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L'Anse aux Meadows is an archaeological site, first excavated in the 1960s, of a Norse settlement dating to approximately 1,000 years ago.

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 of Erik the Red, which were written down in the 13th century. Archaeological evidence suggests the settlement served as a base camp for Norse exploration of North America, including regions to the south. Spanning 8,000 hectares (31 sq mi) of land and sea, the site contains the remains of eight buildings constructed of sod over a wood frame, with over 800 Norse objects unearthed, including bronze, bone, and stone artifacts, and evidence of iron production. The site was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1968 and a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1978, and is managed by Parks Canada.

L'Anse aux Meadows is a French-English name which can be translated as "Grassland Bay" (lit. L'Anse aux Meadows might be a corruption of the French L'Anse aux Méduses (Jellyfish Cove).

Before the Norse arrived in Newfoundland, there is evidence of occupations by five Indigenous groups at the site of L'Anse aux Meadows, the oldest dated to roughly 6,000 years ago.

The Norse settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows has been dated to approximately 1000 CE (carbon dating estimates 990–1050, with a mean carbon date of 1014), an assessment that tallies with the relative dating of artifact and structure types. A 2021 Nature study, using radiocarbon analysis of three separate tree ring samples and evidence from the anomaly in atmospheric 14C concentrations in the year 993, pinpointed 1021 as a date of Norse activity at L'Anse aux Meadows. According to a 2019 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America study, there may have been Norse activity in L'Anse aux Meadows for as long as a century. The entire population of Greenland at the time was about 2,500, meaning that the L'Anse aux Meadows site harbored far fewer than 10 percent of the number living at the Norse settlements on Greenland. Archaeological remains of Norse buildings were discovered at L'Anse aux Meadows by the Norwegian husband-wife team of explorer Helge Ingstad and archaeologist Anne Stine Ingstad, who led an international team excavating during 1961–1968. In 1960, George Decker, a resident of the fishing hamlet of L'Anse aux Meadows, led Helge Ingstad to a group of mounds near the village that the locals called the "old Indian camp". L'Anse aux Meadows is the only confirmed Norse site in North America outside Greenland, and represents the farthest known extent of European exploration and settlement of the New World before the voyages of Christopher Columbus almost 500 years later. In November 1968, the Government of Canada named the archaeological site a National Historic Site of Canada. After L'Anse aux Meadows was named a national historic site, the area, and its related tourist programs, have been managed by Parks Canada. The remains of seven Norse buildings are on display at the national historic site.

The settlements of Vinland mentioned in these two sagas, Leifsbudir (founded by Leif Erikson) and Hóp (Norse Greenlanders), have both been claimed to be the L'Anse aux Meadows site. In his review Brown wrote, "...Dr. lngstad's Procrustean attempt to demonstrate that L'Anse aux Meadows is Leifsbudir is wholly unconvincing..."

Quick Facts

• 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.
• L'Anse aux Meadows might be a corruption of the French L'Anse aux Méduses (Jellyfish Cove).
• The settlements of Vinland mentioned in these two sagas, Leifsbudir (founded by Leif Erikson) and Hóp (Norse Greenlanders), have both been claimed to be the L'Anse aux Meadows site.
• After L'Anse aux Meadows was named a national historic site, the area, and its related tourist programs, have been managed by Parks Canada.
• Before the Norse arrived in Newfoundland, there is evidence of occupations by five Indigenous groups at the site of L'Anse aux Meadows, the oldest dated to roughly 6,000 years ago.

Source material: Wikipedia - "L'Anse aux Meadows". Adapted and summarized for DiscoverScroll. Original contributors are credited through the linked Wikipedia article. Read original on Wikipedia. CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes were made from the original.