Posted on 10/12/2021 3:04:15 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
An international team of researchers has found evidence that people lived on islands in the Azores archipelago approximately 700 years earlier than prior evidence has shown. In their paper, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the group describes their study of sediment cores taken from lakes on some of the islands in the archipelago.
Due to the absence of other evidence, historians have believed that people first arrived in the Azores in 1427, when Portuguese sailor Diogo de Silves landed on Santa Maria Island. Soon thereafter, others from Portugal arrived and made the archipelago their home. In this new effort, the researchers found evidence that humans were living on some of the islands in the Azores approximately 700 years earlier...
Analysis of the sediment cores showed an increase in 5-beta-stigmasterol in a core layer dated to a time between 700 CE and 850 CE, taken from Peixinho Lake. The compound is typically found in the feces of livestock, such as cows and sheep—neither of which lived in the Azores prior to the arrival of humans. They also saw upticks in charcoal particles (suggesting large fires had been burning) along with a dip in native tree pollens. The findings suggest someone had burned down forest to provide more land for livestock. The researchers found similar evidence in cores taken from Caldeirão Lake, which is on a different island, though it appeared approximately a century later. And they found evidence of non-native ryegrass in the sediment taken from a lake on a third island.
The findings present strong evidence of humans inhabiting the archipelago hundreds of years before the Portuguese arrived. The researchers theorize that they were likely Norse seafarers, noting their accomplishments in sailing up and down the coasts of many parts of Europe.
(Excerpt) Read more at phys.org ...
More information: Pedro M. Raposeiro et al, Climate change facilitated the early colonization of the Azores Archipelago during medieval times, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2021). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2108236118
Landscape view of Pico (foreground) and Faial (background) Islands. Credit: Santiago Giralt.Credit: Santiago Giralt.
Who does the West have to write a check to now? ;)
It’s beautiful there. But there is little doubt that the area was populated during the Neolithic period some thousands of years before this discovery can show.
Norse Country.
Since the interlopers are not Islamic, they can stay.
Given the presence of volcanoes, it would surprise me if there weren’t a series of rediscoveries and reoccupations of the Azores.
Do you have any links to artistic renditions of Neolithic boats?
.....An international team of researchers has found evidence that people lived on islands in the Azores archipelago approximately 700 years earlier than prior evidence has shown.....
I knew it!!!!
I sorta rest my case....
Didn’t much care for the lemonade there. A little too tart.
There are tarts in the Azores?
Maybe if I got some more lame Vax I could fly there on Holiday.
Your arms will be too sore to flap.
The Bzores are another story. Hive never been there either though.
Sounds like pretty flimsy reasoning. The Norse had boats therefore it must have been the Norse.
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