L’Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland
L’Anse aux Meadows is an archaeological site on the northernmost tip of the island of Newfoundland where an 11th-centry Viking settlement was discovered in the 1960s.
L’Anse aux Meadows is the only confirmed Norse site in North America outside of Greenland. 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.
L’Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site is authentic in location and setting, forms and designs, and materials and substances. Ample archival evidence shows the property to correspond with the journeys described in the Norse sagas.
Extensive archaeological research after the site’s discovery in 1960 revealed that the timber-framed structures were constructed with a particular type of gabled roof and covered with turf taken from the surrounding peat bog. The layout of the rooms, fireplaces and openings followed the characteristics of Norse design. Excavation uncovered evidence of iron production using bog iron at the site, as well as approximately 800 wooden, bronze, bone, and stone artefacts that confirm the Norse origins of the property and provide important information on the work and lifestyle of the site’s occupants. Jasper (used to start fire like flint and steel) can be traced back to Iceland and Greenland.
Currently they are mapping the site using a magnetometer to look for signs of other Norse evidence or any First Nation sites.
Enactors help to explain how the Norsemen lived and explain that Viking is a verb used when Norsemen go pillaging. Norsemen were no longer going viking and Leif Erikson came on trade ships called Knarrs. Viking Trade Ship
Seal oil or whale oil was used for lamps and a small fire was used for cooking. They ate mostly seal, fish, and whale. Food like beans, lentils, and barley hangs in bags on the wall. A loom uses stones to pull down on the yarn.
