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Tooth marks link Vikings, Indians |
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Written by Xiuhcoatl
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Jan 20, 2006 at 03:08 PM |
Note from Xiuhcoatl of Aztlan Rising: Northern Europeans, in their
quest to prove that they came to "America" first (meaning before
Iberians), use unbelievably lame sources as evidence to back their
claims. Even if the Vikings were influenced by the Indians in their
tooth-marking techniques, why did it have to be the Vikings who visited
Ixachilan? What exactly impeded Indians from making the trip across the
Atlantic when Europeans are credited with the same such feat?
Tooth marks link Vikings, Indians
study: 1,000-year-old skeletons: Decorative groove technique likely learned in America
Randy Boswell, CanWest News Service
Published: Friday, January 13, 2006
A scientist who found deep grooves chiselled into the teeth of dozens
of 1,000-year-old Viking skeletons unearthed in Sweden believes the
strange custom might have been learned from aboriginal tribes during
ancient Norse voyages to North America -- a finding that would
represent an unprecedented case of transatlantic, cross-cultural
exchange during the age of Leif Ericsson.
The marks are believed to be decorations meant to enhance a man's
appearance, or badges of honour for a group of great warriors or
successful tradesmen. They are the first historical examples of
ceremonial dental modification ever found in Europe, and although
similar customs were practised in Asia and Africa over the centuries,
the Swedish anthropologist who studied the Viking teeth is exploring
the possibility that trips to Newfoundland and other parts of the New
World a millennium ago introduced the Norsemen to tooth-carving styles
being carried out at that time in the Americas.
"The cases from the North American continent are from the time period,"
Caroline Arcini, a researcher with the National Heritage Board in Lund,
Sweden, told CanWest News Service. "So it is within the same timespace
as the Swedish ones that are dated from 800-1050 A.D."
In a paper published by the American Journal of Physical Anthropology,
Ms. Arcini details the horizontal etchings across the front teeth of
about 25 young men whose remains were found at several Viking Age
burial sites in Sweden and Denmark. The "furrows" -- some teeth have
several parallel grooves -- "are so well made that it is most likely
they were filed by a person of great skill," Ms. Arcini writes.
But "the reason for, and importance of, the furrows are obscure. The
affected individuals may have belonged to a certain occupational group,
or the furrows could have been pure decoration."
Examples of tooth modification have been found at archeological sites
around the world -- with the exception, until now, of Europe.
The study notes a similarity in style between the Scandinavian
specimens and dental markings common about 1,000 years ago in parts of
North America, including Mexico and the present-day United States as
far north as Illinois.
Tales of Viking visits to North America held a largely mythical status
among scholars until the 1960s, when archeologists discovered and
excavated the remains of a 1,000-year-old Norse encampment at the
northern tip of Newfoundland. Today, the Viking settlement at L'Anse
aux Meadows is a UNESCO World Heritage Site commemorating voyages by
Norse explorers from Greenland and Iceland some 500 years before
Christopher Columbus reached the New World.
Led by Ericsson, the Newfoundland colonizers are believed to have made
several southern voyages -- it's not known exactly how far -- before
repeated clashes with natives, whom the Vikings called "skraelings,"
forced the newcomers to abandon their settlement.
But researchers at the Canadian Museum of Civilization have also found
artifacts that suggest a centuries-long trading relationship between
Norse seafarers and native people in the Arctic until about the 14th
century.
Patricia Sutherland, a CMC archeologist whose findings at ancient
Baffin Island native settlements point to a prolonged period of contact
with Norse traders, says she's skeptical that Viking travellers ever
reached more southerly tribes that practiced the kind of dental
modification found in the Swedish skeletons.
© National Post 2006
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Archaeology 