The Vikings were not the first colonisers of the Faroe Islands

The Faroe Islands were colonised much earlier than previously believed, and it wasn't by the Vikings, according to new research. New archaeological evidence places human colonisation in the 4^th to 6^th centuries AD, at least 300-500 years earlier than previously demonstrated. The research, directed by Dr Mike J Church from Durham University and Símun V Arge from the National Museum of the Faroe Islands as part of the multidisciplinary project "Heart of the Atlantic", is published in the Quaternary Science Reviews. The crucial radiocarbon evidence to fix such an early settlement date was provided by researchers at the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre (SUERC) . The research challenges the nature, scale and timing of human settlement of the wider North Atlantic region and has implications for the colonisation of similar island groups across the world. The Faroes were the first stepping stone beyond Shetland for the dispersal of European people across the North Atlantic that culminated on the shores of continental North America in the 11^th century AD, about 500 years before Columbus made his famous voyage. The research was carried out on an archaeological site at Á Sondum on the island of Sandoy.