You won't believe what archaeologists recently uncovered in North America!

'It screams, 'Please excavate me!''

Sarah Parcak and her team set off on a journey to North America, where they expected to uncover Viking relics beneath over 1,000 years' of soil.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Parcak used satellite images to search Northern America for irregularities in soil, each of which could be potentially hiding man-made structures.

This tried-and-true method has worked for Parcak in the past. With this technique, Parcak discovered ancient Egyptian, Roman and Romanian sites.

Her search for Viking structures was a difficult one. The sophisticated barbarians were known for traveling light and for cleaning up after themselves. The few items they traveled with were either consumed, recycled or deteriorated.

Discovering evidence of Vikings is so difficult that the only indication they have ever reached America was what archaeologists believe to be an early Viking settlement in L'Anse aux Meadows, Canada. The site was discovered in 1960 and no other Viking settlements have been uncovered since.

After scanning the eastern coast of North America, Parcak and her team discovered several promising sites but decided to investigate one at the western tip of Newfoundland.

The location would have been perfect for Viking longships to safely dock as two bays offered protection from the wind blowing from any direction. A "dark stain" in the satellite images also suggested the area may have housed a longhouse similar to one discovered in L'Anse aux Meadows.

"It screams, 'Please excavate me!" Parcak explained of the site.

When Parcak's team began to dig in the site they pinpointed on the satellite image, they discovered what appeared to be a hearth. A blackened rock was discovered with charcoal and cooked bog iron beneath it.

The bog iron is a deposit of iron baked off to purify iron that would then be extracted and smelted.
There remains no evidence of North American indigenous people were capable of processing iron ore, which led the team to believe the site was of Viking origins.

"Typically the Norse would collect iron ore from bogs, which are like walnut-size pieces, and they would then roast them and smelt them to create iron," Parcak told CNN.

The finding left Parcak "absolutely thrilled," as she explained, "Typically in archaeology, you only ever get to write a footnote in the history books, but what we seem to have at Point Rosee may be the beginning of an entirely new chapter.

"This new site could unravel more secrets about the Vikings, whether they were the first Europeans to 'occupy' briefly in North America, and reveal that the Vikings dared to explore much further into the New World than we ever thought."

Viking settlement expert Douglas Bolender believes Parcak's find "has the potential to change history" and added: "Right now the simplest answer is that it looks like a small activity area, maybe connected to a larger farm that is Norse."

Parcak admitted their search began with the expectation to "find evidence of indigenous people" but that they did not expect to "find anything Norse."

Though Parcak's discovery is indisputable, whether it is of Viking origin has raised several eyebrows.

Should it prove to be a legitimate Viking hearth, it would potentially kickstart a new search for settlements across Canada, New England and possibly as far south as New York.

---

The California Network is the Next Wave in delivery of information and entertainment on pop culture, social trends, lifestyle, entertainment, news, politics and economics. We are hyper-focused on one audience, YOU, the connected generation. JOIN US AS WE REDEFINE AND REVOLUTIONIZE THE EVER-CHANGING MEDIA LANDSCAPE.