Archaeologists have found a new evidence that Faroe Islands was already inhabited 400 years even before the Vikings arrived.
Faroe Islands is an island located in Denmark, just between Norway and Iceland, with a land area of 540 square miles. It was historically believed that the first people to inhabit the land were the Vikings during the 9th century A.D. The place was an empty outcrop of land during the time, as noted by historians.
The history is about to change as a new study suggests that the Faroes was already inhabited between 4th and 6th centuries A.D. The identity of these people are not yet confirmed but researchers were certain that they have cultivated barley and burned peat for cooking. The ashes from the peat were then scattered to sand dunes to stabilize it.
"The evidence we have found is in the form of small patches of peat ash mixed with small bits of burnt bone and carbonised barley grain. We know this is human because you can't get that mix in nature," said Mike Church, an archaeologist at Durham University, to the Independent.
Archaeologists used radio-carbon dating to identify the exact period when the barley grain was harvested. The results confirmed that it is way too ahead than the Viking's arrival.
The researchers guessed that the early inhabitants may be "hermit monks" from the nearby Scotland or Ireland. The assumption was based on a written document by an Irish monk named Dicuil dated 825 A.D. He wrote that there were some brothers living in the islands near north Britain. It wasn't specified that it was the Faroes though.
Another earlier historical account from Saint Brendan, who lived between the 4th and 6th century A.D., described an island similar to Faroes.
Researchers are now working to identify the earlier inhabitants of the land by connecting this new discovery to other sources. So far, they have established that these people are not the Vikings, had sea-faring boats, wore animal skins, and arrived for permanent settlement.
This study was published in the online journal Quaternary Science Reviews.
