i6o 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



VINLAIST) AKD ITS PwUIXS. 



SOME OF THE EVIDENCES THAT NORTHMEN WERE IN 

 MASSACHUSETTS IN PRE-COLUMBIAN DAYS.* 



By CORNELIA HOKSFOED. 



TTTE evidences tliat aSTorthmen were in Massachusetts in pre- 

 Columbian days are drawn from two sources, geography and 

 archaeology. The archaeological evidence is found by comparing 

 certain ruins in Massachusetts with ruins of the Saga-time in Ice- 

 land, and also with the native and early European ruins on the 

 coast of I^orth America. The geographical evidence is found by 



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rV ,. "'■ --» ,> 



Vvilr-l-O'-.'ff ",^7,^ 



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Plan of the House of Eric the Red in Iceland. 



comparing the descriptions of the country called Yinland in Ice- 

 landic literature with the coast of ISTorth America. 



The geographical data for this paper are taken from each and 

 all of the three oldest manuscript versions of the story of Vinland, 

 because they complement each other where the descriptions vary 

 in detail. These are called the Flat Island Book, Eric the Ked's 

 Saga, and Thorfinn Karlsefni's Saga. 



If the coast of ISTorth America should repeat the same geo- 

 graphical features, it would obviously be impossible to determine 

 the site of Yinland by geography alone. Let us see if this is so. 

 It is stated in Eric the Red's Saga that Karlsefni's party, which 



* A paper read before the Viking Club of London on December 16, 1898 ; also before 

 the Section of Anthropology of the American Association for the Advancement of Science 

 at the Boston meeting, August, 1898. 



