A 1000 year old Viking longship is thought to have been discovered under a pub car park on Merseyside England.

The vessel is believed to lie beneath 6-10 feet of clay by the Railway Inn Meols,Wirral,where Vikings are known to have settled.

Experts believe the ship could be one of Britains most significant archaeological finds.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/merseyside/6986986.stm

Very cool stuff. It will be interesting to see what they unearth.

Yeah,I'll try and keep the post up to date with developments.
I was driving thru Ardglass last week and stopped for a bite to eat,in the car park of this place was a trailer with a fantastic replica longboat on it,just sitting there,not even hooked up to a vehicle,sorry I didnt have my camera with me.

I'm fascinated with the Vikings.
Maybe because they were one of the very few societies in which women had some rights. They could divorce a husband by merely saying out loud she wanted to get rid of him.

I'm fascinated with the Vikings.
Maybe because they were one of the very few societies in which women had some rights. They could divorce a husband by merely saying out loud she wanted to get rid of him.

Not only that, but they discovered North America as well. Too bad Leif Erickson day isn't a national holiday.

Was it not Saint Brendan discovered America,ah well,never mind.

Not only that, but they discovered North America as well. Too bad Leif Erickson day isn't a national holiday.

I agree, Why Columbus, that crybaby who could barely make his way across the ocean without a mutiny and who had the aid of several navigational tools to help him discover "India" gets his own National holiday and Leif doesn't is beyond me.

People just don't like the Vikings because they consider them barbaric killers and uncouth. They really weren't but that's their reputation ( and they PLAYED on that reputation too--they were smart as well.)

Heres another one for ya.Was America named after the guy in the crows nest,
Ameriqa somebody.
United States of Leif,just dosent have the same ring to it.

Columbus believed until the day that he died (which was in 1506 if memory serves) that he had actually been to India... Not to mention the utter atrocities perpetrated by him and his men after landing in "India". They would feed Indian babies to dogs, have contests as to who could cut a baby cleanly in half with their sword, rape women literally to death, cut off various body parts of men... To sum it up, in 1492 there were about 5 million members of the Arawak tribe living in the Caribbean. By 1550 there were only 50,000. In less than 6 decades, they decimated literally 99% of of that tribe.

P.S. America was named after the explorer Amerigo Vespucci, officially touted as the first European to realize that the New World was not actually part of Asia. Whether or not he was actually the first one is unknown. He was also a merchant and a mapmaker.

Thanks girl

P.S. America was named after the explorer Amerigo Vespucci, officially touted as the first European to realize that the New World was not actually part of Asia. Whether or not he was actually the first one is unknown. He was also a merchant and a mapmaker.

Yeah, but Amerigo landed in the Americas 500 years after Erickson. Perhaps he was the first to realize, but he wasn't the first to step foot on. Should me named North Ericksona, lol. That guy doesn't get any credit.

Yeah, but Amerigo landed in the Americas 500 years after Erickson. Perhaps he was the first to realize, but he wasn't the first to step foot on. Should me named North Ericksona, lol. That guy doesn't get any credit.
Leif Erickson wasn't the first to step foot in America either.... Think back to maybe 20,000 years before.

Leif Erickson wasn't the first to step foot in America either.... Think back to maybe 20,000 years before.A Russian then

A Russian then
The first Americans came from Asia and of course what is now Eastern Russia, but I think we would identify the people as Asian today.

Well I dont think the most liberal American would admit they were Ruskies haha

Well I dont think the most liberal American would admit they were Ruskies haha
:p I'd say that most Americans have little to no Native American blood anyways.

I know I know,it all dried into the plains out west.

I know I know,it all dried into the plains out west.
Actually, before anyone even settled in North America, Spanish explorers along the coasts exposed them to disease, which went from tribe to tribe over the next century. Around 1600, when the English arrived, there were 10 million Indians in all of the Americas. When Columbus arrived in 1492, there were up to 100 million. 90% of all Native Americans died in a little more than 100 years, and most of them never laid eyes on a European.

Yeah,smallpox and a dose is a bad combination.

90% of all Native Americans died in a little more than 100 years, and most of them never laid eyes on a human being.


I know you didn't mean that, like it sounds. At least I hope you didn't. I've always considered my, Native American, ancestors to be very human.

I know you didn't mean that, like it sounds. At least I hope you didn't. I've always considered my, Native American, ancestors to be very human.
Oops... Meant to write "European". That sounded horrible. It was just a typo. I'm very upset now.

Oops... Meant to write "European". That sounded horrible. It was just a typo. I'm very upset now.Keemo sabby

Shit,didnt see mods post,sorry,joke.

Oops... Meant to write "European". That sounded horrible. It was just a typo. I'm very upset now.


Thats OK, I knew you didn't mean anything by it. No need to fell bad.

Shit,didnt see mods post,sorry,joke.


Such jokes don't bother me. Hell, I don't get upset about sports teams be called "Red Skins", "Warriors", "Chiefs", etc. Never did understand what that fuss was about.

I didnt know your native,thats pretty cool,man.

Such jokes don't bother me. Hell, I don't get upset about sports teams be called "Red Skins", "Warriors", "Chiefs", etc. Never did understand what that fuss was about.
Yeah, I don't understand that either... I think I have some Native American blood but I believe it's 1/16 at most, and I generally don't count such small fractions, especially since my dad is adopted and I suppose we can never know that for sure.

I didnt know your native,thats pretty cool,man.


Yes. I was born on a reservation, of a Cheyenne father and a "white" mother. Mom moved us off the reservation, and into the "real" world, just after Pearl Harbor was attached, and dad left to join the military.

Thats interesting,are the Cheyenne a California tribe then.

Thats interesting,are the Cheyenne a California tribe then.

No, Oklahoma, and some in Colorado.

Hmm ok.You should start a 'native' thread.

Native Americans dont count, because they are native, lol. I mean yeah they came over on the land bridge 20,000 years ago, but I'm talking post ice age here.

Back to St Brendan again.

http://www.castletown.com/brendan.htm

Native Americans dont count, because they are native, lol. I mean yeah they came over on the land bridge 20,000 years ago, but I'm talking post ice age here.
The reason we count the Spanish explorations as the "discovery" of America is that they marked the real contact between the Americas and Europe. Basically, 1492 was the year that foods, diseases, and cultural elements began to be exchanged between the Old World and the New World. The Vikings don't matter as much because their visits to the New World didn't change the world on nearly the same scale.

EDIT: Read that site you linked to, paul. Very interesting! :)

The reason we count the Spanish explorations as the "discovery" of America is that they marked the real contact between the Americas and Europe. Basically, 1492 was the year that foods, diseases, and cultural elements began to be exchanged between the Old World and the New World. The Vikings don't matter as much because their visits to the New World didn't change the world on nearly the same scale.

EDIT: Read that site you linked to, paul. Very interesting! :)

DF, give Leif some credit here. He got in his friggin 20 man rowboat and sailed across the North Atlantic in like the year 1000. He in my opinion deserves a day more so than Columbus does.

DF, give Leif some credit here. He got in his friggin 20 man rowboat and sailed across the North Atlantic in like the year 1000. He in my opinion deserves a day more so than Columbus does.
I think he deserves a day more than Columbus does because Columbus doesn't deserve a day at all. Columbus was at best a bungling idiot and at worst a bungling sadist. It's not that I'm not giving Leif credit, I'm just saying that his explorations in America didn't have the same sort of immense repercussions (both good and bad) on the world that Columbus did.

I think he deserves a day more than Columbus does because Columbus doesn't deserve a day at all. Columbus was at best a bungling idiot and at worst a bungling sadist. It's not that I'm not giving Leif credit, I'm just saying that his explorations in America didn't have the same sort of immense repercussions (both good and bad) on the world that Columbus did.

Alright, that I can agree :)