L'Anse aux Meadows

L'Anse aux Meadows
A Norse sod longhouse recreation at L'Anse aux Meadows
Coordinates	51°35′42.96″N 55°31′52.4″W
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Official name: L'Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site
Type	Cultural
Criteria	vi
Designated	1978 (2nd session)
Reference No.	4
State Party	Canada
Region	Europe and North America
National Historic Site of Canada
Official name: L'Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site of Canada
Designated	28 November 1968
Location of L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland

L'Anse aux Meadows (pron.: /ˈlænsi ˈmɛdoʊz/; from the French L'Anse-aux-Méduses or "Jellyfish Cove") is an archaeological site on the northernmost tip of Newfoundland in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Discovered in 1960, it is the most famous site of a Norse or Viking settlement in North America outside of Greenland. Dating to around the year 1000, L'Anse aux Meadows remains the only widely accepted instance of pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact and is notable for its possible connection with the attempted colony of Vinland established by Leif Ericson around the same time period or, more broadly, with Norse exploration of the Americas. It was named a World Heritage site by UNESCO in 1978.

Etymology

The name "L'Anse aux Meadows" made its first appearance as Anse à la Medée on a map of 1862, when it may have derived its name from a ship called Medée. This was then modified by French-speaking fishermen during the 19th and 20th centuries, who named the site L'Anse aux Méduses, meaning "Jellyfish Cove". The modern name is an English corruption of the French name, from Méduses to Meadows, which may have occurred because the landscape in the area tends to be open, with meadows.

Discovery and significance

In 1960, the remains of a Norse village were discovered in Newfoundland by the Norwegian explorer Helge Ingstad. Based on the root of Vinland being "Vine", historians speculated that the region contained grapes that grew naturally and became a part of the Viking culture. Prior to Ingstad's theories, the common hypothesis was that the Vinland region existed somewhere south of the Northern Massachusetts coast, because that is roughly as far north as grapes grow naturally. However, Helge Ingstad refuted this saying "that the name Vinland probably means land of meadows…and includes a peninsula." This speculation was based mainly on where he believed the Norse would have been comfortable settling and he believed that areas along the American Atlantic coast were not suitable for them. Archaeologists determined the site is of Norse origin because of definitive similarities between the characteristics of structures and artifacts found at the site compared to sites in Greenland and Iceland from around CE 1000.

Helge Ingstad and Anne Stine Ingstad carried out seven archaeological excavations from 1961 to 1968, investigating eight complete house sites as well as the remains of a ninth.

The L'Anse aux Meadows area was originally inhabited by Native peoples as far back as 6000 BP. The area was probably sought due to its abundance of marine life and close proximity to Labrador. The most prominent of early Native inhabitants were the Dorset culture; however, during the centuries of Norse exploration of the area there were thought to be no inhabitants in the immediate area.

The Dorset People were a Paleo-Eskimo culture that sustained itself primarily through hunting. Evidence suggests their preferred game was seal which historians believe is why most Dorset settlements are positioned along the coast. As a result they are known in world history for their distinctive triangular end-blades. The Dorsets settled seasonally in different regions and the proximity of L'Anse aux Meadows to the coast made it an ideal place for the Dorsets.

Contrasting the Norse development of sod houses, the Dorsets built stone longhouses that were over 500 ft² (46.5 m²) in area and over 90 feet (27 m) in circumference. Artifacts have been found as deep as 7 inches (178 mm) below the ground in these settlements, which leads archeologists to estimate that, based on the relative mass of the stone used, the houses once stood at 12 feet (3.6 m) in height.

L'Anse aux Meadows is the only confirmed Norse site in North America outside of Greenland and represents the farthest known extent of European exploration and settlement of the New World before the voyages of Christopher Columbus almost 500 years later. In fact, the first mention of North America was by the German cleric, Adam of Bremen in 1073. He wrote that "He [i.e. the Danish king, Sven Estridsson] also told me of another island discovered by many in that ocean. It is called Vinland [reference to North America] because vines grow there on their own accord, producing the most excellent wine. Moreover, that unsown crops abound there, we have ascertained not from fabulous conjecture but from the reliable reports of the Danes." This excerpt is from a history Adam has composed of the archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen who ruled over Scandinavia (the original home of the Norse people) at the time.

Beyond L'Anse aux Meadows, there has been speculation of other settlement sites, or at least Norse-Native American trade contacts, in the Canadian Arctic. In 2012, possible Norse outposts in Nanook at Tanfield Valley on Baffin Island, as well as Nunguvik, Willows Island and the Avayalik Islands, were identified.

Settlement

Model of the settlement in the museum

Archaeological excavation at the site was conducted in the 1960s by an international team led by archaeologist Anne Stine Ingstad (Helge Ingstad's wife) and under the direction of Parks Canada of the Government of Canada in the 1970s. Following each period of excavation, the site was reburied to protect and conserve the cultural resources.

The settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows has been dated to approximately 1,000 years ago, an assessment that tallies with the relative dating of artifact and structure types. Today the area mostly consists of open, grassy lands; however 1000 years ago, there were forests which were beneficial in boat-building, house-building and for iron extraction. The remains of eight buildings (numbered A - J) were located. They are believed to have been constructed of sod placed over a wooden frame. Based on associated artifacts, the buildings were variously identified as dwellings or workshops. The largest dwelling (no. F) measured 28.8 by 15.6 m (94.5 by 51 ft) and consisted of several rooms. Three small buildings (no. B, C, G) may have been workshops or living quarters for lower-status crew or even slaves. Workshops were identified as an iron smithy (building no. J) containing a forge and iron slag, a carpentry workshop (building no. D), which generated wood debris, and a specialized boat repair area containing worn rivets. Besides those related to iron working, carpentry, and boat repair, other artifacts found at the site consisted of common everyday Norse items, including a stone oil lamp, a whetstone, a bronze fastening pin, a bone knitting needle, and part of a spindle. Stone weights which were found in building no. G may have been part of a loom. The presence of the spindle and needle suggests that women were present as well as men. Food remains included butternuts, which are significant because they do not grow naturally north of New Brunswick, and their presence probably indicates the Norse inhabitants travelled farther south to obtain them. There is also evidence to suggests that the Norse hunted an array of animals that used to inhabit the area. These included caribou, wolf, fox, bear, lynx, marten, all types of birds and fish, seal, whale and walrus. Despite the Norse distant travels, the climate of L'Anse aux Meadows parallels that of Greenland and as a result their previous practices of fishing and hunting were applicable. This area is no longer rich in game due in large part to the harsh climate that plagues the region for a lot of the year. This forces the game to either hibernate or venture south as the wind, deep snow and sheets of ice cover the area. These losses made the harsh winters very difficult for the Norse people at L'Anse aux Meadows. This lack of game supports archaeologists' beliefs that the site was inhabited by the Norse for a relatively short period of time.

The park has a living history program, featuring iron-age implements, which was designed by Darrell Markewitz of Wareham, Ontario.

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  Remains of Norse settlement building, 2010 (building A)

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  Reenactment of a landing at L'Anse aux Meadows, 2000

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  L'Anse aux Meadows, reconstruction sod house, 2002

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  Entrance of reconstructed Norse sod house

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  Entrance construction from inside, 2006

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  Inside of reconstruction sod house

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  Reconstructed boat at L'Anse aux Meadows, 2002

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  Small boat reconstruction

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  Remains of a smithy (building J)

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  Remains of a smaller building (building B)

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  Remains of a workshop (building E)

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  Remains of a workshop (building G)

In addition to the European settlement, evidence of at least five or six separate native occupations has been identified at L'Anse aux Meadows, the oldest dated at roughly 6,000 years ago; none was contemporaneous with the Norse occupation. The most prominent of these earlier occupations were by the Dorset people, who predated the Norse by about 200 years.

Territories, voyages, and conquests of the Norse at L'Anse aux Meadows

Connection with Vinland sagas

Norse sagas are written versions of older oral traditions. Two Icelandic sagas, commonly called the Saga of the Greenlanders and the Saga of Eric the Red, describe the experiences of Norse Greenlanders who discovered and attempted to settle land to the west of Greenland, identified by them as Vinland. The sagas suggest that the Vinland settlement failed because of conflicts within the Norse community, as well as between the Norse and the native people they encountered, whom they called Skrælingar.

Recent archaeological studies suggest that the L'Anse aux Meadows site is not Vinland itself but was within a land called Vinland that spread farther south from L'Anse aux Meadows, extending to the St. Lawrence River and New Brunswick. The village at L'Anse aux Meadows served as an exploration base and winter camp for expeditions heading southward into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The settlements of Vinland mentioned in the Eric saga and the Greenlanders saga, Leifsbudir (Leif Ericson) and Hóp (Norse Greenlanders), have both been identified as the L'Anse aux Meadows site.

See also

• Helluland
• History of Greenland
• Hvítramannaland
• Former colonies and territories in Canada
• List of communities in Newfoundland and Labrador
• Markland
• Skálholt Vinland Map
• Thorfinn Karlsefni
• Vinland map

References

• Stine Ingstad, Anne (2001). "The Excavation of a Norse Settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland". In Helge Ingstad and Anne Stine Ingstad. The Viking Discovery of America. New York: Checkmark. pp. 141–169. ISBN 0-8160-4716-2. OCLC 46683692. 
• Wahlgren, Erik (1986, 2000). The Vikings and America. London: Thames & Hudson Ltd. ISBN 0-500-28199-8. OCLC 443027979. 
• "Aboriginal Sites". L'Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site of Canada. Retrieved 6 April 2012. 
• Nash, Ronald T. (1972). "Dorset Culture in Northeastern Manitoba, Canada". Arctic Anthropology (Jstor) 9 (1): 10–16. Retrieved 1 December 2012. 
• Perkins, R.M. (1974). "Norse Implications". The Geographical Journal (Jstor) 140 (2): 199–205. Retrieved 1 December 2012. 

External links

• L'Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site - official site at Parks Canada
• UNESCO
• Skálholt Map
• (English)+(French) 1001wonders.org : World Heritage sites in panophotographies - immersive and interactive panoramic images
• "The Vinland Mystery - documentary produced by the National Film Board of Canada