L'Anse aux Meadows

L'Anse aux Meadows
National Historic Site*
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Viking colonisation site at L'Anse-aux-Meadows
State Party Flag of Canada.svg Canada
Type Cultural
Criteria vi
Reference 4
Region** Europe and North America
Inscription history
Inscription 1978  (Second Session)
* Name as inscribed on World Heritage List.
** Region as classified by UNESCO.
L'Anse Aux Meadows, 2007 image from NASA's Terra satellite

L'Anse aux Meadows (from the French L'Anse-aux-Méduses or "Jellyfish Cove") is an archaeological site on the northernmost tip of the island of Newfoundland in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Discovered in 1960, it is the site of a Norse village, the only known one in North America outside of Greenland. As of 2008, the site remains the only widely-accepted instance of pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact among those hotly debated by human migration theorists, and is notable for possible connections with the attempted colony of Vinland established by Leif Ericson in around 1003, or more broadly with the Norse colonization of the Americas.

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Etymology

The root of the name "L'Anse aux Meadows" is believed to have originated with French fishermen in the area during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, who named the site L'Anse aux Meduses," meaning "Jellyfish Bay." The modern name is an English corruption of that French name, from Meduses to Meadows, which may have occurred because the landscape in the area tends to be open, with meadows.[1]

Discovery and significance

In 1960, the remains of a Norse village were discovered here by the Norwegian explorer Helge Ingstad and his wife Anne Stine Ingstad, an archaeologist. Archaeologists determined the site is of Norse origin due to definitive similarities between the characteristics of structures and artifacts found at the site and those of Greenlandic and Icelandic sites from around AD 1000.[2]

L'Anse aux Meadows is the only known Norse site in North America outside of Greenland and it represents the farthest known extent of European exploration and settlement of the New World before the voyages of Christopher Columbus almost 500 years later. It was named a World Heritage site by UNESCO in 1978.

Settlement

Archaeological excavation at the site was conducted in the 1960s by an international team led by Anne Stine Ingstad and later, in the 1970s, under the direction of Parks Canada. Following each period of excavation, the site was reburied, in an effort 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 agrees with the relative dating of artifact and structure types.[3] The remains of eight buildings were located. They are believed to have been constructed of sod (turf) placed over a wooden frame. Based on associated artifacts, the buildings were variously identified as dwellings or workshops. The largest dwelling measured 28.8 by 15.6 m (94.5 by 51 ft) and consisted of several rooms.[4] Workshops were identified as an iron smithy containing a forge and iron slag, a carpentry workshop which generated wood debris, and a specialized boat repair area containing worn rivets. Besides those related to iron working, carpentry, and boat repair, many artifacts found at the site consisted of common everyday Norse items, such as a whetstone, a bronze fastening pin, a bone knitting needle, and a stone oil lamp. Food remains included butternuts, which are significant, since these do not grow naturally north of New Brunswick and their presence probably indicates that the Norse inhabitants travelled farther south where they obtained the nuts.[5] Archaeologists concluded that the site was inhabited by the Norse for a relatively short period of time.

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, although none was contemporaneous to the Norse occupation. The most prominent of these earlier occupations were by the Dorset people, who predated the Norse by about 200 years.[6]

Possible 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 then attempted to settle a land to the west of Greenland, identified as Vinland. The Sagas seem to 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, the Skrælings.

While it is not possible to verify that L'Anse aux Meadows is indeed the Vinland of the Sagas, this remains a possibility, and it often is referred to as such in discussions of the site.[4] Some archaeologists believe that the L'Anse aux Meadows site is not Vinland itself, but an exploration base and winter camp for expeditions heading farther south to the real Vinland, which may have extended to the St. Lawrence River and New Brunswick.[5]

Map of Viking Expansion

See also

References and notes

  1. ↑ "L'Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site". Local Attractions. Adventure Boat Tours (2007). Retrieved on 2008-02-12.
  2. ↑ "L'Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site of Canada". Parks Canada (2007). Retrieved on 008-02-12.
  3. ↑ Nydal, Reidar (1989). "A critical review of radiocarbon dating of a Norse settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland, Canada". Radiocarbon 31: 976–985. http://www.digitalcommons.arizona.edu/objectviewer?o=http://radiocarbon.library.arizona.edu/Volume31/Number3/azu_radiocarbon_v31_n3_976_985_v.pdf. 
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Canadian Encyclopedia article on L'Anse aux Meadows.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Is L'Anse aux Meadows Vinland?". L'Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site of Canada. Parks Canada (2003). Retrieved on 2008-01-20.
  6. ↑ "Aboriginal Sites". L'Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site of Canada. Parks Canada (2003). Retrieved on 2008-01-20.

External links

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