page_title: L'Anse aux Meadows
section_title: Norse site (c. 1000)
hierarchical_section_title: L'Anse aux Meadows / History / Norse site (c. 1000)
caption_attribution_description: English: The Skálholt-map made by the icelandic teacher Sigurd Stefansson in the year 1570. Description Greenlands from Bjørn Jonsen of Skarsaa in Iceland from the year 1669, latin by Theodor Thorlac. Note: Helleland ('Stone Land'=Baffin island) Markland ('forest land'=Labrador) Skrælinge Land ('land of the savages'=Labrador) Promontorium Vinlandiæ (the promontory/cape of Vinland=Newfoundland) Deutsch: Die Skálholt-Karte des isländischen Lehrers Sigurd Stefánsson aus dem Jahr 1570. Mit einer Beschreibung Grönlands von Björn Jonsen, lateinisch von Theodor Thorlac - beide Isländer - im Jahre 1669 فارسی: نقشه‌ای که آموزگار ایسلندی سیگورد استفانسون در سال ۱۵۷۰ در دهکده اسکالهولت ایسلند ترسیم کرده‌است. مناطق پایین‌تر از گرینلند در آن به ترتیب این‌گونه نامیده شده‌اند: هلولند (سرزمین تخته‌سنگ‌ها - جزیره بافین)، مارکلند (سرزمین پردرخت - لابرادور)، اسکارلینگه‌لند (سرزمین بومیان وحشی - لابرادور)، و سنگپوز وینلند (نیوفاندلند).
context_page_description: L'Anse aux Meadows is an archaeological site on the northernmost tip of the Great Northern Peninsula on the island of Newfoundland in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Archaeological evidence of a Norse presence was discovered at L'Anse aux Meadows in the 1960s. It is the only confirmed Norse site in or near North America outside of the settlements found in Greenland.
  Dating to c. 1000, L'Anse aux Meadows is widely accepted as evidence of pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact. It is notable for its possible connection with Leif Erikson, and with the Norse exploration of North America. It was named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1978.
context_section_description: The Norse settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows has been dated to approximately 1,000 years ago (carbon dating estimate 990–1050 CE), an assessment that tallies with the relative dating of artifact and structure types.
  Today the area mostly consists of open, grassy lands, but 1000 years ago there were forests that were convenient for boat-building, house-building and iron extraction. The remains of eight buildings (labeled from A–J) were found. They are believed to have been constructed of sod placed over a wooden frame. Based on associated artifacts, the buildings were identified as dwellings or workshops. The largest dwelling (F) measured 28.8 m × 15.6 m (94 ft × 51 ft) and consisted of several rooms. Three small buildings (B, C, G) may have been workshops or living quarters for lower-status crew or slaves. Workshops were identified as an iron smithy (building J) containing a forge and iron slag, a carpentry workshop (building D), which generated wood debris and a specialized boat repair area containing worn rivets.
  Other things found at the site consisted of common everyday Norse items, including a stone oil lamp, a whetstone, a bronze fastening pin, a bone knitting needle and part of a spindle. Stone weights, which were found in building G, may have been part of a loom. The presence of the spindle and needle suggests that women as well as men inhabited the settlement.
  There is no way of knowing how many people lived at the site at any given time; archaeological evidence of the dwellings suggest it had the capacity of supporting 30 to 160 people. The entire population of Greenland at the time was about 2,500, meaning that the L'Anse aux Meadows site was less than 10 percent of the Norse settlement on Greenland. As Julian D. Richards notes: "It seems highly unlikely that the Norse had sufficient resources to construct a string of such settlements."
  Food remains included butternuts, which are significant because they do not grow naturally north of New Brunswick. Their presence probably indicates the Norse inhabitants traveled farther south to obtain them. There is evidence to suggest that the Norse hunted an array of animals that inhabited the area. These included caribou, wolf, fox, bear, lynx, marten, all types of birds and fish, seal, whale and walrus. This area is no longer rich in game due in large part to the harsh winters. This forces the game to either hibernate or venture south as the wind, deep snow, and sheets of ice cover the area. These losses made the harsh winters very difficult for the Norse people at L'Anse aux Meadows. This lack of game supports archaeologists' beliefs that the site was inhabited by the Norse for a relatively short time.
  Eleanor Barraclough, a lecturer in medieval history and literature at Durham University, suggests the site was not a permanent settlement, instead a temporary boat repair facility. She notes there are no findings of burials, tools, agriculture or animal pens—suggesting the inhabitants abandoned the site in an orderly fashion. According to a 2019 PNAS study, there may have been Norse activity in L'Anse aux Meadows for as long as a century.
caption: The 1590 Skálholt Map showing Latinized Norse placenames in North America:[11]
   • Land of the Risi  (a mythical location)
   • Greenland 
   • Helluland  (Baffin Island)
   • Markland  (the Labrador Peninsula)
   • Land of the Skrælingjar  (location undetermined)
   • Promontory of Vinland  (the Great Northern Peninsula)
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