Ivory Package 1 (Natural History Museum Denmark) Credit: Mikkel Høegh A new genetic analysis of ivory artifacts from across Europe suggests that early Norse hunters ventured far into North American waters and likely interacted with indigenous North Americans as early as 985 CE, or over 500 years before Christopher Columbus’ “discovery” of the Americas. The scientists behind the potential historical discovery’s genetic and isotopic analysis show that the ivory was harvested from the tusks of Walruses that lived in the North Atlantic waters off of present-day Canada. Their study also found that the long distances and extreme weather that Norse...
