Vikings in New Jersey ?

[Bullheadtee]

I have seen a few artifacts that lead me to believe that Vineland lies at the beginning of the cohansey river just below Bridgeton Nj one of the deepest rivers 70' in spots my great Grandfathers Brother found a ivory carved face with copper mouth and eyes possibly walruss it was on the cover of nj archeology magazine in the mid 80s I have a coin/token? I will post a pic of from the same aera and seen a couple polished stone daggers fashond like European steel knifes all from that same area and their are some of the biggest wild grapes I have seen anywhere bases over 2' in diameter on some !!!!!! Just a theory with some tantalizing. Tid bits.

[Hal Gorges]

I’m as intrigued as you are about Viking stuff from N/E., that’s a very interesting design, more rectangularish that N/A, stuff, can’t really tell though, too small...Didn’t have Vikings in fla. back then, but we sure got em now.Lol

[Bullheadtee]

One stone daggers was in the Bridgeton library but the owner passed away and the family reclaimed it and one is in a private collection I know the owner found by her father in the 1940s and it came from the same area as well all within 1 mile on both sides of the river from my research I found the token witch appears to be a ship bow a man with a flag but I have no idea any information to fuel my imagination would be greatly appreciated !

[Bullheadtee]

[paohrocks]

Can't help ya Bull but sure sounds interesting.

[Hal Gorges]

Don’t know a lot about Vikings, but I’m pretty sure they were metal smiths. IMO.

[CMD]

So, who knows how far the Norse may have ventured? Currently, the L’Ance aux Meadow Norse site on the northern tip of Newfoundland is the most accepted suggested location of the brief Vineland settlement:

[CMD]

Then there is the famous Norse penny, the Goddard coin, discovered in a shell midden in Maine years ago:

http://www.norsknum.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/JoNA_Gullbekk_NorsePenny_article.pdf

(Normally, I would just create one comment for the links I’m going to post, but I have not been able to post more than one link per comment for some time. There is a glitch that runs the links together, long story, lol).

[CMD]

Lastly, the matter of alleged Norse inscriptions in the America’s include the Kennsington, Mn. Runestone, very well known, the Spirit Pond Stones, portable with inscriptions, 3 in number, and from Maine, and most recently the Narragansett Runestone, from Narragansett Bay, RI, and some history concerning, I posted about almost 5 years ago now. God, time flies way too fast. I guess I lean towards all these runestones being modern in origin.

https://forums.arrowheads.com/forum/...tone-dedicated

[CMD]

It’s a complex subject, with a very long history, the subject of the Norse in North America. The famous Newport Tower has long had Norse theories attached to it. The runestones all have their proponents, and their detractors/debunkers. As far as I know, the Goddard coin is real. The question is how did it end up in a native midden in Maine? A trade item seems like the more likely explanation. Ramah Chert, from Newfoundland, was still finding its way south in Woodland times. Still, it’s a cool discovery of a real Norse artifact in the United States. I don’t know enough about Bullheadtee’s objects to offer intelligent commentary.

Many of us know of Roger’s opinions of Norse inscriptions from America, the subject has come up at times, and we, and he, have had fun with it. I imagine he may weigh in if he sees the thread......

[painshill]

As Charlie says, it's a big can of worms you're potentially opening up... and there's a lot of discussion in older forum posts about the relative merits of the so-called evidence for Viking presence beyond the proven settlement at L'anse aux Meadows and expeditions from it. for now, I'll just confine my comments to that curious pendant (or whatever it was before someone holed it for that purpose).

The Vikings were not big on flags... or at least not square ones like we know today. 'Viking' was not a 'nation', so there is no concept for a national flag. Flags in general are conspicuously absent from Viking iconography with very few exceptions and the only flag we know that they used (as the personal banner of a specific chieftain or leader) was the 'Raven Banner'. It was roughly triangular in shape with one curved edge... a bit like a quarter of a circle... with tassels hanging from the curved side. Even depictions of that are extremely rare, and there is no evidence to suggest it was ever carried on any expeditions to the 'New World' and no mention of it in the various saga sources (nor mention of any other kind of flag as far as I know).



Actually, if you turn your pendant round with the hole correctly(?) oriented at the top and enhance it a bit, I'm not even convinced it's someone waving a flag at all:

[Mattern]

Hi Bull, Nice Drilled ahhh thing. I doubt that anyone will ever be able to truly ID what you pictured. In my studies I've heard many instances of the Norse having been in North America with several occupations. I don't really believe all the runes are real. Surely some are. Thats a big long discussion. What I do believe is that they came here on shipes. so why would they just stop in Newfoundland. I think logically they would have explored as far south as their supplies would allow them to go. They may have stopped overnight in many places but just not left anything behind. Kim

[Bullheadtee]

I'm not shure what it is other than a vivid imagination don't think it was a pendant no wear on the hole just looked eroded through appears to be some type of pewter who knows found it 20 years ago on a bluff over the river

[Bullheadtee]

Pain That was the flag. To keep the Scralings from zapping them with Arrows 😆

[Bullheadtee]

Kim they could go as far as their ships would take them I'm shure their was no shortage of food. The further south they tracked I believe they were eventually absorbed or exterminated.