Vikings were in the Americas 500 years before Christopher Columbus, study claims

Vikings arrived in the Americas 500 years before Christopher Columbus - the explorer often credited with the country's discovery in 1492, a study has found. Pictured: Leif Erikson Discovers America by Hans Dahl Archaeologists from the University of Iceland analysed wood from five Norse sites in western Greenland, that were occupied between the years 1000 and 1400. European tree species from which wood was imported included oak, beech and Scots pine, some of which may have been old ship timber or arrived as ready made artefacts. Pictured: Oak and beech fragments The analysis revealed that 0.27 per cent of the samples came from imported species, either from North America or northern Europe. Pictured: Proportion of wood from different tree species identified at each of the five sites and combined The analysis also found that a quarter of the samples were either imported or arrived in Greenland as driftwood, with species including larch, spruce, Scots pine and fir.