L’anse aux Meadows, a Canadian National Historic Site in Newfoundland, contains the oldest evidence of European settlement in North America. Discovered in the 1960s, the site includes the remains of eight buildings with several lodges and carpentry facilities. Using the same techniques found in Scandinavia, the occupants also recovered local bog iron, which they refined in a smelting hut. Recovered artifacts suggest that the settlement functioned primarily as a boat repair facility and a base camp for further explorations.
This hypothesis is supported by the recovery of butternuts, which don’t grow that far north. The northern limit of their range is in New Brunswick more than 500 miles southwest of L’anse aux Meadows. That suggests that the Norse visited those areas or at least traded with natives who had access to butternuts.
While there are claims of a Norse presence as far south as Massachusetts and Rhode Island, none of them have been verified. Others as far away as Minnesota and even Oklahoma are even more spurious.
How Big was L’anse aux Meadows?
The historic site covers a little more than 30 square miles of land and ocean. Based on the known buildings, the settlement could support more than 100 people. The lack of graves supports the base camp and boat repair theories. Most archeologists believe the Norse occupied L’anse aux Meadows for roughly 20 years. Carbon dating, tree ring analysis, and artifact matching techniques, place activity between 990 and 1050.
What About Greenland?
As anyone who’s played the Parker Brothers game of Risk knows Greenland is part of North America. From the late 10th through the early 15th centuries, it was home to a small Norse colony. Several thousand colonists made a living farming, fishing, and trading walrus tusks. Once they converted to Christianity, they even had a bishop – or at least a visit from one. The impacts of the plague, weather changes, and European access to African ivory spelled the end of the colony.
Today’s map comes courtesy of Wikipedia.
I recently (2022) visited L’anse aux Meadows. It was a four hour drive from our rental near Rocky Harbor, NL. (FWIW, it would be ~12 hours from St. John) We spent half a day at the site enjoying the museum, a guided site tour, and knowledgeable actors staffing the reconstructed buildings. I would highly recommend a vist to both Newfoundland and L’anse aux Meadows.
As a bonus, here are a few pictures from my visit.
Approach to the Large Lodge
Inside the Large Lodge
Carved doors for a closet or maybe a sleeping bunk
Raised areas show locations of other buildings
As always thanks for reading.
Armen
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