How old is L'Anse aux Meadows?
Carbon dating places Norse activity at the site between approximately 990 and 1050, with a mean date of 1014. A 2021 study using tree-ring analysis pinpointed the year 1021 as a specific date of Norse activity.
Questions about L'Anse aux Meadows
Short answers, pulled from the story.
Who discovered the Norse ruins at L'Anse aux Meadows?
Norwegian explorer Helge Ingstad and archaeologist Anne Stine Ingstad, led to the site in 1960 by local resident George Decker, conducted seven excavations between 1961 and 1968 with an international team.
Was L'Anse aux Meadows a permanent Norse settlement?
Probably not. Archaeologist Eleanor Barraclough argues it was a temporary boat repair facility, noting the absence of burials, agricultural tools, and animal pens. Anthropologist John Steinberg suggested it was occupied sporadically for perhaps 20 years, though a 2019 study raised the possibility of Norse activity there for as long as a century.
What objects were found at the site?
Excavations recovered over 800 Norse objects, including a bronze fastening pin, a stone oil lamp, a whetstone, a bone needle for nålebinding, a spindle whorl, stone weights possibly from a loom, iron slag from a smithy, and worn boat rivets. Butternuts were also found, indicating the Norse had traveled south of New Brunswick.
Is L'Anse aux Meadows the same as Vinland from the Norse sagas?
The connection is debated. The Saga of the Greenlanders and the Saga of Erik the Red both describe a western land called Vinland, and the two settlements named in those sagas, Leifsbudir and Hóp, have both been claimed as L'Anse aux Meadows. However, a review by Dr. Stuart C. Brown of Memorial University found the identification with Leifsbudir unconvincing.
Were people living at L'Anse aux Meadows before the Norse arrived?
Yes. Five distinct Indigenous groups occupied the site at different times, the oldest dated to roughly 6,000 years ago. The Dorset people lived there about 300 years before the Norse. None of these occupations overlapped with the Norse period.