Mythical or Real? Part 3
This week, we explorean abandoned Norse settlement in North America and a ‘Lake of Gold’ in SouthAmerica.
4. L'Anse Aux Meadows(Vinland), Newfoundland – 1000 CE
For a long time,explorers searched for evidence of Vinland, a place described in the 13thcentury Greenlanders’ Saga as having lush meadows, teeming salmon and wildgrapes. If the legend was true, the site was briefly settled by Leif Eriksonand his crew around 1000 CE. That would make it the first place “discovered” byEuropeans in the New World. That settlement preceded the arrival of ChristopherColumbus by almost 500 years. When they found evidence of Norse-designedsod-walled buildings on the far north coast of Newfoundland in Canada in the1960s, archaeologists were hopeful that, at long last, Vinland had been found.
Soon, they identifiedEuropean artifacts; a bronze cloak pin, a spindle whorl, a gilded fragment ofbrass, and a place for smelting and working iron. Scholars were convinced thatthey’d stumbled upon the fabled Vinland. They still continue to study the long-heldsecrets of this site today. It is called the L’Anse aux Meadows NationalHistoric Site, and it includes reconstructions of the original dwellings whereVikings lived (on-and-off) for about twenty years.
5. Lake Guatavita (ElDorado), Colombia – 1541 CE
Spanish conquistadorsfirst described a mythical South American kingdom of unfathomable riches ruledby El Rey Dorado in 1541. According to what they said, this chief’s initiationrites included covering himself in gold dust and ceremonially dropping treasureinto the center of a sacred lake. In the centuries that followed, explorerssearched for the kingdom of “El Dorado” throughout Colombia, Venezuela, Guyanaand Brazil, but never found it. Eventually, they gave up.
But that doesn’t meanthe story is completely false. Juan Pablo Quintero-Guzman, an archaeologist andthe curator at Colombia’s Museum of Gold, says that “All lakes in the Muiscaterritory were places of offering.” He believes that similar rituals werecarried out in some lakes but that Lake Guatavita was, from 600 to 1600 CE, theplace where this ritual was performed the most often.
For the past 400 years,numerous artifacts have been pulled from Lake Guatavita. These artifactsinclude tumbaga (an alloy of gold and copper), emeralds, human-like clayvessels, hair, cotton, and animal skulls. Quintero-Guzman has evidence thatrituals were taking place at the water’s edge, possibly at a temple or aceremonial site intended for making offerings. His findings do not definitivelyprove that Lake Guatavita was the site spoken of by the conquistadors, but theydo not contradict the possibility, either. At least for now, the chiefdom ofGuatavita seems to be the most likely origin of the myth.
