L’anse Amour National Historic Site and L’anse Amour Lighthouse, Labrador
The Point Amour Lighthouse, completed in 1857, is the tallest lighthouse in Atlantic Canada, and the second tallest one in all of Canada, reaching a height of 125 feet.
This L’anse Amour National Historic Site features the earliest known funeral monument in the New World, created between 6100 and 6600 B.C.E..
L’Anse Amour is the oldest known burial mound in North America, and is part of one of the largest and longest used Aboriginal habitation sites in Labrador. The body had been covered with red ochre, wrapped in a shroud of skins or birch bark, and placed face down, head pointed west, in a large pit 1.5 metres deep. Evidence also indicates the use of ceremonial fires and the cooking and consumption of food. Offerings were made of tools and weapons made of stone and bone. These included a walrus tusk, a harpoon head, paint stones and a bone whistle.
Older human remains have been found in North America and some have obviously been buried (not just found where they died) but might not be considered funeral “monuments”.
Older human remains in North America
