KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION?
- May 24
- 3 min read
Updated: May 25
I'm constantly contacting encyclopedias and other educational sources and their authors after discovering them publishing wild errors. Constantly. And almost universally people confirm they do not care about their stated mission or the subject of their life's work and have nothing to say nor, thusly, of course, are they willing to rectify the situation. Finding that to be the case is, somehow, surprising every time.
TO THOUGHT CO. - "A premier reference site with a 20+ year focus on expert-created education content."
"La Navidad: First European Settlement in the Americas" - Updated on May 09, 2025 - https://www.thoughtco.com/la-navidad-first-european-settlement-2136439
The above article is replete with false and misleading information. Backed by oral and written history as well as an abundance of physical evidence, we’ve long known that the Norse arrived in and settled on Greenland in the mid-980s CE, five centuries prior to Columbus. Their permanent settlement in present day Newfoundland, at L'Anse aux Meadows, unearthed in the 1960s has been dated to 1021 CE. (And there are other possible villages or outposts on Ellesmere and Baffin Islands.) National Historic Site status was granted to this Norse settlement in the '60s and it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1978.
Historic site:
Pre-Columbian Norse presence:
The only way this article you published works is if you don't consider the Norse European or insist Greenland and Canada are not in the Americas. Bold claim either way.
NO RESPONSE
TO AUTHOR - A specialist in Latin American literature and history who wrote his dissertation on the colonial era in the Americas.
I just came across an article you wrote for ThoughtCo. titled "La Navidad: First European Settlement in the Americas" found at https://www.thoughtco.com/la-navidad-first-european-settlement-2136439
As much time has elapsed between the arrival of Columbus in the Americas and the present as had passed from the Norse arrival here and Columbus showing up. Oral and written history has firmly contradicted the "Columbus first" narrative for nearly a thousand years. Abundant archaeological evidence supporting this historical record, specifically for the Norse being settled in Greenland, was widely known since the early 1700s. And both Norse permanent settlements and seasonal outposts on the islands of northeastern Canada have been irrefutable, with the discovery of Norse buildings, manufacturing practices, and artefacts, since the 1960s (when these sites were designated national and world heritage status).
SOURCES:
L’Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site
The Helluland Archaeology Project
Evidence of Early Metalworking in Arctic Canada
New Dating Method Shows Vikings Occupied Newfoundland in 1021 C.E.
RESPONSE FROM AUTHOR
Thanks for pointing that out. I actually haven't worked for Thoughtco since 2015 and I can't change this or any other article. You might reach out to the web site directors directly.
REPLY
Thanks for the speedy response. I contacted the publisher a week ago and got no response and the article is still up, which is why I messaged you…
Of course, the article remains up and unchanged, when a simple solution could have come in several forms and none taking more than a few seconds. The page could have been removed, they could have just replaced the term "European" with "Spanish", or merely added one sentence about the Norse and another about Columbus initiating a second wave. None of that happened. And as such, alas, this will remain among the highly abundant absurd content your children are learning and your favourite LLMs are being trained on.
