, updated
A Norwegian coin found at a prehistoric archaeological site in Maine could soon rewrite America’s history books.
The small piece of silver, known as the Maine Penny, may prove that Europeans arrived in the US centuries earlier than what was initially thought.
It’s already known that maritime explorations by Norse peoples from Scandinavia – also known as Vikings – in the late 10th century led to the Norse colonization of Greenland and Newfoundland in Canada. The coin comes from the same era.
Much of the circumstances of how it was found were not well preserved, but it could be evidence that the Norsemen from Greenland traveled farther south than Newfoundland, on the eastern coast of what is now Canada.
The Maine State Museum – where the artifact is being kept – favors the viewthat the coin is evidence the Norse were the first outsiders to set foot on …