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<p>[QUOTE="Parthicus, post: 7684066, member: 81887"]Interesting, this is far more plausible than most other alleged pre-Columbian coin finds in North America. If I had to guess, I'd expect that it may have been obtained from Vikings in Newfoundland and traveled through Native American trade routes before being lost in Maine. (This seems to be the official position of the Maine State Museum.) A silver coin would have been an interesting and valuable object that was worth carrying long distances to trade. Of course, there's not enough evidence to really tell how the coin got there. If there were other clearly Viking-derived artifacts found at the site, I'd be more inclined to believe that actual Vikings themselves had been present, as it would be less likely that so much Viking stuff would have all traveled at once. </p><p><br /></p><p>Ultimately, though, I don't know that finding proof of Vikings landing in Maine would prove "a huge part of history is wrong". It would certainly be an interesting fact, and I'm glad any time we can find out information about the past that had been lost. But ultimately, all Viking expeditions to North America were failures, having almost no impact on either European or Native American cultures and leading to no major effects. Columbus was important, not because of being the first European to reach the Americas (he clearly wasn't- even if we accept only the L'Anse aux Meadows site, there was at least one previous European settlement), but because his expedition was followed up on. (1) Columbus began the process of exchange of both people and goods between the Old and New Worlds, and that's why he was (and remains) important to history.</p><p><br /></p><p>(1) Yes, I just ended a sentence with not just one, but two prepositions. Come at me, grammar nerds! <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie4" alt=":mad:" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="Parthicus, post: 7684066, member: 81887"]Interesting, this is far more plausible than most other alleged pre-Columbian coin finds in North America. If I had to guess, I'd expect that it may have been obtained from Vikings in Newfoundland and traveled through Native American trade routes before being lost in Maine. (This seems to be the official position of the Maine State Museum.) A silver coin would have been an interesting and valuable object that was worth carrying long distances to trade. Of course, there's not enough evidence to really tell how the coin got there. If there were other clearly Viking-derived artifacts found at the site, I'd be more inclined to believe that actual Vikings themselves had been present, as it would be less likely that so much Viking stuff would have all traveled at once. Ultimately, though, I don't know that finding proof of Vikings landing in Maine would prove "a huge part of history is wrong". It would certainly be an interesting fact, and I'm glad any time we can find out information about the past that had been lost. But ultimately, all Viking expeditions to North America were failures, having almost no impact on either European or Native American cultures and leading to no major effects. Columbus was important, not because of being the first European to reach the Americas (he clearly wasn't- even if we accept only the L'Anse aux Meadows site, there was at least one previous European settlement), but because his expedition was followed up on. (1) Columbus began the process of exchange of both people and goods between the Old and New Worlds, and that's why he was (and remains) important to history. (1) Yes, I just ended a sentence with not just one, but two prepositions. Come at me, grammar nerds! :mad:[/QUOTE]
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