This article explores a site in Newfoundland found by Sarah Parcak.
“An ancient site spotted from space could rewrite the history of Vikings in North America”
by Sarah Kaplan, April 1, 2016
Here’s the view the team studied:
Professor M. Och
ARTH 114 and ARTH 115: Introduction to Western Art, University of Mary Washington
Another article full of mysteries (which seems to be a common theme amongst art history). The most fascinating part of this article to me came out of the following quote ““Either it’s … an entirely new culture that looks exactly like the Norse and we don’t know what it is,” she told The Washington Post in a phone interview. “Or it’s the westernmost Norse site that’s ever been discovered.”” Either resolution for what this potential site may be is historic, a brand new discovery. And the fact that they were able to find the site at all, just by spotting those very subtle changes in the landscape, was by far a mind-blowing example of professional expertise.
I find the idea of using satellites to find suitable areas of interest is fascinating, though I feel many sites will end up as false positives. I think the infer red scanning is a great idea, though for I am sure it helps finding tomb entrances easy. Though I do not see its use as a Norse site locator being fruitful for it artifacts are buried in the ground and bumps in the land could mean anything. I am amazed at this new discovery though and hope that she can find more Norse sites.
Assuming they already know the contour of the land, satellite data could be extremely useful when attempting to locate historical sites. Obviously this discovery would rewrite history for the Norse and could alter how we view their travels. I believe that with more use of technology, we might be able to discover and infer much more about early civilizations. Knowing the topography and tendencies of the region will help archaeologists locate other settlements all over the world, not just in this area.
It’s clear that the Vikings did not leave very many records of their voyages. So it’s hard to completely determine their impact on North America early on. It is possible that we can learn more not only about the Vikings from discoveries like this, but we could also learn more about the Native American societies that existed during this time period as well if enough is found that could provide information about the interactions between the Vikings and the Native Americans.