CNHS - L'Anse aux Meadows
N 51° 35.718 W 055° 31.951
21U E 601646 N 5717048
Has been an historic site since 1977 and named a Unesco World Heritage site in 1978.
Waymark Code: WM4P84
Location: Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada
Date Posted: 09/14/2008
Views: 52
In the past four to five thousand years, many people have lived at l'Anse aux Meadows; some stayed longer than others. Among these people was a small group of Norse sailors. The remains of their camp, discovered in 1960 by Helge and Anne Stine Ingstad, is the oldest known European settlement of the New World.
In 1960 a Norwegian explorer and writer, Helge Ingstad, came upon the site at L'Anse aux Meadows. He was making an intensive search for Norse landing places along the coast from New England northward. At L'Anse aux Meadows, a local inhabitant, George Decker, led him to a group of overgrown bumps and ridges that looked as if they might be building remains. They later proved to be all that was left of that old colony. For the next eight years, Helge and his wife, archaeologist Anne Stine Ingstad, led an international team of archaeologists from Norway, Iceland, Sweden, and the United States in the excavation of the site.
Parks Canada continued excavation of the site from 1973 to 1976. Among the new areas excavated by Parks Canada was the peat bog below the Norse building terrace. Three separate layers with a total of about 2000 pieces of worked wood were discovered. One of these layers was from the Norse occupation. The wood there was largely debris from smoothing and trimming logs and planks with metal tools - a reminder of the Sagas' description of timber being prepared to take back to Greenland. There were also broken and discarded objects, including what was probably a floorboard from a small Norse boat.
Classification: National Historic Site
Province or Territory: Newfoundland & Labrador
Location - City name/Town name: L'Anse aux Meadows, NL
Link to Parks Canada entry (must be on www.pc.gc.ca): [Web Link]
Link to HistoricPlaces.ca: Not listed
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