Robert: Here is some information L'anse aux Meadows, the most definitive evidence(the only evidence not shrouded in hoax theories and debate) of a Viking landing and settlement in North America.

Brief History

Over the years many different peoples inhabited the L'Anse aux Meadows site and many researchers have contributed to our understanding of this important archaeological site. The following is a brief historical summary of this site.

ca. 6000 B.P.

Native peoples began using this location.

ca. 1000 A.D.

Norse Settlement

1500 to late 1800's

Area is visited by French migratory fishermen and possibly Basque whalers.

ca. 1835

The present day community of L'Anse aux Meadows is founded by William Decker.

1914

W.A. Munn of Newfoundland hypothesizes that the Norse landed at L'Anse aux Meadows.

1960

Helge Ingstad visits L'Anse aux Meadows and is shown some overgrown ridges by George Decker, a local resident.

1961-68

Excavations led by Anne Stine Ingstad

1973-76

Further excavations undertaken by Parks Canada

1977

Site is designated a National Historic Site.

September 8, 1978

Site is recognized as one of the world's major archaeological properties and is designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

1984

New Visitor Centre opens.

August 2, 1991

" Vinland Revisited - One Thousand years of Discovery, " L'Anse aux Meadows is visited by the Gaia, a replica viking ship on a voyage from Norway to Washington D.C.

Discovery of the Site and Initial Excavations(1960 – 1968)

Helge Ingstad, Norwegian explorer and writer came upon the site while searching for Norse landing places along the coast from New England northward.

While in L’anse aux Meadows a resident by the name of George Decker led Helge to  a group of overgrown bumps and ridges that could have been building remains.

This led to the unearthing of a small colony Ingstad proved to be a Viking colony.

For the next years Helge and his wife Anne led an international team of archaeologists from Norway, Sweden, Iceland and U.S. to excavate the site.

8 Norse buildings were uncovered dated around the 11^th century.

Walls and roofs of sod laid over a supporting frame of wood; typical Viking architecture of the same kind used in Greenland and Iceland just before and after the year 1000 A.D.

Artifacts were also unearthed consistent with the Viking theory(i.e. a bronze ring – headed pin 

 Vikings used to fasten their cloaks, a stone oil lamp, a small spindle whorl once used as the flywheel of a handheld spindle, a fragment of a bone needle believed to have been used for knitting and a small decorated brass fragment that had once been gilded). These are all things that had been consistently found at the Viking settlements of Greenland and Iceland.

These finds concluded that the entire colony did not consist of only men, but of women as well.

The most important finds at this site that unanimously confirmed the site to be Norse were the slag produced from smelting and working with iron and a large number of boat nails, or rivets.

Excavations by Parks Canada(1973 – 1976)

http://www.pc.gc.ca/~/media/lhn-nhs/nl/meadows/parkmap.ashx (Map of L’anse aux Meadows from Parks Canada website. Referenced throughout.)

Parks Canada excavated new sites around the Viking colony.

Of the new areas excavated was a peat bog below the Norse building terrace which held three separate layers with a total of 2000 pieces of worked wood. One of these layers was from the Norse occupation and was mostly debris from smoothing and trimming logs and planks with metal tools(relating to the sagas account of timber preparation for Greenland).

There was also broken and discarded objects among which laid what was probably a floorboard from a small Norse boat.

The Norse site included 3 compounds each with a dwelling and a workshop.

The major purpose of these buildings was to serve as winter living quarters for the whole group but each complex housed specialized craftsmen.

The smiths most likely lived in the complex closest to the brook in houses A, B and C(Parks Canada map). They roasted bog iron ore in building B and used one room of house A for smithing.

Figure H shows a forge on the opposite side of the brook where iron was smelted.

The D and E(which is a typo on the map as a second "F") building complex was probably home to carpenters as the wood debris was found in the bog just below it.

The specialized activity in the F and G was ship repair. The excavators found many rivets that had been deliberately cut and removed from boats to be replaced with new ones, presumably forged in house A.

After this dig the site was buried in white sand in order to preserve it.

Is L’anse aux Meadows Vinland?

Vinland was first recorded by Adam of Bremen, a geographer and historian, in his book Descriptio insularum Aquilonis of approximately 1075.

To write it he visited King Svend Estridson who had knowledge of the northern lands.

It was King Estridson that told Adam that Vinland was named so because of the wild grapes that grew there.

Some historians explain this away by saying it was a marketing attempt to get more people to settle there, much like Erik the Red’s naming of Greenland.

This leads certain historians to believe that Vinland is further south than Newfoundland, on which 

L’anse aux Meadows resides.

Based on the most recent analyses of the sagas and archaeological and palaeoecological evidence L’anse aux Meadows is believed to be a place where ships could be hauled ashore and tended to so that they would be safe for the long voyage home.

The site itself was a base and a winter camp for people exploring regions further from Greenland.

Some of the voyages must have taken them as far south as the St. Lawrence River and New Brunswick.

This is known because butternuts were found amongst Norse objects but have never grown in Newfoundland. 

Today their northern limit is in northeastern New Brunswick.

New Brunswick is also the northern limit on wild grapes. The Vikings may have found the wild grapes on one of their excursions and named the place in which they found them Vinland.

Although L’anse aux Meadows is not Vinland – Vinland was a country not a place – the site would have marked the entrance to Vinland, which probably extended to the St. Lawrence River and New Brunswick.

L’anse aux Meadows played a vital role for those groups of people far from home that wanted to explore even further.

Although most members of the group were free to travel as far south as they liked enough people stayed at L’anse aux Meadows to collect food and fuel and support the explorers and themselves during the winter.

Not having to return to Greenland for supplies they could devote more time to exploration and accumulating valuable goods for resale in Greenland.

As winter approach everyone probably returned to L’anse aux Meadows to celebrate Christmas and tell stories of their adventures.

It is not known for how many years this persisted but the remains suggest that it could not have been for too long.

It was more practical to go to Europe as it was just as close as L’anse aux Meadows and had more to offer. Vinland was forgotten and along with the the small outpost of L’anse aux Meadows.