One interesting factoid about this site was that Canada had nothing to do with its discovery. Rather it was a Norweigian explorer and archeologist couple who discovered and investigated the site. Helge Ingstad was fascinated with the Norse sagas which are written records of old Norse oral traditions. The sagas describe how the Norse hopped across the North Atlantic via the Shetland and Faroe Islands to Iceland and Greenland. The classic Norse exploration strategy was to never wander too far from the coast and risk getting lost in the middle of the ocean. With this route they were always within 2-3 days of shore. One day, a vicious North Atlantic storm blew a Norseman way off course and he wound up far south from Greenland. He discovered what sounds like modern day Labrador and he rushed back to Greenland to report his discovery. The Norse then set off on an expedition and they reportedly found a land where grapes thrived and they called this new land "Vinland". Vinland has been the source of much speculation for modern day historians who have unsuccessfuly tried to determine its exact location. Interestingly, the farthest north one could find grapes growing on the eastern North American coast in today's climate would be the Boston area.
Helge Ingstad was interested in Vinland and was hoping to find evidence of North American settlement by the Norse. He reasoned that Labrador and Newfoundland would be the best places to start and so in the late 50s he explored the coastlines hoping to find clues. While in the L'Anse Aux Meadows area he found a small, isolated fishing village; there were no roads up here at the time and the only access was by boat. He casually asked their leader if there were any ruins nearby. Well, there just happened to be some ruins nearby which the locals have deferentially avoided since they thought they were aboriginal burial mounds. He decided to investigate and in 1960 L'Anse Aux Meadows was discovered.
Like many names in Newfoundland, L'Anse Aux Meadows is an English corruption of the French name L'Anse Aux Meduses or "Jellyfish Cove". Nonetheless, "meadows" is an appropriate name judging from the scenery:
You can make out the cove in the background with the foundations of old housing structures in the foreground. Archeologists have concluded that the shoreline would have been much closer to the houses 500 years ago which for the Vikings, a sea-faring people, would have been very important. Another clue was the yellowish colour of the bog water -- a sign of the presence of bog iron. (I now know why the tap water in St. Anthony has a distinct yellow tinge to it!). The Norse were apparently the only European sea-faring people who had expertise in smelting this type of iron. Another factoid was that the bog iron here had a high silica (sand) content. While normally considered an impurity, when smelted the iron would be "contaminated" by glass. Since glass doesn't rust, this resulted in rust resistant iron nails for constructing Viking ships. A "useful impurity" -- quite an oxymoron.Oh yes, I also learned the difference between a Norseman and a Viking: "Viking" is actually a Norse verb and it means to raid and plunder. Its use as a noun refers to the Norse warriors who'd go on Viking expeditions. So, all Vikings are Norsemen but not all Norsemen are Vikings. Other interesting factoids include: 1) Norsemen on average were 4'10" (interesting considering their fearsome reputation as warriors), 2) the average life expectancy was 40 for a male, 25-30 for a female (urk), and 3) Erik the Red was a bit of a troublemaker and was exiled to Greenland as punishment.
The Ingstads were hoping for archeological proof that L'Anse Aux Meadows was Norse in origin and they found it near the fireplace of one of the structures: a distinctive metal pin used to close a cloak was found and the rest is history. Parks Canada came in to excavate the site once the Ingstads announced their discovery and everything was reburied in an attempt to preserve the artifacts that were found.
Despite all the doom and gloom about the high Canadian dollar discouraging tourism there was an eclectic mix of tourists with me on the day that I went: Americans, Europeans, and some Japanese students were there. The original site itself is an unimpressive collection of mounds overlooking the cove. Parks Canada has erected a simulated Norse village adjacent to the site and local actors dress up in period costume to recreate the experience.
It was a nice sunny day but characteristically breezy. There was even a moose wandering around nearby which caught the attention of all the tourists. After spending a few hours at the site I next headed for some lunch at one of the finest restaurants in Newfoundland and also ranked as one of the top 100 restaurants in Canada: The Norseman. Apparently the cook has had no formal training and essentially trained himself by throwing frequent dinner parties and experimenting. I spent about $66 for lunch but the food was excellent: butternut squash soup, "Surf and Turf" caribou steak and scallops, and a chocolate cake dessert. I normally don't spend this much money on food but for food this good I'm sure I'll be coming back quite frequently!
