David Abulafia David Abulafia

Why are the sailors who first braved the Atlantic so often ignored?

Long before Columbus crossed the ocean in 1492, the Phoenicians had discovered the Azores, and by the year 1000 Norse men and women were eking out an existence in Greenland

Viking sailors cross the Atlantic to America in search of timber in the mid-14th century, in a painting by N.C. Wyeth. [Hulton Archive/ Getty Images]
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  • Ocean: A History of the Atlantic Before Columbus

    John Haywood

    Head of Zeus, pp. 5609, £30

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