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National Geographic : 1981 May
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IT SEEMS CLOSER to yesterday than to 17 years ago that Helge Ingstad's memo rable article on the Viking settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland ap peared in our magazine. Helge and his wife, Anne Stine Ingstad, had made this once-in a-lifetime discovery in the simplest way imaginable. He was convinced that the Vin land of the sagas, as well as Markland and Helluland and the other regions recorded in Nordic folk history, centered on Newfound land and along the Labrador front. So he traveled there and stopped at each remote hamlet and inquired about ruins until he found the site at "bay of the meadows," which the Ingstads began excavating in 1961 with Society help. I remember well the excitement in the edi torial offices when the Viking spindle whorl showed up, and we were able to make a late change and lead the article with a picture of this positive proof of Vikings in North America five centuries before Columbus. How would we have reacted to bits of chain mail, and cloth, and ship rivets, and pieces of carpentry? The old excitement came back when archaeologist Peter Schle dermann first displayed the wonders he had so carefully exhumed from the frozen ground of Ellesmere Island. The site is ex traordinary for the Eskimo remains that go back 4,300 years and represent all major culture groups of this arctic area. It is ex traordinary for being so far north-a cross roads near the top of the world. And it is extraordinary for its Viking materials, whether delivered in person by long-ago adventurers or traded there. The first European to see the New World may well have been a man named Bjarni Herjulfsson, whose knarr was blown off course between Iceland and Greenland and, the sagas relate, sailed for five days along unknown lands, which Leif Ericson soon went in search of and found again. For a de cade and more, Vikings made a serious try at settlement; a child named Snorri was born on those wild shores. But then the sagas close on history. Only now is the ground yielding tantalizing clues to what must have been a remarkable period of adventure and exploration-and we are all delighted that the GEOGRAPHIC once again can publish a memorable "first" in its field. PRESIDENT GEOGRAPHIC THE NATIONALGEOGRAPHICMAGAZINEVOL. 159. NO. 5 COPYRIGHT© 1981 BY NATINAL GEOGRAPHICSOCIETY WASHINGTON,D. C. INTERNATIONALCOPYRIGHTSECURED May 1981 Eskimo and Viking Finds in the High Arctic 575 On Ellesmere Island,farnorth in Canada, archaeologistPeterSchledermannfinds dramaticevidence of early inhabitantsand visitors-amongthem, possibly, Norsemen. Photographsby Sisse Brimberg. Iowa, America's Middle Earth 603 The deep-soil heartlandof the nation'sfarming empire hasfar more to offer than tall corn, HarveyArden and CraigAurness discover. A Marine Park Is Born 630 Australia's"gift to the world," a huge ocean preserve newly created on the GreatBarrierReef is describedby marine biologistSoames Summerhays andphotographedby Ron and Valerie Taylor. Paradise Beneath the Sea 636 Veterans of more than 20 years ofdiving on the BarrierReef, the Taylors capturein words and glowing colorthis coral kingdom of the Pacific. Jawbreaker for Sharks 664 Valerie Taylor dares to test an experimental chain-maildiving suit againstshark attack. Pakistan Under Pressure 668 Wedged between Iran, Soviet-occupied Afghanistan, China, and India,a military ruled nationof diverse peoples and harsh Islamic law tries to walk a middle road and emerge an Asiatic power on its own. By William S. Ellis andJames L. Stanfield. America's Forgotten Crops 702 Little-known plants long used by Indians hold new promisefor food andindustry, reports chemist Noel D. Vietmeyer. Photographsby Burgess Blevins, paintingsby PaulM. Breeden. COVER: A blue shark tries-in vain-to bite off diver JeremiahSullivan's steel-clad arm. Photographby Ron Taylor. 573
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