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Carl Christian Rafn

 
Carl Christian Rafn

 
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Carl Christian Rafn
 
 
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Carl Christian Rafn (January 16, 1795 – October 20, 1864) was a Danish
Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in northern Europe and the senior member of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries....
 antiquarian
Antiquarian

An antiquarian or antiquary is an aficionado of antiquities or things of the past. Also, and most often in modern usage, an antiquarian is a person who deals with or collects rare and ancient "Antiquarian book trade in the United States"....
 noted for his early advocacy of the theory that the Viking
Viking

A Viking is one of the Norsemen explorers, warriors, merchants, and Piracy who raided and colonized wide areas of Europe from the late eighth to the early eleventh century....
s had explored North America
North America

North America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and almost totally in the western hemisphere....
 centuries before Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus was a Republic of Genoa navigator, colonialist and explorer whose voyages across the Atlantic Ocean?funded by Queen Isabella of Spain?led to general European awareness of the America in the Western Hemisphere....
's and John Cabot
John Cabot

Giovanni Caboto , known in English as John Cabot, was an Italy navigator and exploration commonly credited as the first European to discover North America, in 1497, notwithstanding Norsemen Leif Ericson's landing ....
's voyages.

Rafn was particularly interested in discovering the location of the Vinland
Vinland

Vinland was the name given to an area of North America by the Norsemen Leif Eriksson, about the year A.D. 1001.In 1960 archaeology evidence of the only known Norse colonization of the Americas in North America was found at L'Anse aux Meadows on the northern tip of the island of Newfoundland , in what is now the Canada province of Newfoundl...
 mentioned in Norse saga
Norse saga

The sagas , are stories about ancient Scandinavia and Germanic tribes history, about early Viking voyages, about migration to Iceland, and of feuds between Icelandic families....
s.






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Rafn
Carl Christian Rafn (January 16, 1795 – October 20, 1864) was a Danish
Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in northern Europe and the senior member of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries....
 antiquarian
Antiquarian

An antiquarian or antiquary is an aficionado of antiquities or things of the past. Also, and most often in modern usage, an antiquarian is a person who deals with or collects rare and ancient "Antiquarian book trade in the United States"....
 noted for his early advocacy of the theory that the Viking
Viking

A Viking is one of the Norsemen explorers, warriors, merchants, and Piracy who raided and colonized wide areas of Europe from the late eighth to the early eleventh century....
s had explored North America
North America

North America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and almost totally in the western hemisphere....
 centuries before Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus was a Republic of Genoa navigator, colonialist and explorer whose voyages across the Atlantic Ocean?funded by Queen Isabella of Spain?led to general European awareness of the America in the Western Hemisphere....
's and John Cabot
John Cabot

Giovanni Caboto , known in English as John Cabot, was an Italy navigator and exploration commonly credited as the first European to discover North America, in 1497, notwithstanding Norsemen Leif Ericson's landing ....
's voyages.

Rafn was particularly interested in discovering the location of the Vinland
Vinland

Vinland was the name given to an area of North America by the Norsemen Leif Eriksson, about the year A.D. 1001.In 1960 archaeology evidence of the only known Norse colonization of the Americas in North America was found at L'Anse aux Meadows on the northern tip of the island of Newfoundland , in what is now the Canada province of Newfoundl...
 mentioned in Norse saga
Norse saga

The sagas , are stories about ancient Scandinavia and Germanic tribes history, about early Viking voyages, about migration to Iceland, and of feuds between Icelandic families....
s. Rafn believed Vinland to have been in modern-day New England
New England

New England is a region of the United States located in the northeastern corner of the country, bounded by the Atlantic Ocean, Canada and New York State, and consisting of the modern U.S....
 in the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
.

Rafn published much of his work in 1837 in the Antiquitates Americanæ. It is considered the first scholarly exposition of the Pre-Columbian
Pre-Columbian

The pre-Columbian era incorporates all archaeology of the Americas in the history of the Americas before the appearance of significant European influences on the Americas continents....
 Norse exploration theory. At the time of Rafn's research, the Norse sagas concerning Vinland were considered by most scholars to be mere legends.

Rafn was partially vindicated in the 1960s by the discovery of the Viking
Viking

A Viking is one of the Norsemen explorers, warriors, merchants, and Piracy who raided and colonized wide areas of Europe from the late eighth to the early eleventh century....
 settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows
L'Anse aux Meadows

L'Anse aux Meadows is an archaeological site on the northernmost tip of the island of Newfoundland in the Canada Provinces of Canada of Newfoundland and Labrador....
 in northern Newfoundland, Canada
Canada

Canada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean....
.

See also

  • Norse colonization of the Americas
    Norse colonization of the Americas

    As early as the 10th century Norsemen sailors explored and settled areas of the North Atlantic, including the northeastern fringes of North America....
  • Newport Tower
  • Dighton Rock
    Dighton Rock

    The Dighton Rock is a 40 ton boulder, originally located in the riverbed of the Taunton River at Berkley, Massachusetts . The rock is noted for the controversy surrounding a set of mysterious inscriptions on it....
  • Nomans Land (Massachusetts)
    Nomans Land (Massachusetts)

    Nomans Land is an uninhabited island 612 acres in size, located in the town of Chilmark, Massachusetts, Dukes County, Massachusetts, Massachusetts, United States....
  • Maine Penny
    Maine Penny

    The Maine penny is a Norway silver penny dating to the reign of Olaf Kyrre. It was allegedly found in 1957 at the Goddard site, the extensive archeological remains of an old Indigenous peoples of the Americas settlement at Naskeag Point, Brooklin, Maine on Penobscot Bay....
  • Kensington Runestone
    Kensington Runestone

    The Kensington Runestone is a slab of greywacke covered in Runic alphabet on its face and side which, if it is genuine, would suggest that Scandinavian explorers reached the middle of North America in the 14th century....