Description du projet
Premier contact: comprendre le moment, la durée, l’étendue géographique et la signification persistante
Les Nordiques étaient présents en Amérique en 1021 de notre ère, avant Christophe Colomb. Comblant les principales lacunes de nos connaissances, le projet CONTACT, financé par l’UE, permettra de déterminer quand, où et pendant combien de temps les Européens se sont rendus en Amérique avant Christophe Colomb. Il entend faire la lumière sur les rencontres qu’ils ont pu faire et déterminer si ces premières connexions transatlantiques ont eu un impact durable. Il fera appel aux outils récemment développés concernant la datation des pics de carbone et l’analyse de l’ADN ancien pour analyser l’expansion transatlantique nordique. Les travaux du projet comprendront un cadre permettant de réanalyser les plus anciennes connexions entre l’Ancien et le Nouveau Monde.
Objectif
For ten thousand years, the world was divided in two. Almost all human societies belonged to either the Old or the New Worlds. Amid this consummate isolation, the two worlds followed their own cultural and ecological trajectories. The loop was finally closed when the Norse arrived in the Americas in 1021 CE. However, the story of this closure ironically remains one of the most significant gaps in our knowledge of the past. This project addresses the timing, duration, geographical extent and lasting significance of this period of first contact. Using the newly developed tools of spike radiocarbon dating and ancient DNA provenancing, current understanding of the Norse transatlantic expansion will be both tested and extended. Data of unprecedented precision will cast the history of Greenland into sharp relief, allowing fresh insights to be gained on the role of conflict, climate and trade in the ultimate abandonment of the colony. Furthermore, by analysing artefacts on either side of the Atlantic, the true extent and temporality of the Norse presence in the New World will be unveiled. Drawing all the new evidence together, CONTACT will be able to trace the story of the period as it has oscillated down the centuries between fact and fiction. In so doing, it will establish a framework for reanalysing the earliest connections between the Old and the New Worlds.
Champ scientifique
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme
Régime de financement
ERC - Support for frontier research (ERC)Institution d’accueil
9712CP Groningen
Pays-Bas