ARCHAEOLOGISTS from the North-East have discovered evidence that the Faroe Islands were colonised long before the Vikings.

A team from Durham University has uncovered signs of settlers on the remote North Atlantic islands from the 4th to the 6th Centuries, at least 300 years earlier than previously thought.

Historians believe the islands are an important stepping stone which led European settlers to reach the shores of North America in the 11th Century, about 500 years before Christopher Columbus made his famous voyage.

The team, led by Dr Mike Church, carried out a dig on the island of Sandoy and found deposits of ash made from the burning of peat by settlers and also barley grains spread by humans.

Dr Church said: "There is now firm archaeological evidence for the human colonisation of the Faroes by people some 300-500 years before the large scale Viking colonisation of the 9th Century, although we don’t yet know who these people were or where they came from.

"The majority of archaeological evidence for this early colonisation is likely to have been destroyed by the major Viking invasion, explaining the lack of proof found in the Faroes for the earlier settlement."