Oldest Viking Settlement Ever Discovered in Iceland Totally Changes Viking History
A Viking settlement has been discovered in Iceland, thought to be the country’s oldest. Sounds straightforward? Not at all! The structure was found under another one. And it may change the timeline over how historians view the arrival of Norsemen on the island, considering the age of the structures are believed to date before the commonly accepted time frame of when Vikings discovered and settled Iceland.
Archaeologist Bjarni F. Einarsson and his team have been excavating a farm site at Stöð, near the eastern village of Stöðvarfjörður. He first observed the area in 2007 and had to wait till 2015 before the digging started. By finding 2 Viking buildings, or “longhouses”, it’s the historical equivalent of “two for the price of one”.
Longhouses “were divided into rooms and could be shared by several families” writes Live Science. “Fires were built in stone hearths along the center, and farm animals could be stabled there to protect them from cold.” The top-lying house dates back to approx 874 AD and belonged to what the Iceland Review website calls a “wealthy farmer”.
