27 > 0:25:29in the grounds of Repton School.

0:25:31 > 0:25:34Just over there, beyond the headmaster's house,

0:25:34 > 0:25:36as it is today, of the school,

0:25:36 > 0:25:37the ditch started there

0:25:37 > 0:25:40and it curved right back under the school building

0:25:40 > 0:25:44and came back and stopped against the east end of the church.

0:25:44 > 0:25:48Martin's excavations suggested a defensive ditch

0:25:48 > 0:25:50closed off by the river.

0:25:50 > 0:25:52- So, that's just...- Oh, my gosh. - Let's see what we can see.

0:25:52 > 0:25:54Something modern on the top of the tower.

0:25:54 > 0:25:56So that is a serious camp.

0:25:56 > 0:25:59The ditch is about four metres deep, about five metres wide at the top.

0:25:59 > 0:26:03And so these are not Vikings raiding the coast,

0:26:03 > 0:26:07these are Vikings with huge armies marching right in. Nowhere is safe.

0:26:07 > 0:26:09Nowhere is safe.

0:26:12 > 0:26:14The threat wasn't just a military one.

0:26:14 > 0:26:17The camps were becoming hubs of trade and industry,

0:26:17 > 0:26:19just like mobile towns...

0:26:23 > 0:26:26..but the invaders didn't have it all their own way.

0:26:26 > 0:26:29Do we know anything about what the English were able to do in return?

0:26:29 > 0:26:31Yeah, we do. Quite a lot, actually -

0:26:31 > 0:26:34because of a marvellous grave we found just down there.

0:26:34 > 0:26:36We couldn't understand it, cos it seemed to have three legs.

0:26:36 > 0:26:37It didn't have three legs.

0:26:37 > 0:26:41It had two legs, plus an iron sword down his left side in its scabbard,

0:26:41 > 0:26:44and we found that there was a huge cut

0:26:44 > 0:26:48in the underside of the left part of the top of the femur -

0:26:48 > 0:26:50and you can imagine somebody going down like that,

0:26:50 > 0:26:54and it must have castrated him because between his legs

0:26:54 > 0:26:59we found a wild boar's tusk, which is laid out quite obviously as...

0:26:59 > 0:27:01- A replacement! - ..a replacement!

0:27:01 > 0:27:04And round his neck, he had a necklace with some glass beads

0:27:04 > 0:27:08- and a silver hammer of the god Thor. - That's a Viking.

0:27:10 > 0:27:15The Vikings left their pagan mark all over this holy Christian centre.

0:27:15 > 0:27:20In the vicarage garden, Martin discovered a mass heathen burial.

0:27:22 > 0:27:25We took photographs at every single stage of this operation.

0:27:25 > 0:27:28- Yes, look at that. - What? Are those bones?!

0:27:28 > 0:27:32- Those are the bones in the eastern compartment.- No! Wow.

0:27:34 > 0:27:36A layer of bones about that thick

0:27:36 > 0:27:38and they are the big bones,

0:27:38 > 0:27:40and they've been brought from somewhere -

0:27:40 > 0:27:42that's why the small bones aren't there -

0:27:42 > 0:27:43and they were stacked beautifully.

0:27:43 > 0:27:45What we call charnel-wise,

0:27:45 > 0:27:47like a medieval charnel house - a bone house.

0:27:47 > 0:27:48A bit like that.

0:27:50 > 0:27:55The most likely explanation is that these are the bodies of Viking dead

0:27:55 > 0:27:58carried back to be honoured in secure Viking territory.

0:28:00 > 0:28:04Over 260 people, 80% male.

0:28:04 > 0:28:08They're mainly young adults, no children.

0:28:08 > 0:28:10It's a very highly-selected population.

0:28:10 > 0:28:13They have been reburied here around somebody.

0:28:15 > 0:28:18Martin has built up a picture of what happened here

0:28:18 > 0:28:22from a 17th century account by a gardener who'd disturbed the burial.

0:28:24 > 0:28:29- He found "the skeleton of a humane man nine feet long."- Wow.

0:28:29 > 0:28:33And around that "there were the bodies of an hundred others

0:28:33 > 0:28:36"with their feet pointing towards the central grave."

0:28:38 > 0:28:42Martin thinks the giant was a war leader.

0:28:42 > 0:28:45We think it's the burial of Ivar Beinlausi.

0:28:45 > 0:28:47So, this is Ivar the Boneless,

0:28:47 > 0:28:49who is one of the most famous Viking commanders.

0:28:49 > 0:28:54And one of the leaders of the Great Army that arrived in Essex in 865

0:28:54 > 0:28:58and which was here in the winter of 873-4

0:28:58 > 0:29:00after ten years of campaigning, for the last time.

0:29:03 > 0:29:06Burying their leaders in the heart of the English countryside

0:29:06 > 0:29:10suggests these Vikings were putting down roots -

0:29:10 > 0:29:13just like Viking pioneers had already done

0:29:13 > 0:29:15on the Atlantic fringes of Scotland.

0:29:21 > 0:29:25And that's where Sarah and her team are testing out her methods

0:29:25 > 0:29:28on the ground, before she's allowed to dig in America.

0:29:30 > 0:29:32She is focusing on a potential site

0:29:32 > 0:29:36on the tiny Orkney island of Auskerry.

0:29:41 > 0:29:44Can she prove the technology will work in the new conditions

0:29:44 > 0:29:47of the North Atlantic?

0:29:47 > 0:29:52So, Dan, we've just had some news back about Scotland

0:29:52 > 0:29:55from our team on the ground.

0:29:55 > 0:29:59Now, the experts were convinced

0:29:59 > 0:30:02that this was a potential long house.

0:30:04 > 0:30:09- Unfortunately, it turns out this is modern peat cutting.- What?

0:30:10 > 0:30:13I mean, Sarah, it's not your best work, I've got to say. But...

0:30:13 > 0:30:15Yeah - you know, all is not lost.

0:30:17 > 0:30:20But Sarah may have better luck in nearby Shetland,

0:30:20 > 0:30:24in a place already known for artefacts from the late Viking era.

0:30:24 > 0:30:28And something very cool has just come up.

0:30:28 > 0:30:31This is a place called North House in Shetland.

0:30:34 > 0:30:39Here we have a modern farmstead, but take a look at that!

0:30:39 > 0:30:42That is very interesting there. Is this the modern settlement?

0:30:42 > 0:30:44So, it's right on the edge of the modern settlement...

0:30:44 > 0:30:46But you cannot see this at all, visually.

0:30:46 > 0:30:49That is very interesting... Is this the coast here?

0:30:49 > 0:30:51- Yeah, this is the coastline. - So, again, right on the coast.

0:30:51 > 0:30:54And, you know, I'm really excited by this potential find,

0:30:54 > 0:30:56especially since they're finding

0:30:56 > 0:30:58Viking material culture there already.

0:31:06 > 0:31:08Now, we are going to go excavate

0:31:08 > 0:31:10to find out what's there, or what isn't.

0:31:12 > 0:31:16Sarah is joining her team, who've already been digging for a week.

0:31:18 > 0:31:21I'm hopeful that we could potentially find something Norse.

0:31:21 > 0:31:23I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

0:31:23 > 0:31:25I can't wait to get my hands dirty.

0:31:25 > 0:31:28- Welcome to North House. - Thank you! How's it all going?

0:31:28 > 0:31:31It's going quite well. I think we've...

0:31:31 > 0:31:33Archaeologist Rick Barton has started the dig.

0:31:35 > 0:31:39After mistaking a peat cutting for a Viking site,

0:31:39 > 0:31:41there is a lot riding on this for Sarah.

0:31:43 > 0:31:45It looks like a wall.

0:31:45 > 0:31:47- We've got walls.- Excellent.

0:31:52 > 0:31:53That is a big wall.

0:31:56 > 0:32:01- Yeah, yeah. OK, are you ready? - OK, yeah. Ready, one, two, three...

0:32:01 > 0:32:03As the excavation progresses,

0:32:03 > 0:32:05it's clear that the wall they're following

0:32:05 > 0:32:07matches the satellite imagery.

0:32:07 > 0:32:11That's that curvy bit, so the edge is right here.

0:32:11 > 0:32:14The technology once used to find pyramids

0:32:14 > 0:32:18has proved itself on Sarah's greatest challenge.

0:32:18 > 0:32:21It has found something as small as buried walls.

0:32:22 > 0:32:24But is this a Viking site?

0:32:27 > 0:32:30I've heard rumours. Oh!

0:32:30 > 0:32:33- It's a bead. Faceted.- Oh!

0:32:33 > 0:32:34And if you hold it up to the light,

0:32:34 > 0:32:37- you can see where the thread hole goes through it.- Oh, yeah, yeah.

0:32:37 > 0:32:39That's amazing.

0:32:39 > 0:32:41It's not just any old bead -

0:32:41 > 0:32:45it's made of the semiprecious stone carnelian, possibly from India.

0:32:45 > 0:32:46Wow!

0:32:46 > 0:32:51These people weren't just expanding west. They were trading east, too.

0:32:53 > 0:32:55Look at that - beautiful!

0:32:55 > 0:32:57- Well done, Tom!- Thank you, cheers.- Well done.

0:32:57 > 0:32:59- I think there's a pint in store. - Yes.

0:33:00 > 0:33:03I was uncertain when we went to Scotland what we'd find,

0:33:03 > 0:33:07but now that we've actually found this incredible stone structure,

0:33:07 > 0:33:09that gives me a lot more optimism

0:33:09 > 0:33:12about what we may find in Iceland and in Newfoundland.

0:33:14 > 0:33:16While Sarah sets up her final test,

0:33:16 > 0:33:19waiting for permission to dig in Newfoundland,

0:33:19 > 0:33:22I'm exploring what the Vikings did next in mainland Britain.

0:33:27 > 0:33:32In 876, they made their capital in Jorvik,

0:33:32 > 0:33:34the Viking name for York.

0:33:34 > 0:33:39It became the centre of a Viking state in England,

0:33:39 > 0:33:41later known as the Danelaw.

0:33:45 > 0:33:50In York, the raiders and settlers became successful urban traders

0:33:50 > 0:33:54and manufacturers in the first industrial revolution.

0:33:54 > 0:33:57The extent of their trading is revealed

0:33:57 > 0:33:59in their most prized possessions.

0:34:01 > 0:34:02Look at this!

0:34:02 > 0:34:04- It's fantastic, isn't it?- Wow!

0:34:04 > 0:34:06That looks like it's brand-new!

0:34:08 > 0:34:12Dr Andy Woods is curator of a unique Viking treasure trove -

0:34:12 > 0:34:13the Vale of York Hoard.

0:34:14 > 0:34:17It's just mesmerising, isn't it?

0:34:17 > 0:34:21Some of the hoard is typical raiders' booty,

0:34:21 > 0:34:24but it also reveals what else made the Vikings tick.

0:34:24 > 0:34:27If they couldn't steal it, they'd trade it.

0:34:29 > 0:34:32We have coins that come all the way from Uzbekistan.

0:34:32 > 0:34:34- Uzbekistan?- They're struck in Samarkand in Uzbekistan.

0:34:34 > 0:34:39What?! Arabic writing found in a hoard...

0:34:39 > 0:34:41- In northern England. - ..in northern England.

0:34:41 > 0:34:44And if you look in Scandinavia we find vast quantities of these,

0:34:44 > 0:34:48what are known as dirhams - and, so, that's just amongst the coinage.

0:34:48 > 0:34:51More widely, here, we have this piece of ring,

0:34:51 > 0:34:52probably made in Russia,

0:34:52 > 0:34:57and this fragment of brooch here, which is likely of Irish design.

0:34:57 > 0:34:59So, what we can see is, you get this network

0:34:59 > 0:35:00stretching right across Europe.

0:35:00 > 0:35:02Uzbekistan,

0:35:02 > 0:35:03Ireland,

0:35:03 > 0:35:06- Russia.- Yes, all on one tray.

0:35:06 > 0:35:07It's quite fantastic, isn't it?

0:35:07 > 0:35:09We talk about globalisation today,

0:35:09 > 0:35:11but clearly it was going on back then.

0:35:11 > 0:35:14People and things were travelling over huge distances.

0:35:16 > 0:35:20And this isn't Viking York's only buried treasure.

0:35:24 > 0:35:29What excites Dr Andrew Jones isn't silver or gold,

0:35:29 > 0:35:32it's a rather more base material found beneath its streets.

0:35:37 > 0:35:39I would say that where we are sitting now,

0:35:39 > 0:35:42there is probably ten metres of archaeological deposits

0:35:42 > 0:35:44below our feet,

0:35:44 > 0:35:48and probably at least three metres of that is human excrement.

0:35:48 > 0:35:50- Really?- I believe so.

0:35:50 > 0:35:52Wow. And what can excrement tell us?

0:35:52 > 0:35:56It tells you about diet, what people were eating.

0:35:56 > 0:35:59Andrew is a scatologist. He studies poo.

0:35:59 > 0:36:01And he's brought along a model

0:36:01 > 0:36:04of his favourite specimen to the tea shop.

0:36:04 > 0:36:07- The best thing is to show you this object here...- Oh, my God!

0:36:07 > 0:36:11This is the best-preserved piece of ancient mineralised excrement.

0:36:11 > 0:36:15It's the largest individual stool we have ever found in Europe.

0:36:15 > 0:36:20Some people call it the crown jewels of British excrement.

0:36:22 > 0:36:27The poo reveals the rich and diverse diet enjoyed by York's citizens.

0:36:29 > 0:36:31It's mainly cereal bran,

0:36:31 > 0:36:35but we've even found some samples which have whole grains in them

0:36:35 > 0:36:38- that have been cooked, a bit like a rice pudding.- OK.

0:36:38 > 0:36:40So, we're moving into understanding about cooking methods,

0:36:40 > 0:36:43not just ingredients, so that's fantastic.

0:36:43 > 0:36:46The Vikings of York were living off the fat of the land.

0:36:46 > 0:36:50Loads of fish, very large numbers of birds.

0:36:50 > 0:36:54Now, the big things on diet, of course... Moo!

0:36:54 > 0:36:55HE LAUGHS

0:36:55 > 0:36:58- These are...- Cow.- ..cattle bones. There's a lot of beef.

0:36:58 > 0:37:02And so most of the farmers in the area were providing animals

0:37:02 > 0:37:05that were brought into the market for slaughter here.

0:37:05 > 0:37:08So, that suggests there was a lot of food around.

0:37:08 > 0:37:12The poo also lifts the lid on the perils of living in thriving,

0:37:12 > 0:37:14overcrowded towns.

0:37:14 > 0:37:17But it also had many thousands of parasite eggs.

0:37:17 > 0:37:20The ascaris worms, they bore through the gut wall

0:37:20 > 0:37:24and sometimes have been known to emerge

0:37:24 > 0:37:27from every orifice of the human body,

0:37:27 > 0:37:29including the corner of your eye.

0:37:29 > 0:37:31They're a fact of Viking life.

0:37:31 > 0:37:35Why, if you were a Viking, why would you want to come to York,

0:37:35 > 0:37:38if it's going to make you a bit sick and it's covered in poo?

0:37:38 > 0:37:41Well, York was a really important place to the Viking world -

0:37:41 > 0:37:44it was the capital of Viking England.

0:37:44 > 0:37:47It was where all the bright craftspeople,

0:37:47 > 0:37:49all the bright money-making people,

0:37:49 > 0:37:51all the adventurers would come to cluster

0:37:51 > 0:37:53and where the powerful people were.

0:37:57 > 0:37:59What the things that have been found

0:37:59 > 0:38:01beneath our feet here in York tell us

0:38:01 > 0:38:04is that the Vikings thrived, they got rich, they traded,

0:38:04 > 0:38:08they made stuff and they pioneered a new way of urban living here

0:38:08 > 0:38:12that sent ripples out across the rest of the British Isles.

0:38:16 > 0:38:20Viking York became one of the most important urban centres

0:38:20 > 0:38:21in Western Europe.

0:38:25 > 0:38:29It was part of a trading and raiding empire

0:38:29 > 0:38:32that stretched as far east as the Caspian Sea

0:38:32 > 0:38:35and as far south as Africa,

0:38:35 > 0:38:39and at the height of their powers, the Vikings pushed further west

0:38:39 > 0:38:43across the North Atlantic in their search for new worlds.

0:38:44 > 0:38:49Their next major port of call was Iceland,

0:38:49 > 0:38:52and it provides the final test for Sarah's technology.

0:38:55 > 0:38:58Any new site in America could be made out of turf,

0:38:58 > 0:39:01just like those buildings at L'Anse aux Meadows

0:39:01 > 0:39:03and most Viking dwellings in Iceland.

0:39:06 > 0:39:10Spotting turf, buried beneath turf,

0:39:10 > 0:39:12from space will be tough.

0:39:13 > 0:39:16One man who may be able to help Sarah

0:39:16 > 0:39:19is Viking expert Dr Doug Bolender.

0:39:19 > 0:39:23He will be the first Viking specialist that has seen the work

0:39:23 > 0:39:26that we've done in Iceland. So, I'm quite apprehensive.

0:39:27 > 0:39:31Doug has spent 15 years searching for Viking sites

0:39:31 > 0:39:33in the North Atlantic...

0:39:33 > 0:39:37but he's sceptical about what Sarah might be seeing in North America.

0:39:39 > 0:39:44I mean, it could be a small raised section of rock or sand.

0:39:44 > 0:39:49As human beings, we are basically made

0:39:49 > 0:39:51to recognise patterns

0:39:51 > 0:39:54and not only are we really good at recognising patterns,

0:39:54 > 0:39:56we're really good at making them up.

0:39:56 > 0:39:58You can certainly look and say, you know,

0:39:58 > 0:40:03that looks like a rectangle, it looks like a structure.

0:40:03 > 0:40:07But many of the things that look like buildings in this image

0:40:07 > 0:40:09do seem to match the geology -

0:40:09 > 0:40:12and, about those, I'm extremely suspicious.

0:40:13 > 0:40:15For Sarah, this is her biggest test.

0:40:15 > 0:40:18If she can spot buried turf walls in Iceland,

0:40:18 > 0:40:21she may have a chance in America.

0:40:21 > 0:40:24We focused in on one area in particular.

0:40:24 > 0:40:27So, yeah, we've got a series of fields.

0:40:27 > 0:40:29You've got a couple of different shades of green,

0:40:29 > 0:40:32but it looks completely homogenous.

0:40:32 > 0:40:35Then when we started processing the data using the near infrared,

0:40:35 > 0:40:40all of a sudden some really interesting shapes started popping.

0:40:40 > 0:40:42Well, the first thing that pops out of this

0:40:42 > 0:40:45is that it looks like there is something here.

0:40:45 > 0:40:48The size looks about right.

0:40:48 > 0:40:51It is at least suggestive of something like a farmstead.

0:40:51 > 0:40:53Which is exciting.

0:40:58 > 0:41:03If there was one potential site that I wanted to pop up,

0:41:03 > 0:41:09this would be the place that I would want to see something to go after.

0:41:09 > 0:41:11I'm just excited that it actually is showing -

0:41:11 > 0:41:13something is showing up there.

0:41:14 > 0:41:18It's the first time an expert has seen the work that I've done

0:41:18 > 0:41:22in Iceland and confirmed it, so I couldn't have been more thrilled.

0:41:23 > 0:41:26Sarah will now head to Iceland to check out

0:41:26 > 0:41:29if the buried turf structures she spotted from space

0:41:29 > 0:41:31are actually there.

0:41:38 > 0:41:41It would have taken the Vikings more than a week in good weather

0:41:41 > 0:41:45to sail to Iceland, so I want to explore how they made it.

0:41:51 > 0:41:54Very tiring. Got to sleep when you can when you're at sea.

0:41:56 > 0:41:58Keep you going through the night.

0:42:01 > 0:42:05Voyaging across the North Atlantic is fraught with uncertainty.

0:42:05 > 0:42:09According to Captain Esben, the Vikings were experts

0:42:09 > 0:42:12at guessing where land was, using subtle clues.

0:42:14 > 0:42:17That could be everything from the smell of the grass,

0:42:17 > 0:42:20or the pine trees you can smell before you see the land.

0:42:20 > 0:42:23It could be forming clouds over land, it could be sea birds

0:42:23 > 0:42:25that are nesting on land, so they fly back every night

0:42:25 > 0:42:27when they've been out fishing,

0:42:27 > 0:42:30it could be reflecting wave from the shoreline.

0:42:30 > 0:42:34So, actually, the Vikings didn't have to hit the nail on the head,

0:42:34 > 0:42:37they could get to within 50 or 60 miles of an island

0:42:37 > 0:42:39and then they would get clues that would allow them to re-set

0:42:39 > 0:42:42- and actually hit the landfall they wanted.- Yeah, exactly.

0:42:45 > 0:42:47But in the middle of the vast ocean

0:42:47 > 0:42:49they needed different navigation techniques -

0:42:49 > 0:42:52some of them way ahead of their time.

0:42:54 > 0:42:57There was an artefact found in Greenland

0:42:57 > 0:42:59on a Viking settlement there,

0:42:59 > 0:43:01it's a sundial compass.

0:43:01 > 0:43:04This is a replica of the compass found on the island

0:43:04 > 0:43:05of Uunartoq in Greenland.

0:43:05 > 0:43:10When the noonday sun casts a shadow onto the line, it gives a bearing.

0:43:11 > 0:43:16So, I just spin the disk until the shadow touches the line

0:43:16 > 0:43:19- and now I know where north and south is.- Really?- Yeah.

0:43:19 > 0:43:22- So, that's north, there?- Yeah. - And that's accurate?- Yes.

0:43:22 > 0:43:24We actually used this very instrument to sail

0:43:24 > 0:43:26from Denmark to Edinburgh in Scotland

0:43:26 > 0:43:28and we were three degrees off when we got there.

0:43:28 > 0:43:30- You found Edinburgh?- Mm. - That's good going.

0:43:30 > 0:43:33Do you know are there any other tools that they would have used?

0:43:33 > 0:43:37There's a description in some of the sagas about a sunstone -

0:43:37 > 0:43:39a sort of an almost magical sunstone -

0:43:39 > 0:43:42that even though it was overcast you could find the directions of the sun

0:43:42 > 0:43:45and we've tried out different natural stones

0:43:45 > 0:43:49and one of them that we've tried is Icelandic feldspar.

0:43:49 > 0:43:52The crystal allows you to see the sun

0:43:52 > 0:43:54even when it's hidden behind a cloud.

0:43:54 > 0:43:57And if you look straight up through it, you see that the marker

0:43:57 > 0:43:58actually makes two shadows.

0:43:58 > 0:44:01Then when they have the same grey shadow, then that's...

0:44:01 > 0:44:03Then you're pointing right at the sun.

0:44:03 > 0:44:05..then you're pointing this side straight to the sun.

0:44:11 > 0:44:15Spending time on this replica Viking ship has opened my eyes.

0:44:15 > 0:44:17It has taught me a huge amount.

0:44:17 > 0:44:19They were masters, not just of sailing,

0:44:19 > 0:44:22but of navigation, as well.

0:44:22 > 0:44:24I'm not surprised they could find these islands

0:44:24 > 0:44:26in the middle of the North Atlantic.

0:44:28 > 0:44:32By the end of the 9th century, the Vikings had voyaged as far west

0:44:32 > 0:44:34as any European.

0:44:37 > 0:44:39Just as they were settling in York,

0:44:39 > 0:44:42other Viking pioneers were arriving in a new land.

0:44:45 > 0:44:46Iceland.

0:44:51 > 0:44:54And it's where Sarah and I are meeting up again

0:44:54 > 0:44:56for the next stage of the quest.

0:44:59 > 0:45:03SAGA SPOKEN IN OLD NORSE

0:45:06 > 0:45:09According to the Old Norse sagas,

0:45:09 > 0:45:12the most famous settler, Erik the Red,

0:45:12 > 0:45:16arrived here after he was banished from Norway for murder.

0:45:16 > 0:45:19But most of the immigrants came for another reason -

0:45:19 > 0:45:21land.

0:45:21 > 0:45:24This astonishing story of frontier pioneers

0:45:24 > 0:45:26has a surprising British twist.

0:45:26 > 0:45:30Recently, geneticist Dr Kari Stefansson

0:45:30 > 0:45:33looked into the origins of the Icelandic settlers.

0:45:35 > 0:45:38There is a book written about 1,000 years ago

0:45:38 > 0:45:40called the Book of Settlement

0:45:40 > 0:45:43and it says that Iceland was settled by Norwegian Vikings

0:45:43 > 0:45:45who stopped by in the British Isles,

0:45:45 > 0:45:47picked up slaves and went up to Iceland.

0:45:47 > 0:45:51So, we decided to examine that story.

0:45:53 > 0:45:54He traced inherited DNA

0:45:54 > 0:45:59to show that three-quarters of men were of Norwegian origin,

0:45:59 > 0:46:03but that two-thirds of women were from the British Isles.

0:46:05 > 0:46:08So, it looks like Iceland was settled by Norwegian boys

0:46:08 > 0:46:10who stopped by in British Isles,

0:46:10 > 0:46:14picked up women and went up to Iceland and settled down.

0:46:14 > 0:46:16Last time, when I went to England,

0:46:16 > 0:46:19it looked to me like they took all the pretty women with them.

0:46:19 > 0:46:21THEY LAUGH

0:46:21 > 0:46:24- So, most of the men who came here were Norwegian.- Yes.

0:46:24 > 0:46:26What about the other men? Who were they?

0:46:26 > 0:46:31They were probably slaves that were caught in Britain.

0:46:31 > 0:46:33So, even more British and Irish.

0:46:33 > 0:46:34Amazing.

0:46:34 > 0:46:36So, there are important ties of kinship

0:46:36 > 0:46:40- between modern British and Irish people and Icelanders.- Yes.

0:46:40 > 0:46:42As much as I hate to admit it,

0:46:42 > 0:46:45we are probably the same species as the British.

0:46:45 > 0:46:48Lucky you! Intrepid, maritime,

0:46:48 > 0:46:50tough,

0:46:50 > 0:46:52tall.

0:46:57 > 0:47:01So, if the sagas are right, are the satellites, too?

0:47:02 > 0:47:05It's time to test out whether the tiny turf structures

0:47:05 > 0:47:09Sarah thinks she spotted from space are really there.

0:47:11 > 0:47:14But you're pretty sure there will be something here?

0:47:14 > 0:47:17We've found what look like a number of potential features,

0:47:17 > 0:47:18one possible farm.

0:47:18 > 0:47:21Is it Norse? Is it something else? Is it ANYTHING?

0:47:27 > 0:47:29If this doesn't work...

0:47:29 > 0:47:32well, we're not going to find anything in North America, are we?

0:47:32 > 0:47:33We're not going to have a leg to stand on.

0:47:33 > 0:47:35You have to deliver North America.

0:47:35 > 0:47:38Come on, that's why we're here. That would be so exciting.

0:47:43 > 0:47:47We're joining Doug Bolender and his colleague Gudny Zoega

0:47:47 > 0:47:49at their site in Hegranes, North Iceland.

0:47:52 > 0:47:55This is the spot Sarah identified in the satellite imagery.

0:47:57 > 0:48:00Does this field really hide a settlement?

0:48:02 > 0:48:04- Would you like the honours? - I would love to.

0:48:04 > 0:48:07We are taking core samples to look for turf building blocks

0:48:07 > 0:48:08under the surface.

0:48:08 > 0:48:10I got it, Dan.

0:48:10 > 0:48:13The Once and Future King!

0:48:13 > 0:48:14Yay!

0:48:14 > 0:48:19The turf blocks often contain telltale layers of volcanic ash.

0:48:19 > 0:48:20Ooh!

0:48:20 > 0:48:23I'm seeing some white there.

0:48:23 > 0:48:25Yeah, you are seeing some white here.

0:48:25 > 0:48:27So, we have more tephra in this.

0:48:27 > 0:48:30- So, this is volcanic ash here? - Yeah.- Yeah.

0:48:31 > 0:48:34Each of these thin layers gives an accurate age.

0:48:37 > 0:48:42Every Icelandic volcanic eruption can be precisely dated.

0:48:44 > 0:48:46So, what we're seeing here

0:48:46 > 0:48:49is that we have a little bit of the white tephra from 1104 AD,

0:48:49 > 0:48:51and then underneath of it,

0:48:51 > 0:48:55we have this darker grey or blackish tephra,

0:48:55 > 0:48:58- which in all likelihood is from 1300 AD.- OK.

0:48:58 > 0:49:01But you can see immediately those are in the wrong order.

0:49:01 > 0:49:05Here we have 1104 on top of 1300.

0:49:05 > 0:49:07So, this is one of those certain signs that what we are seeing

0:49:07 > 0:49:11is some piece of turf that somebody flipped over

0:49:11 > 0:49:13when they were building the building.

0:49:13 > 0:49:17So, even though you can't see this on the surface at all here,

0:49:17 > 0:49:22- the turf itself is just under the surface about ten centimetres.- OK.

0:49:22 > 0:49:25So, it's definitely affecting the plants that are on the surface.

0:49:25 > 0:49:29So, this little layer of turf down here is affecting the plants

0:49:29 > 0:49:32on the surface and that's visible from space?

0:49:32 > 0:49:34400 miles in space.

0:49:34 > 0:49:36- It's amazing.- That's really crazy.

0:49:36 > 0:49:37THEY LAUGH

0:49:40 > 0:49:44To show Sarah what one of the buried turf walls actually looks like,

0:49:44 > 0:49:46the team has already started digging one up.

0:49:48 > 0:49:49What is going on here?

0:49:49 > 0:49:53Here, in the middle of it, we actually have a wall feature,

0:49:53 > 0:49:56which you indicated on your satellite.

0:49:56 > 0:49:58So, she is completely right.

0:49:58 > 0:50:00The satellites are right. They delivered.

0:50:00 > 0:50:02Yes. On this one, they sure did.

0:50:02 > 0:50:06A section cut within the wall offers further clues.

0:50:07 > 0:50:11You can see the striations of the turf in here.

0:50:11 > 0:50:15It will be a useful guide for Sarah to look for in North America.

0:50:15 > 0:50:18So, this is Sarah's wall? Is that exciting, Sarah?

0:50:18 > 0:50:23It's cool to learn that satellites can be used in a completely new area

0:50:23 > 0:50:25to find things much smaller -

0:50:25 > 0:50:29and here, too, we're dealing with about 15 centimetres.

0:50:29 > 0:50:32But this wall is dense enough to affect the overlying vegetation,

0:50:32 > 0:50:34so it can be detected from space.

0:50:34 > 0:50:36So, that's a really cool thing to learn.

0:50:40 > 0:50:41But it's not just this trench

0:50:41 > 0:50:44that has come up with evidence of human activity.

0:50:44 > 0:50:50Every flag shows a turf structure that Sarah spotted from space...

0:50:50 > 0:50:54and every blob shows a buried building beneath the surface.

0:51:00 > 0:51:05Here, at this site, in this vast landscape, we've had a big win.

0:51:05 > 0:51:10We know satellite imagery works here and that makes me wonder

0:51:10 > 0:51:12what's left to find in North America.

0:51:17 > 0:51:21The other key to unlocking the secrets of Sarah's new site

0:51:21 > 0:51:25is evidence of metalworking, just like at L'Anse aux Meadows,

0:51:25 > 0:51:28the most westerly settlement discovered so far.

0:51:31 > 0:51:35So, we're both going to take a crash course in what to look for.

0:51:50 > 0:51:54Master blacksmith Jonas Bigler is going to show me how the Vikings

0:51:54 > 0:51:56made nails to repair their boats.

0:52:05 > 0:52:07Do you think I can try and make a nail?

0:52:07 > 0:52:08I'm sure you can.

0:52:08 > 0:52:09OK, let's try it.

0:52:09 > 0:52:12Wherever the Vikings went they needed nails

0:52:12 > 0:52:13to make repairs to their ships.

0:52:13 > 0:52:17Without them, their expansion would never have been possible.

0:52:18 > 0:52:20- Bit more charcoal on?- Yeah.

0:52:22 > 0:52:24OK, here we go.

0:52:28 > 0:52:32- OK, how's this? - It's great!- OK, here we go.

0:52:38 > 0:52:42An ocean-going ship needed 4,000 nails,

0:52:42 > 0:52:45and that required ten tonnes of iron ore

0:52:45 > 0:52:48from a source known to the Vikings as bog iron.

0:52:51 > 0:52:54While I grapple with hot metal, Sarah is exploring

0:52:54 > 0:52:57the kind of evidence for Viking metalworking

0:52:57 > 0:52:59that she might find in America.

0:53:01 > 0:53:05- So, here we have a bucket of the actual iron ore.- Yeah.

0:53:05 > 0:53:07Bog iron.

0:53:07 > 0:53:09It's really crumbly.

0:53:09 > 0:53:11It's full of impurities, basically.

0:53:11 > 0:53:15And this is then roasted to extract any impurities

0:53:15 > 0:53:18to get better iron from the ore.

0:53:18 > 0:53:21Once roasted, the purified ore would be placed in a furnace

0:53:21 > 0:53:26to drive off even more impurities, producing refined iron

0:53:26 > 0:53:29and the waste product, slag.

0:53:29 > 0:53:31So, here you have the type of slag you get

0:53:31 > 0:53:33at the bottom of the furnace.

0:53:33 > 0:53:36If you have a smithy at the site,

0:53:36 > 0:53:38this is actually what you might find from the hearth.

0:53:38 > 0:53:41I don't know if we'll get that lucky this season - but one can hope.

0:53:41 > 0:53:43One can hope. Well...

0:53:43 > 0:53:46- This here is the hammer scale...- OK.

0:53:46 > 0:53:49..and this is what you would find around a blacksmith's anvil,

0:53:49 > 0:53:52where they actually work the iron.

0:53:52 > 0:53:57And you can test it to see the iron content of it.

0:53:57 > 0:54:00- Oh, yeah. Look, it just jumps right on.- Yeah, yeah.

0:54:00 > 0:54:02But even at these home-smelting sites for a single farm,

0:54:02 > 0:54:06you get a large amount of slag and by-products.

0:54:09 > 0:54:14Oh, I can really feel it in the old shoulder already.

0:54:14 > 0:54:18A master blacksmith could make a nail in under a minute.

0:54:20 > 0:54:22- How are we looking?- It's better.

0:54:22 > 0:54:25I'm ten minutes in.

0:54:29 > 0:54:31There we go, look at that!

0:54:31 > 0:54:34Now, the all-important head of the nail.

0:54:38 > 0:54:41It's not the best nail I've ever seen in my life.

0:54:41 > 0:54:42You've just started.

0:54:42 > 0:54:44THEY LAUGH

0:54:44 > 0:54:46Compare it here.

0:54:46 > 0:54:48That's what supposed to look like!

0:54:52 > 0:54:54It has been so incredibly helpful,

0:54:54 > 0:54:57because I've gotten to see all the materials

0:54:57 > 0:54:59that would go into iron production.

0:54:59 > 0:55:01That may help me in my search

0:55:01 > 0:55:04for a possible Norse site in North America.

0:55:05 > 0:55:09SAGA IS SPOKEN IN OLD NORSE

0:55:14 > 0:55:17Before we leave Iceland, I need to find out what prompted

0:55:17 > 0:55:20the next step in the Vikings' epic journey west.

0:55:20 > 0:55:23OLD NORSE CONTINUES

0:55:28 > 0:55:31This amazing gorge is the site of Thingvellir,

0:55:31 > 0:55:34Iceland's open-air Viking parliament.

0:55:35 > 0:55:39I'm meeting up again with saga expert Dr Emily Lethbridge.

0:55:41 > 0:55:44This is the site of oldest parliament in the world.

0:55:44 > 0:55:46Would they meet in this ravine

0:55:46 > 0:55:48because it's like a parliament chamber, almost?

0:55:48 > 0:55:50The sound bounces off the sides.

0:55:50 > 0:55:54It is an extraordinary natural amphitheatre.

0:55:54 > 0:55:56And there's great acoustics.

0:55:56 > 0:55:58OLD NORSE IS SPOKEN

0:56:00 > 0:56:04It isn't just the acoustics that make this place special.

0:56:05 > 0:56:10This is a natural fault line. We are on the point where the two plates -

0:56:10 > 0:56:15- the North American and the Eurasian tectonic plates meet.- You're joking!

0:56:15 > 0:56:17- So, this is the fault between the two of them?- This is the fault line.

0:56:17 > 0:56:20So, you and I are standing in between Eurasia and North America

0:56:20 > 0:56:22- at the moment.- We are. One foot on two continents.

0:56:22 > 0:56:26Isn't that amazing, that the Vikings who were the first Eurasians

0:56:26 > 0:56:29to explore North America, ended up having one of their parliaments

0:56:29 > 0:56:31on the actual divide between the two?

0:56:33 > 0:56:39Each year in June, chieftains from across Iceland would gather here.

0:56:39 > 0:56:42I guess people think of the Vikings as a bit violent, a bit chaotic -

0:56:42 > 0:56:45- in fact, this is very sophisticated. - Yeah.

0:56:45 > 0:56:47What kind of things would be discussed and debated

0:56:47 > 0:56:49at these parliaments?

0:56:49 > 0:56:54Sentences of outlawry would be imposed on members of society

0:56:54 > 0:56:58- who had broken all of the rules. - You were sent away from Iceland?

0:56:58 > 0:57:01You could go anywhere else, but you couldn't set foot on Iceland

0:57:01 > 0:57:03for the period that the outlawry stood.

0:57:04 > 0:57:08And it was exile that launched the most astonishing chapter

0:57:08 > 0:57:09in Viking exploration.

0:57:11 > 0:57:15According to the sagas, in 982 AD,

0:57:15 > 0:57:20the murderer Erik the Red was banished again.

0:57:20 > 0:57:25Erik the Red was the first Icelander to discover Greenland

0:57:25 > 0:57:28and then make a permanent settlement there.

0:57:28 > 0:57:30So, because he had been thrown out of everywhere else,

0:57:30 > 0:57:32he decided to start his own colony somewhere.

0:57:32 > 0:57:35They were people who took chances

0:57:35 > 0:57:39and were prepared to undergo huge physical trials,

0:57:39 > 0:57:43such as sailing in open boats across the Atlantic,

0:57:43 > 0:57:44to see what they could find.

0:57:49 > 0:57:51It was the adventurous,

0:57:51 > 0:57:55entrepreneurial spirit of these people that drove them on.

0:57:56 > 0:58:02Erik the Red turned the shattering blow of exile into an opportunity.

0:58:04 > 0:58:06It's time for me to head to Greenland

0:58:06 > 0:58:10in the footsteps, once again, of Erik the Red

0:58:10 > 0:58:15and for Sarah to finally join her team in North America.

0:58:20 > 0:58:24I am walking to Point Rosee for the first time

0:58:24 > 0:58:28after many, many months of looking at satellite imagery.

0:58:31 > 0:58:34At last, the news finally arrives.

0:58:34 > 0:58:36Sarah has permission to dig for just two weeks

0:58:36 > 0:58:38at the site in Newfoundland.

0:58:40 > 0:58:43I really had no idea it would be this dramatic.

0:58:43 > 0:58:45Absolutely no idea, at all.

0:58:48 > 0:58:52The search for the Vikings is about to reach its climax.

0:58:53 > 0:58:58Will all the effort, the hunting along thousands of miles of coast,

0:58:58 > 0:59:00the surveying at the new site

0:59:00 > 0:59:03and the successes in Scotland and Iceland,

0:59:03 > 0:59:06bear fruit at Point Rosee?

0:59:09 > 0:59:15Will the faint lines on an image taken from 383 miles above the Earth

0:59:15 > 0:59:19prove to be the most westerly Viking settlement ever discovered?

0:59:20 > 0:59:23SAGA SPOKEN IN OLD NORSE

0:59:25 > 0:59:31Could this be where Leif Erikson beached his ships 1,000 years ago?

0:59:31 > 0:59:34OLD NORSE CONTINUES

0:59:37 > 0:59:39This is going to be fun.

0:59:39 > 0:59:41Here we go.

0:59:53 > 0:59:57After three days of digging, they have yet to find anything.

0:59:57 > 1:00:01They're focusing on a spot within the L-shaped structure

1:00:01 > 1:00:02on the satellite image.

1:00:04 > 1:00:07Sarah thinks it looks similar to one of the buildings

1:00:07 > 1:00:09at L'Anse aux Meadows...

1:00:09 > 1:00:11Pretty brutal.

1:00:11 > 1:00:15Oh, yeah. Looks like there's a whole layer of it down below.

1:00:19 > 1:00:21..but a few centimetres below the surface,

1:00:21 > 1:00:23they think they've found something.

1:00:23 > 1:00:24Ooh!

1:00:26 > 1:00:28It's sand.

1:00:28 > 1:00:30It's very sandy, it's yellowish grey.

1:00:31 > 1:00:33It's not a man-made deposit.

1:00:35 > 1:00:38It's painstaking and frustrating work,

1:00:38 > 1:00:39with only two weeks to dig.

1:00:42 > 1:00:45SAGA SPOKEN IN OLD NORSE

1:00:45 > 1:00:49While Sarah searches for the most westerly Viking expansion,

1:00:49 > 1:00:53I'm tracking pioneer bad boy Erik the Red in the most remote

1:00:53 > 1:00:55of all the Viking colonies.

1:00:57 > 1:01:01Greenland - the last stop before North America -

1:01:01 > 1:01:04was a Viking homeland for 500 years.

1:01:06 > 1:01:09Erik is supposed to have named it Greenland

1:01:09 > 1:01:11to make it attractive to colonists,

1:01:11 > 1:01:13even though it's covered in ice.

1:01:13 > 1:01:17These icebergs look beautiful but they are a major danger to shipping,

1:01:17 > 1:01:19just as they were back in Viking times -

1:01:19 > 1:01:22and they're a very obvious reminder

1:01:22 > 1:01:26that this water is absolutely icy cold.

1:01:26 > 1:01:28If I fell in there without this suit on,

1:01:28 > 1:01:32my life expectancy would be... a few minutes, at best.

1:01:47 > 1:01:49I'm joining Christian Madsen and his team

1:01:49 > 1:01:52searching for the most remote lost Viking sites

1:01:52 > 1:01:55in the Uunartoq Fjord of South Greenland.

1:01:57 > 1:01:59- Turn off the engine.- OK.

1:01:59 > 1:02:01I'm ready.

1:02:08 > 1:02:13This valley was noted as a potential Viking site 80 years ago.

1:02:17 > 1:02:19No-one has been back since -

1:02:19 > 1:02:21but today we're stepping out again.

1:02:22 > 1:02:25Look, there. There you have the first ruin.

1:02:25 > 1:02:28- That's a ruin there?- Yes, so now we know we are on the right side,

1:02:28 > 1:02:29at least. That's a good thing.

1:02:29 > 1:02:32- Is this it? You think this a site? - Yes, this is a site.

1:02:32 > 1:02:34Now we just need to find the farmhouse.

1:02:34 > 1:02:37We've discovered a Viking settlement site! That's very exciting.

1:02:37 > 1:02:39It's in a very dramatic place, as well.

1:02:39 > 1:02:42- It's an amazing setting, isn't it? - Yeah.

1:02:42 > 1:02:46You can imagine that huge cliff face staring down...

1:02:47 > 1:02:50- You see all the stones sticking up at the surface?- Yeah.

1:02:50 > 1:02:53That is building stones for the rooms,

1:02:53 > 1:02:54so I think we have a farmhouse.

1:02:54 > 1:02:56It looks massive.

1:03:01 > 1:03:02It's the most fantastic thing,

1:03:02 > 1:03:05coming to a new site, finding all the ruins.

1:03:05 > 1:03:07You never know what you're going to find,

1:03:07 > 1:03:09so it's always a big surprise for us.

1:03:13 > 1:03:16Well, there's some darker soil here, now.

1:03:16 > 1:03:19In order to date when the Vikings were actually here,

1:03:19 > 1:03:21I'm gathering tiny flecks of charcoal,

1:03:21 > 1:03:26from perhaps 1,000 years ago, with soil scientist Ian Simpson.

1:03:28 > 1:03:32Funny life you lead, Ian. Because you spend a few months of the year

1:03:32 > 1:03:35in the world's most remote and harshest landscapes

1:03:35 > 1:03:39and the rest of the time in a lab back in Stirling

1:03:39 > 1:03:40examining the results.

1:03:40 > 1:03:41Yeah, I mean, it's great.

1:03:41 > 1:03:45You've actually got a small piece of Viking history here in this tin -

1:03:45 > 1:03:48- and that's what keeps you going through the winter!- Yeah.

1:03:50 > 1:03:54I'm getting into this, despite midges the size of Viking longships.

1:03:55 > 1:03:58Hold on - a big piece.

1:03:58 > 1:04:01Oh, yeah. Where did that come from?!

1:04:01 > 1:04:05- Well, that...- Look what he has found, this guy is good.

1:04:05 > 1:04:07Brilliant - and that's easily datable.

1:04:07 > 1:04:10- The carbon lab will be very pleased with that.- Oh good, I'm glad.

1:04:10 > 1:04:14- We can work with that. - That's very exciting.

1:04:14 > 1:04:16According to these guys, it is one of the most remote

1:04:16 > 1:04:17Viking settlement sites

1:04:17 > 1:04:20that have ever been found anywhere in Greenland

1:04:20 > 1:04:22and to be here with them is so exciting,

1:04:22 > 1:04:24as they are able to confirm this was a Viking site.

1:04:24 > 1:04:27Just in the last few minutes, we - this small team -

1:04:27 > 1:04:29has been able to add something

1:04:29 > 1:04:32to the world's understanding of the Vikings.

1:04:35 > 1:04:38We retire to our camp on Uunartoq Island,

1:04:38 > 1:04:41the very place where the sundial compass was found

1:04:41 > 1:04:43that might have led the Vikings here.

1:04:53 > 1:04:57The northern lights are one of the treasures of the Arctic

1:04:57 > 1:05:01but it was another highly prized treasure - walrus ivory -

1:05:01 > 1:05:05that drew the Viking pioneers to settle in such a remote place.

1:05:05 > 1:05:08Almost had an inexhaustible population of walrus,

1:05:08 > 1:05:13so, maybe this colonisation was spearheaded by this sort of industry

1:05:13 > 1:05:15that was aimed at European markets to begin with.

1:05:15 > 1:05:19We are perhaps seeing quite determined hunters

1:05:19 > 1:05:22and exploiters of natural resources.

1:05:24 > 1:05:29So, they weren't just desperate men on the fringes of civilisation?

1:05:29 > 1:05:31They were definitely entrepreneurs.

1:05:31 > 1:05:34They knew exactly what they were doing and what they were going for,

1:05:34 > 1:05:38and they settled all the best places from the beginning, it seems.

1:05:40 > 1:05:43These Viking adventurers weren't impoverished farmers

1:05:43 > 1:05:44at the edge of the world,

1:05:44 > 1:05:47more like the pioneers of the American West,

1:05:47 > 1:05:50constantly pushing the frontier forward.

1:05:58 > 1:06:00It's eight days into the dig

1:06:00 > 1:06:03for Sarah and HER pioneers over in America -

1:06:03 > 1:06:06and they may finally have made a breakthrough.

1:06:06 > 1:06:08Oh, that's a good sign.

1:06:09 > 1:06:13Her colleague, Fred Schwarz, thinks he's found signs of human activity

1:06:13 > 1:06:17inside the feature Sarah spotted from space.

1:06:17 > 1:06:19Well, it's interesting.

1:06:19 > 1:06:23We have quite a large boulder. It's cracked.

1:06:23 > 1:06:26It's quite possible that it's fire cracked,

1:06:26 > 1:06:30and it takes a pretty serious amount of heat

1:06:30 > 1:06:33to crack a boulder this size.

1:06:34 > 1:06:37Could it be evidence for metalworking?

1:06:41 > 1:06:45Then Sarah finds what looks like a man-made fragment.

1:06:46 > 1:06:51So, this looks like metalworking by-product - the head of a nail.

1:06:53 > 1:06:55Hopefully, the first of many, many things we find.

1:06:59 > 1:07:02This looks like typical Norse nails...

1:07:04 > 1:07:06..and we've found this just now.

1:07:07 > 1:07:09That's awesome.

1:07:12 > 1:07:14That's classic slag

1:07:14 > 1:07:18and what slag is, is a by-product of metal production...

1:07:19 > 1:07:24..and there's dense amounts of metal and evidence of fire that's there.

1:07:24 > 1:07:27So...

1:07:27 > 1:07:32indigenous peoples here did not produce metal,

1:07:32 > 1:07:34and now we have metal production.

1:07:34 > 1:07:37This is a very good day indeed!

1:07:41 > 1:07:44Day nine, and the ground keeps giving.

1:07:45 > 1:07:48This thing...

1:07:48 > 1:07:51which looks like an object as it was coming out of the ground,

1:07:51 > 1:07:53is actually copper slag.

1:07:53 > 1:07:58You've got copper pieces and little bits of iron inside it.

1:07:58 > 1:08:00So, this is very, very heavy.

1:08:04 > 1:08:07Within a few days, they have up to eight kilos

1:08:07 > 1:08:10of what they think is metalworking by-product -

1:08:10 > 1:08:12slag or bog iron.

1:08:14 > 1:08:17It needs to be confirmed by experts

1:08:17 > 1:08:21and it's not the only potential evidence turning up.

1:08:21 > 1:08:22Oh!

1:08:22 > 1:08:25They're even finding organic material.

1:08:26 > 1:08:28It's a good sign that it's floating.

1:08:28 > 1:08:30It's hard on the outside -

1:08:30 > 1:08:32looks like a seed.

1:08:32 > 1:08:33So, if this is a seed,

1:08:33 > 1:08:37it's our first thing that we could do radiocarbon dating.

1:08:42 > 1:08:44It looks charred.

1:08:44 > 1:08:48The seed might just provide an all-important date for the site

1:08:48 > 1:08:49that matches the Viking era.

1:08:57 > 1:09:02With the emergence of these finds, Sarah is calling in reinforcements.

1:09:02 > 1:09:05SAGA SPOKEN IN OLD NORSE

1:09:10 > 1:09:14I'm still stalking Erik the Red's son Leif.

1:09:14 > 1:09:17According to the sagas, around 1000 AD,

1:09:17 > 1:09:19he blazed a trail through America.

1:09:19 > 1:09:21But where did he go?

1:09:21 > 1:09:26I'm joining Sarah in Newfoundland hopefully to find out.

1:09:26 > 1:09:27It's so exciting.

1:09:27 > 1:09:31Traversing hundreds of miles of this beautiful wilderness,

1:09:31 > 1:09:33getting ever closer to Sarah and her site -

1:09:33 > 1:09:35the excitement's really building.

1:09:36 > 1:09:38No turf walls have turned up yet,

1:09:38 > 1:09:41but the metalworking finds keep coming.

1:09:43 > 1:09:45If it's what Sarah thinks it is

1:09:45 > 1:09:47and there is evidence of Viking occupation,

1:09:47 > 1:09:49well, I think it'll be one of the most important

1:09:49 > 1:09:52archaeological discoveries this century -

1:09:52 > 1:09:56and it is amazing, it's wonderful just to be playing a very small part

1:09:56 > 1:09:58in this story. I feel really lucky.

1:10:03 > 1:10:05Is the evidence enough to prove that Sarah's dig

1:10:05 > 1:10:09is the most westerly Viking site ever to be discovered?

1:10:12 > 1:10:14Sarah isn't a Viking expert,

1:10:14 > 1:10:18so Dr Doug Bolender is also on his way to assess the finds.

1:10:20 > 1:10:23It's that weird mix of being extremely excited

1:10:23 > 1:10:26about the possibility and extremely sceptical

1:10:26 > 1:10:29about actually finding something

1:10:29 > 1:10:32that's going to change the way that we understand

1:10:32 > 1:10:35what the Norse were doing in North America.

1:10:38 > 1:10:41You know, you don't get that moment very often -

1:10:41 > 1:10:45to walk out into a place that has the potential to change history.

1:10:51 > 1:10:55Space archaeologist Sarah has discovered pyramids

1:10:55 > 1:10:57where no-one else spotted them.

1:10:59 > 1:11:02If she can convince Doug she's found a Viking site,

1:11:02 > 1:11:06then she may be on the verge of another world-beating discovery.

1:11:07 > 1:11:08First we hit this rock -

1:11:08 > 1:11:10we didn't know that it was fire cracked, at first -

1:11:10 > 1:11:12just cos it was so covered in muck.

1:11:12 > 1:11:16And we started finding slag up here.

1:11:16 > 1:11:20Dense, dense concentration of slag here.

1:11:20 > 1:11:23Well, it looks like a spot where, you know,

1:11:23 > 1:11:24you would be doing iron smelting -

1:11:24 > 1:11:29and so the question really comes down to, who is doing it here?

1:11:29 > 1:11:31And it doesn't look totally unfamiliar.

1:11:31 > 1:11:34In the sense that, you know, these are the kinds of features

1:11:34 > 1:11:40that you often see for ironworking within Norse contexts.

1:11:40 > 1:11:42I want to see what's around this,

1:11:42 > 1:11:47because when you have a dug-in feature full of slag

1:11:47 > 1:11:51with pretty obviously fire-altered rock,

1:11:51 > 1:11:55you've got evidence of somebody doing something on this spot.

1:11:55 > 1:11:58What would be really interesting is to open this up more

1:11:58 > 1:12:00and it would make it much more clear.

1:12:02 > 1:12:05Sarah excavated inside the L-shaped feature

1:12:05 > 1:12:07she first spotted from space.

1:12:09 > 1:12:12Doug now wants to open up the feature itself.

1:12:20 > 1:12:22Meanwhile, I'm hard on Doug's heels

1:12:22 > 1:12:26making the hour-long trek to Sarah's site at Point Rosee.

1:12:34 > 1:12:38If Leif Erikson came here, he did so just after the first millennium.

1:12:39 > 1:12:44Around the same time that a Viking, Cnut, became king of England.

1:12:45 > 1:12:49It marked the peak of Viking expansion in Europe and America.

1:12:52 > 1:12:56Am I now on a path once trod by the Vikings?

1:12:58 > 1:13:02- Sarah!- Hey, Dan. Welcome! Good to see you, man

1:13:02 > 1:13:05- How are you? What have you found? - Oh, boy!

1:13:05 > 1:13:09- This has been a very exciting couple of weeks.- Yeah?

1:13:09 > 1:13:11It's a good time to turn up.

1:13:13 > 1:13:16Astonishingly, the feature Sarah saw from space

1:13:16 > 1:13:18may be emerging from the ground.

1:13:21 > 1:13:23Do you think it's telling us anything, this surface?

1:13:23 > 1:13:28Yeah, indeed. It looks like there is a great deal of structure.

1:13:28 > 1:13:30- There's banding... - Yeah, these bands,

1:13:30 > 1:13:32what are these black bands here?

1:13:32 > 1:13:35Well, what this looks like is it looks like turf blocks

1:13:35 > 1:13:38that have been put and cut and placed here.

1:13:38 > 1:13:41There are actually sheets of turf that are here.

1:13:41 > 1:13:43So, someone's made a wall using turf?

1:13:43 > 1:13:45That is what it looks like.

1:13:47 > 1:13:48Who would do a thing like that?!

1:13:48 > 1:13:51- THEY LAUGH - Dun-dun-DUN!

1:13:51 > 1:13:56So, you've dug turf walls all over the North Atlantic, right?

1:13:56 > 1:13:57Do they look like this?

1:13:57 > 1:14:02Actually, they look similar to this, and that is what

1:14:02 > 1:14:05we need to do a little bit more digging to figure out.

1:14:05 > 1:14:11So, it's amazing that turf in amongst some other turf

1:14:11 > 1:14:12shows up from space.

1:14:12 > 1:14:15- Whatever it is you picked up on the remote sensing...- Yep.

1:14:15 > 1:14:18..you picked up something that's actually here.

1:14:22 > 1:14:26Doug arrived a sceptic, but he's converted to the cause.

1:14:27 > 1:14:29Right now, the simplest answer

1:14:29 > 1:14:33is that it looks like a small activity area,

1:14:33 > 1:14:37maybe connected to a larger farm...

1:14:37 > 1:14:39that's Norse.

1:14:39 > 1:14:41You sort of have to explain that away.

1:14:41 > 1:14:42If we were in Iceland,

1:14:42 > 1:14:46I wouldn't think twice about what was happening here.

1:14:46 > 1:14:48The thing that really makes you pause,

1:14:48 > 1:14:52the thing that really makes you want to check

1:14:52 > 1:14:54every last little bit of it,

1:14:54 > 1:14:56is that it's in Newfoundland.

1:14:56 > 1:14:59I'm feeling very excited, I'm feeling very good.

1:14:59 > 1:15:02They have dug exactly where Sarah told them to dig

1:15:02 > 1:15:06and they found what looks like a furnace and the wall of a building.

1:15:06 > 1:15:09Now, as far as I'm concerned, that's a Viking settlement.

1:15:11 > 1:15:14I am just thrilled having the Norse specialist here

1:15:14 > 1:15:16say that the turf wall that we found,

1:15:16 > 1:15:19just in the area where the satellite images showed it should be,

1:15:19 > 1:15:22was there, and he said it looks like Norse turf.

1:15:25 > 1:15:29Turf suggests the settlement might just be Viking -

1:15:29 > 1:15:33but proof will come from the metalwork and from ageing the site.

1:15:36 > 1:15:41So, the seeds are sent off for radiocarbon dating.

1:15:41 > 1:15:44We're hoping for anything around 1000 AD.

1:15:44 > 1:15:47The metalwork is also on its way.

1:15:55 > 1:15:58It's the start of an excruciating two-week wait

1:15:58 > 1:16:00for the results to come through.

1:16:01 > 1:16:05For me, it's remarkable to think Vikings and Brits

1:16:05 > 1:16:09could have sailed the 2,000 miles all the way

1:16:09 > 1:16:11to what is now North America.

1:16:15 > 1:16:19It would be astonishing to finally have the dating proof.

1:16:24 > 1:16:27Two weeks later, the dates have come through.

1:16:30 > 1:16:34You know, we've been working almost a year on processing all this data

1:16:34 > 1:16:36and we've spent a month in the field,

1:16:36 > 1:16:39so I've actually been having trouble sleeping the last couple of nights,

1:16:39 > 1:16:42cos I know the radiocarbon results are in

1:16:42 > 1:16:45and I'm about to find out one way or the other.

1:16:49 > 1:16:51- Hey, Dan.- Hey.

1:16:51 > 1:16:52What's going on?

1:16:52 > 1:16:54HE SIGHS HEAVILY

1:16:54 > 1:16:57Just waiting. The waiting game. It's like D-Day.

1:16:59 > 1:17:00So...

1:17:02 > 1:17:04I'm feeling a little nervous. How are you doing?

1:17:04 > 1:17:06I'm very nervous.

1:17:06 > 1:17:09It's funny, like...

1:17:09 > 1:17:12if the dates are good, I'll be happy.

1:17:12 > 1:17:14You know, and if they're really off,

1:17:14 > 1:17:17there are more questions than answers.

1:17:17 > 1:17:19Yeah, if they are bang on, it would be amazing.

1:17:21 > 1:17:24It would just be really good to have the dates work out.

1:17:24 > 1:17:27- That's good. - So, are you ready?

1:17:27 > 1:17:29OK, let's do it!

1:17:36 > 1:17:38Here we go.

1:17:53 > 1:17:55It's a lot more recent.

1:17:58 > 1:18:00Yeah, it says 1600s.

1:18:00 > 1:18:011800s.

1:18:03 > 1:18:06Which makes no sense, given what we have.

1:18:07 > 1:18:10I mean, there's no way that this is a modern site.

1:18:10 > 1:18:12You saw the conditions at that site.

1:18:12 > 1:18:14You know, lots of mixing.

1:18:14 > 1:18:17Lots of potential later intrusions,

1:18:17 > 1:18:20especially with the amount of water that was there.

1:18:20 > 1:18:25That berry... Those berries were not from a particularly strong context.

1:18:25 > 1:18:26- Yeah.- Um...

1:18:26 > 1:18:28So, the seeds could have just drifted down

1:18:28 > 1:18:30through the layers over the years?

1:18:30 > 1:18:32Yeah, or you know, things could have been exposed.

1:18:32 > 1:18:36But the reality is, those dates

1:18:36 > 1:18:40don't match the archaeology, at all.

1:18:40 > 1:18:44And so, you know, given what we have with the turf walls

1:18:44 > 1:18:46- and the smelting and everything else...- I still believe in you.

1:18:46 > 1:18:50Don't worry. I agree. Everything else screams "Viking".

1:18:57 > 1:18:59It needs a lot more work.

1:19:07 > 1:19:11After all the effort over the last 12 months,

1:19:11 > 1:19:13are these dates the full story?

1:19:15 > 1:19:17I trust Sarah's science.

1:19:18 > 1:19:22In the past, I've worked with her to discover iconic monuments.

1:19:23 > 1:19:26In the more challenging terrain of the North Atlantic,

1:19:26 > 1:19:31she has found buried structures in Scotland and Iceland.

1:19:31 > 1:19:35The evidence on the satellite image of Point Rosee looked convincing.

1:19:35 > 1:19:38The exact same size as the long houses

1:19:38 > 1:19:40- at L'Anse aux Meadows.- No way!

1:19:41 > 1:19:45All this evidence, plus the eight kilos of possible metalwork,

1:19:45 > 1:19:48just doesn't tally with the dates from the seeds.

1:19:49 > 1:19:51Doug doesn't see it as a setback.

1:19:53 > 1:19:55I've actually always been very sceptical

1:19:55 > 1:19:58about the potential for radiocarbon on the site.

1:19:58 > 1:20:01The preservation is very poor for any organics,

1:20:01 > 1:20:04and the samples that were available

1:20:04 > 1:20:08are not very closely associated with the actual activity.

1:20:08 > 1:20:14So, the seeds - it's not even clear that they were charred

1:20:14 > 1:20:16and they're coming out of material

1:20:16 > 1:20:20that's at the upper levels of this feature.

1:20:24 > 1:20:26So, it's down to the metalwork,

1:20:26 > 1:20:29and we'll now double-check every other finding.

1:20:31 > 1:20:33When we set out to do this project work,

1:20:33 > 1:20:36our basic hypothesis was that we wouldn't find anything

1:20:36 > 1:20:40and I think we've proven ourselves wrong -

1:20:40 > 1:20:44but now I really want the site to be Norse,

1:20:44 > 1:20:46because I don't know what else it could be!

1:20:48 > 1:20:50So, Sarah assembles a crack team.

1:20:50 > 1:20:53It's our last chance to prove that Point Rosee is a Viking site.

1:20:56 > 1:20:59Dr Tom Birch, a specialist in Viking metallurgy,

1:20:59 > 1:21:02will analyse the metalworking debris.

1:21:02 > 1:21:04- It looks like they're mostly quartz. - Yeah.

1:21:04 > 1:21:10He'll work with a world-renowned laboratory at Aberdeen University.

1:21:10 > 1:21:13Doug Bolender will review all Sarah's findings...

1:21:15 > 1:21:17..and we'll explore if anyone else

1:21:17 > 1:21:19could have forged metal at Point Rosee.

1:21:21 > 1:21:24No indigenous group ever produced it,

1:21:24 > 1:21:28so we turn to Newfoundland historian, Dr Olaf Janzen,

1:21:28 > 1:21:31to ask about more recent settlers.

1:21:31 > 1:21:33When did the first settlers arrive?

1:21:33 > 1:21:36There were probably Basque fishermen

1:21:36 > 1:21:38passing through the area and fishing seasonally,

1:21:38 > 1:21:41but the first settlers came in the early 18th century.

1:21:41 > 1:21:46So, would these settlers have been making their own metal tools?

1:21:46 > 1:21:49I came across no evidence of that.

1:21:49 > 1:21:53I have a document here that was published in 1763

1:21:53 > 1:21:59and it describes the account of an officer on the Lark frigate.

1:21:59 > 1:22:04He mentions furs, he mentions the fish, he mentions timber.

1:22:04 > 1:22:07There isn't any mention here of mineral resources.

1:22:07 > 1:22:09So, if it wasn't the European settlers,

1:22:09 > 1:22:11it wasn't the Basque fishermen,

1:22:11 > 1:22:13how can we explain the evidence of metalwork?

1:22:13 > 1:22:16You would have to go back to the site at L'Anse aux Meadows,

1:22:16 > 1:22:20which is the only confirmed site of that vintage.

1:22:20 > 1:22:25There we do have examples of bog iron being smelted -

1:22:25 > 1:22:28worked into nails -

1:22:28 > 1:22:34and that site is now perceived as a repair station for boats

1:22:34 > 1:22:37going further on into the Gulf of St Lawrence -

1:22:37 > 1:22:41and your site is in the Gulf of St Lawrence.

1:22:41 > 1:22:42So, it's entirely plausible.

1:22:49 > 1:22:51Judgment day has finally arrived

1:22:51 > 1:22:53for the Newfoundland Point Rosee site.

1:22:55 > 1:22:56After three weeks,

1:22:56 > 1:22:59the emergency team has sifted through all the evidence.

1:23:00 > 1:23:05Sarah and I have been summoned by Viking metal expert Tom Birch

1:23:05 > 1:23:08for the results.

1:23:08 > 1:23:10It's yet another nail-biting moment.

1:23:12 > 1:23:15Well, some of the leads we had didn't turn out like we hoped.

1:23:15 > 1:23:19We still... I don't think we still have the evidence that we need

1:23:19 > 1:23:20to go to the world and say

1:23:20 > 1:23:23there were Vikings on Point Rosee in Newfoundland.

1:23:23 > 1:23:25So, a lot of it has come down to today.

1:23:25 > 1:23:27This is a high pressure situation!

1:23:27 > 1:23:28We're going to talk to Tom.

1:23:28 > 1:23:31If Tom can come up with the evidence we need,

1:23:31 > 1:23:33we can still save this project.

1:23:39 > 1:23:43We analysed this item, which you suspected to be a metal object,

1:23:43 > 1:23:48and then we also analysed some hammer scale, these small fragments

1:23:48 > 1:23:53and then the last thing we analysed were these lumps of slag.

1:23:53 > 1:23:56Now, I took this to the geologists

1:23:56 > 1:23:58and when we cut a sample from it

1:23:58 > 1:24:02there were some very bright, shiny inclusions,

1:24:02 > 1:24:06which I thought were remnants of metal,

1:24:06 > 1:24:08but actually this is a stone.

1:24:08 > 1:24:10- OK...- Welcome to archaeology!

1:24:10 > 1:24:13- Exactly, yeah.- Oh, well. - But this isn't any old stone,

1:24:13 > 1:24:16- this is over a billion years old, basically.- So, hang on.

1:24:16 > 1:24:20- This - one of our prized objects... - Yeah.- ..is a stone.

1:24:20 > 1:24:23- It's a billion years old, that's nice...- Yeah.

1:24:23 > 1:24:25..but it doesn't tell us anything.

1:24:25 > 1:24:29- What else have you got? - The hammer scale isn't hammer scale.

1:24:29 > 1:24:33These are little bits of iron oxide.

1:24:33 > 1:24:37- So, our second vital clue...- Yeah. - ..turns out to be nothing, as well.

1:24:37 > 1:24:38It's natural.

1:24:42 > 1:24:47- I was fooled.- OK. So, we are zero for two, at the moment.- OK.

1:24:47 > 1:24:52- You feeling nervous, Sarah? - No, I'm not.- OK. Well, I am!

1:24:52 > 1:24:56That only leaves what Sarah thought to be slag,

1:24:56 > 1:24:59the waste product from the metal refining process.

1:24:59 > 1:25:03If this isn't evidence for Viking metalwork,

1:25:03 > 1:25:05then we're well and truly stuffed.

1:25:05 > 1:25:09- The smithying slag isn't smithying slag.- OK.

1:25:09 > 1:25:14But it is bog ore. Bog iron ore. OK.

1:25:14 > 1:25:17- And there are some very interesting things about it.- OK.

1:25:17 > 1:25:21This has been collected and this has been roasted

1:25:21 > 1:25:23to drive off the impurities.

1:25:23 > 1:25:27The point is, this is being processed for something.

1:25:27 > 1:25:29So, this is evidence for metalworking?

1:25:29 > 1:25:32This is evidence for metallurgy.

1:25:32 > 1:25:37Now, the only reason you roast ore is to later extract iron from it.

1:25:39 > 1:25:41Sarah, this is pretty exciting right?

1:25:41 > 1:25:44Because we've talked to historians who said nobody else

1:25:44 > 1:25:47- was making metals on this coast ever in the whole of history...- Yeah.

1:25:47 > 1:25:50..apart from the Vikings. That sounds good to me.

1:25:50 > 1:25:52So, it's got to be Viking!

1:25:55 > 1:25:58- Sarah?- All right! It's good!

1:25:58 > 1:26:00We got there!

1:26:03 > 1:26:08This fragment of bog iron ore is the proof we've been waiting for.

1:26:08 > 1:26:11Hundreds of years before Columbus,

1:26:11 > 1:26:16Viking pioneers like Leif Erikson came to Point Rosee.

1:26:20 > 1:26:23They smelted metal here to service their ships

1:26:23 > 1:26:25in workshops just like those

1:26:25 > 1:26:28we've seen on our journey across the Atlantic.

1:26:30 > 1:26:34It looks like this was another Viking refuelling station

1:26:34 > 1:26:37beyond L'Anse aux Meadows.

1:26:38 > 1:26:41It reinforces the idea that Vinland,

1:26:41 > 1:26:44the mythical place in the Viking sagas,

1:26:44 > 1:26:48is still out there to be discovered even further to the west.

1:26:50 > 1:26:55Finally, we can all celebrate a breakthrough!

1:26:55 > 1:26:58- Sarah.- Yes.- Without whom we would never have embarked

1:26:58 > 1:27:00on this journey of discovery.

1:27:01 > 1:27:05Viking Age explorers - they didn't leave much behind,

1:27:05 > 1:27:08but they left just enough for Sarah to see it from space. So...

1:27:08 > 1:27:11- I'll drink to that! Cheers.- Cheers.

1:27:11 > 1:27:15Without my incredible team, I wouldn't have been able to do this.

1:27:15 > 1:27:18I'm right here, Sarah. I'm right here.

1:27:18 > 1:27:19Dan, it goes without saying,

1:27:19 > 1:27:22- that you will be with me on every adventure.- Sure thing. Sure thing.

1:27:22 > 1:27:25Hey, and here's to more Viking sites.

1:27:25 > 1:27:27Let's make Doug's life a misery over the next few years.

1:27:27 > 1:27:30- Let's keep him busy.- Yes, yes, yes! - Let's keep him busy.

1:27:30 > 1:27:32I am so excited about this!

1:27:32 > 1:27:34The thing that is amazing here

1:27:34 > 1:27:37is to actually be in a moment of discovery -

1:27:37 > 1:27:39and something that's brought people together.

1:27:39 > 1:27:41It's extremely surprising

1:27:41 > 1:27:44that an Egyptologist is the person who's finding this,

1:27:44 > 1:27:47but, you know, it's actually always the person you least expect.

1:27:49 > 1:27:50Well, it's been a long journey,

1:27:50 > 1:27:53but today it feels like we've reached a point

1:27:53 > 1:27:55in which we can be certain.

1:27:55 > 1:27:58We can actually tell the world now, there were Vikings further west

1:27:58 > 1:28:00than we've ever found them before

1:28:00 > 1:28:02and that Sarah's research...

1:28:02 > 1:28:05well, it might just have sparked a revolution

1:28:05 > 1:28:07in our understanding of the Vikings.

1:28:10 > 1:28:12I am absolutely thrilled.

1:28:13 > 1:28:17Typically, in archaeology, you only ever get to write a footnote

1:28:17 > 1:28:19in the history books -

1:28:19 > 1:28:21but what we seem to have at Point Rosee,

1:28:21 > 1:28:24may be the beginning of an entirely new chapter.