18th November 2010, 11:28 AM
Thanks for a well-presented discussion. It would be nice to think that this evidence represents the children that ?orfinnr karlsefni is supposed to have brought back from the new world according to Eir?ks saga rau?a, although upon reading the article there is some uncertainty expressed about the actual origins of the sequence. I would query the idea that Iceland was 'practically isolated' from the tenth century onwards though. This seems to be overstating the case, given that there was known contact with Scandinavia at the very least through the medieval period. I am also curious to know why they did not discuss the Greenlandic settlements and their probable contact with the east coast of America, as well as their contact with Iceland and Scandinavia up to their isolation and death in the late medieval period. That might well have enhanced the discussion with regard to a North American origin for the DNA sequence. One point, me being picky and all that, but should your article not read Vatnaj?kull rather than Vatnaj Kull?
'Reality,' sa molesworth 2, 'is so unspeakably sordid it make me shudder.'