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The Viking Trail
Yes, Newfoundland has marketed highway 430 as The Viking Trail. Weather must be hard on signs. June 27, 2008 L'Anse aux Meadows - Only Viking Site in North America We've got an exciting day ahead of us, and I don't even mind the 6:40 AM departure time to catch the morning ferry back to St. Barbe, because I know it's followed by our drive north to L'Anse aux Meadows (LAM), my prime reason for making this trip.
Most of highway 430 is designated the Viking Trail, good for marketing, but also because the Vikings probably explored a great deal of the area along the Gulf of St. Lawrence as well as much of Newfoundland.
My Dad, ever proud of his 100%!N(MISSING)orwegian heritage, first introduced me to the concept of Vikings exploring "the New World" nearly 500 years before Columbus. (Guess a lot of history books needed rewrites!) Oh how I wish he'd been able to make this trip!
Is This Vinland? In 1960, Norwegian historian Helge Ingstad traveled along the Atlantic coast from Rhode Island north seeking the location of the
Vinland of the Norse sagas. (Once thought of as pure myth, the current understanding of the sagas says there is a great deal of truth in them, blended with
L'Anse aux Meadows
Looking toward the ocean. other elements.)
At every place he stopped, Ingstad asked local residents, “Are there any old rectangular ridges around here?” On the northwestern coast of Newfoundland, George Decker, inhabitant of the tiny village of LAM, said “Yes,” and led Ingstad to the area the locals called Indian mounds.
Ingstad knew he was looking at turf ridges very similar to Norse ruins he'd seen in Greenland.
Excavations at LAM began in 1961 led by Ingstad's wife, Anne Stine Ingstad, an archaeologist trained at the U of Oslo, and they continued during the summers of 1961-64 and 1966-68.
Further excavations by Parks Canada continued in 1973-1976 as well as 2000 and 2002.
The painstaking sifting and processing of excavated material confirmed that the Vikings were here and that the date of the settlement was about 1000.
Most of the information I've used comes from the book
Westward Vikings: The Saga of L'Anse Aux Meadows by Birgitta Linderoth Wallace, Canadian archaeologist who directed the LAM excavations.
History tells us the LAM site was founded by Norse from Iceland who had settled in Greenland a few years earlier. To the uneducated eye, the building remains are not impressive
Viking Ruins
These ridges are all that's left of the original Viking buildings. This is part of the area which was excavated and easy to miss.
From their shape and arrangement, archaeologists established there were eventually three large halls, and each hall was flanked by a small hut. A fourth set of buildings included a open-ended hut with a furnace for making and working iron.
Key Discoveries Key objects, which positively identify the area as a Viking settlement include:
Spindle whorl, soapstone. A spindle whorl is the small flywheel of a hand-held spindle, used to make yarn or thread for weaving and knitting. The shape is the dominant form throughout the entire Viking Age. Found in 1964.
Bronze ringed pin, found in 1968.
Needle hone, made of quartzite, used primarily by women in the Viking Age.
Manufactured iron. Albeit an early type of iron and rather primitive, none of the native cultures in the area worked the iron ore found in the nearby bogs. This was done on a small scale most likely to repair the ships.
The Recreated Settlement Parks Canada recreated a Viking village which provides a look at the simple life lived here. The three buildings were built using sod over a wood frame, the only technique the Norse
A Sod House, Recreated
In the style found at L\'Anse aux Meadows knew at that time. It was heavy, dirty work with sod cut both into rectangular blocks and long strips.
The remains of wooden shovels found here would have cut the block, while a large scythe, with an iron blade, was used for the strips. Width of the walls varied from 4 feet to 8 feet , and the floor was simply packed earth.
A smoke hole in the roof allowed smoke to leave and brought light during the day. Simple benches along the sides were seats by day and sleeping areas by night. Food was stored in various sized pouches hung on the wall.
The day we visited was cool with light drizzle, around 40 degrees with the ever-present wind coming off the water, but a small fire inside the largest hall kept it very comfortable.
I found it interesting that after the years of excavation, the soil and artifacts were returned to the ground, exactly as they were, and we walked freely over and on top of these building fragments.
I can’t begin to cover all aspects of L’Anse aux Meadows here, but there are good books and web sites out there including the
Viking Sod Houses
Parks Canada recreated the type of houses that once stood at this site. book mentioned above.
Many historians and Scandinavian experts do indeed think that the LAM site is part of what was called Vinland in the Sagas. One of the building ruins is very large and indicates that a high-ranking person lived there - very likely Leif Erickson.
Skeptics remain and one person who toured the site with us had plenty of pointed questions for the Parks Canada guide, who adeptly overcame all of the objections.
Leif didn't leave a calling card, but I believe all the signs tell us that this is the settlement where some 60-90 Norse people lived for anywhere from 2-10 years.
L'Anse aux Meadows was the first site named as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and it's one of Canada's National Historic Sites.
Columbus really may have had a Viking map.
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