The Icelandic Viking Settlement That Rewrote History
Bjarni Einarsson
Two longhouses were found at Stöð, one of them decades older than the other.
One of the most thrilling archaeological discoveries to come out of Iceland this year was the oldest Viking settlement ever found in the country. This discovery forced historians to reassess what they thought they knew — and to push back previous estimates of when Vikings first settled in Iceland.
This find includes the discovery of two longhouses, which were essentially large wooden halls used as communal habitations by the Vikings. These were common in Old Norse culture. One of the two longhouses found in Stöò dated back to 800 A.D. — decades before the commonly accepted date of the settlement of Iceland. Naturally, experts were stunned.
Bjarni Einarsson
The older of the two longhouses predated what experts believed was the Vikings’ first settlement in Iceland.
Meanwhile, the younger longhouse dated back to around 874 A.D., which was the year that most historians believed the Vikings settled in Iceland. Perhaps more intriguing were the artifacts found within this younger longhouse, which included Roman and Middle Eastern coins of silver and gold, beads, bullion, and pieces of silver that Vikings used as currency.
“The younger hall is the richest in Iceland so far,” said lead archaeologist Bjarni Einarsson. “It is hard not to conclude that it is a chieftain’s house.”
Experts have since posited that the younger longhouse was built over the ruins of the older one after the Viking community made efforts to transition into a more permanent settlement. As for the older longhouse, that one was believed to have been used as a seasonal camp.
Bjarni Einarsson
Some of the ornamental beads, gold, and Roman and Middle Eastern silver coins found at the site.
It was very similar to the seasonal Viking camp found at L’Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland, a Canadian settlement that is believed to be proof of Leif Erikson’s voyage to North America in 1000 A.D. Though that may seem long ago, it’s still younger than the old longhouse in Iceland.
While Einarsson and his team unearthed the two historic longhouses in 2007, it took 12 years to get permission and funding from the Icelandic government to do a more thorough excavation. Clearly, these archaeological discoveries were well worth the wait.
After learning about the 13 most stunning archaeological discoveries from 2020, read about more archaeological discoveries that rewrote history. Then, learn about 44 ancient artifacts that unlock the mysteries of our past.
