On Sunday’s exciting episode of America’s Lost Vikings, a secret spot lead by a man who wished to remain anonymous was where Blue Nelson and Mike Arbuthnot explored in our exclusive clip for the latest Science Channel series chasing the Viking trail in North America.
These two professional archaeologists have ventured further south in Newfoundland as seen in our clip as they examine and verify a mysterious set of ancient animal traps.
Pitfall trapping and Scandinavian styled pits were how the Vikings hunted large mammals like reindeer and elk.
It was a style and method of hunting that was ingrained in Viking culture where the meat from these animals was dried and then stored for months – important protein stores for the sea routes they frequently took.
Mike and Blue are lead by this unnamed contact assigned to protect these locations where the pits have existed for many hundreds of years. The locals have guarded them from outside tourists and hikers.
At first glance, the deep depressions look natural but at closer look, you can see these holes were definitely not natural and dug by men and constructed for a very distinct purpose.
Mike and Blue educate us on how pitfall trapping was a hunting technique used by humankind for millennia. It was a method especially used by the Vikings,
In a frantic chase, hunters drove big game into the pits where these animals fell to their doom.
Surveying the scope and size of these depressions, which seemed like they were linked together, Mike says: “It’s intriguing, isn’t it?
“This is a very effective killing factory,” says Blue Nelson.
Read our interview with Mike and Blue from last week’s premiere episode:
The search this week for Blue and Mike is on for the second confirmed Viking site in North America. Their goal too is to verify the existence of the Viking utopia of Vinland.
Last week, Blue Nelson told us that their series is steeped in real science answering the question of if there were any comparable overlaps with The Curse of Oak Island.
He said: “No. In fact, Vikings and Oak Island seems like a new twist to an old story. Is this really the narrative now?
As far as I know, we are the only show that is critically analyzing suspected Norse artifacts and basing our results on experience and input from various Viking experts from various disciplines. ”
Tune in Sunday as we follow Blue Nelson and Mike Arbuthnot sorting through the terrain of North America’s only confirmed Viking site, L’Anse Aux Meadows in Newfoundland.
Their ongoing work this season will confirm or debunk the idea that the Vikings were here well before Columbus.
Also on Sunday’s episode, the two will board the first replica Viking vessel to be built in the U.S.
The two men will set sail in the hope of discovering where the medieval historiography noted and undiscovered place of Vinland may lie.
America’s Lost Vikings airs on Sundays at 10/9c on the Science Channel.