techniki: Norse settlement of North America

Evidence: 100 • authority: 72

The Norse settlement of North America, including Greenland, began in the late 10th century AD and lasted for about 500 years. Further west, the evidence is more limited. Only one Canadian settlement has been confirmed: L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland. There is evidence of Norse activity in other parts of Canada, but no trace of the long-term farming colonies found in Greenland. In the present-day United States, there are no confirmed remains. Claimed US discoveries are hoaxes or mistaken identifications. Settlements on Greenland's western coast peaked at a population of 2,000 to 3,000, sustained by pastoral farming on scattered coastal fjords and exports, mainly of walrus ivory, to Europ…

Evidence: 82 • authority: 72

L'Anse aux Meadows is an archaeological site, first excavated in the 1960s, of a Norse settlement dating to approximately 1,000 years ago. The site is located near St. Anthony on the northernmost tip of the island of Newfoundland in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. With carbon dating estimates between 990 and 1050 CE (mean date 1014) and tree-ring dating of 1021, L'Anse aux Meadows is the only undisputed site of pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact of Europeans with the Americas outside of Greenland. It is notable as evidence of the Norse presence in North America and for its possible connection with the accounts of Leif Erikson in the Saga of the Greenlanders and the Saga…

Evidence: 73 • authority: 88

A Critical Review of Radiocarbon Dating of a Norse Settlement at L'Anse Aux Meadows, Newfoundland Canada. Recent progress in high-precision calibrations of radiocarbon dates has led to evaluations of earlier research. This has been the case with dates from the Norse settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows which was discovered by Helge Ingstad in 1960. The most problematic feature of this series up to now was the use of sample material which partly derived from driftwood. The present paper concludes that charcoal from this site demonstrated no greater errors than normal from other settlement sites. With an assumed total systematic error of 30 ± 20 years, as a mean for various tree rings, the calibr…

Evidence: 58 • authority: 80

The Discovery of a Norse Settlement in America. Excavations at L’anse Aux Meadows, Newfoundland 1961–1968 by Anne Stine Ingstad (review)

Evidence: 58 • authority: 80

The discovery of a norse settlement in America. Excavations at L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland, 1961–1968

Evidence: 58 • authority: 80

Paleoecological investigations of the Norse settlement site at L'Anse Aux Meadows, Newfoundland

Evidence: 45 • authority: 72

Newfoundland is a large island within the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. It is situated off the eastern coast of the North American mainland, to the south of Labrador. The island contains 29% of the province's land area, but is home to over 90% of the province's population, with about 60% of the province's population located on the small southeastern Avalon Peninsula. The island is separated from the Labrador Peninsula by the Strait of Belle Isle and from Cape Breton Island by the Cabot Strait. It blocks the mouth of the Saint Lawrence River, creating the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the world's largest estuary. Newfoundland's nearest neighbour, at only 19 km (12 mi) away, is th…

Evidence: — • authority: 92

New horizons at L'Anse aux Meadows.. The UNESCO World Heritage site of L'Anse aux Meadows (LAM) in northern Newfoundland is the only undisputed site of pre-1492 presence of Europeans in the Americas. In August 2018, we undertook fieldwork at LAM to sample the peat bog 30 m east of the Norse ruins for a multiproxy paleoenvironmental assessment of Norse settlement. Instead, we encountered a new cultural horizon. Here we report our fieldwork at this iconic site and a Bayesian analysis of legacy radiocarbon data, which nuance previous conclusions and suggest Norse activity at LAM may have endured for a century. In light of these findings, we reflect on how the cultural horizon, containing nonna…