We travel with a second group of Norse, the Rus, who traveled across Eastern Europe and introduced Christianity to today’s Ukraine. We begin our journey with the Vikings who crossed from Scandinavia to Iceland, Greenland, and finally landed in Canada just around that time (and we’ll talk about the possibility that they reached the Yucatan Peninsula as well). In fact, the year 1000 was the world’s first point of major cultural exchange and exploration.

But how, then, to explain the presence of blond-haired people in Maya temple murals at Chichén Itzá, Mexico? Is it possible that the Vikings had found their way to the Americas during the height of the Maya empire?

It will also hold up a mirror to the hopes and fears we experience today.People often think that the years immediately prior to AD 1000 were, with just a few exceptions, lacking in any major cultural developments or encounters, that Europeans hadn’t yet reached North America, and that the farthest feat of sea travel was the Vikings’ invasion of Britain. Drawing on nearly thirty years of research, she presents a compelling account of first encounters between disparate societies, which sparked conflict and collaboration eerily reminiscent of our contemporary moment.įor readers of Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel and Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens, The Year 1000 is an intellectually daring, provocative account that will make you rethink everything you thought you knew about how the modern world came to be. Valerie Hansen, an award-winning historian, argues that the year 1000 was the world’s first point of major cultural exchange and exploration. But how, then, to explain the presence of blonde-haired people in Maya temple murals at Chichén Itzá, Mexico? Could it be possible that the Vikings had found their way to the Americas during the height of the Maya empire? People often believe that the years immediately prior to AD 1000 were, with just a few exceptions, lacking in any major cultural developments or geopolitical encounters, that the Europeans hadn’t yet reached North America, and that the farthest feat of sea travel was the Vikings’ invasion of Britain. From celebrated Yale professor Valerie Hansen, a groundbreaking work of history showing that bold explorations and daring trade missions connected all of the world’s great societies for the first time at the end of the first millennium.

Valerie hansen the year 1000