The French-English name translates to Grassland Bay or the bay with grasslands. One theory suggests the name might be a corruption of Jellyfish Cove from an earlier period while another derives it from Medea Cove marked on an 1862 French naval chart.
Five distinct Indigenous groups inhabited the site over thousands years before Norse arrival in Newfoundland. The oldest occupation dates back roughly 6,000 years ago according to archaeological evidence and the most prominent earlier group was the Dorset people who occupied the site about 300 years before the Norse arrived.
Helge Ingstad and his wife Anne Stine Ingstad led an international team to excavate the site between 1961 and 1968. George Decker a resident of the fishing hamlet guided Helge Ingstad to mounds locals called the old Indian camp in 1960.
Carbon dating estimates place Norse activity between 990 and 1050 with a mean date of 1014. A 2021 Nature study used radiocarbon analysis of three separate tree ring samples to pinpoint 1021 as a specific year of activity.
The findings established L'Anse aux Meadows as the only undisputed site of pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact outside Greenland. The Government of Canada named the archaeological site a National Historic Site of Canada in November 1968 and UNESCO designated it a World Heritage Site in 1978 recognizing its global significance for human history.