A lost Viking settlement known as “Hóp,” which has been mentioned in sagas passed down over hundreds of years, is said to have supported wild grapes, abundant salmon and inhabitants who made canoes out of animal hides. Now, a prominent archaeologist says the settlement likely resides in northeastern New Brunswick.
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Based on the research, “I am placing Hóp in the Miramichi-Chaleur bay area,” Birgitta Wallace, a senior archaeologist emerita with Parks Canada who has done extensive research on the Vikings in North America, told Live Science. Hóp, she said, may not be the name of just one settlement, but rather an area where the Vikings may have created multiple short-term settlements whose precise locations varied from year to year.
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Wallace found that northeastern New Brunswick is the only place that meets all the criteria in the sagas for Hóp: It contains wild grapes and salmon, barrier sandbars and a native population that used animal-hide canoes. “New Brunswick is the northern limit of grapes, which are not native either to Prince Edward Island or Nova Scotia,” said Wallace, noting that grapes were not found in Maine, either.
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While Wallace can narrow down the location of Hóp, finding the actual site(s) will be difficult and perhaps impossible, Wallace said.
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