L'Anse Aux Meadows, Leif Eriksson's Home in Vinland

Wallace, Birgitta

doi:10.3721/037.002.s212

Cited by 42 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…In this context, exploration and the establishment of outposts in the hinterland of Vatnahverfi was unlikely to have been an immediate priority (cf. Wallace, 2009). Accepting such a scenario, the slightly delayed appearance of shielings would reflect a natural progression in response to population pressure.…”

Section: Was the Mountain Farm A Shieling?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Shieling activity in the Norse Eastern Settlement: Palaeoenvironment of the ‘Mountain Farm’, Vatnahverfi, Greenland

2013

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Transhumance agriculture formed a key component of subsistence strategies in the Norse economies of the North Atlantic, with evidence of shielings or saeters found in Norway, Scotland, the Faroe Islands and Iceland. It is frequently assumed to have played a role in Norse Greenland, yet little enquiry has been made into such activity. This paper seeks to address this deficit, presenting the first palaeoenvironmental study of a suspected Greenlandic shieling site in the uplands of the former Norse Eastern Settlement. Pollen analysis, 14 C and associated proxies are used to date and assess the environmental and landscape impact of shieling activity. Evidence for vegetation disturbance associated with Norse settlement is indicated from c. AD 985, but the shieling itself is interpreted as having been established somewhat later (cal. AD 1050-1150). Initially the site appears to have been used exclusively for grazing of livestock and there is tentative evidence for the use of burning to stimulate the spread of pastures. Pollen influx figures suggest the initiation or intensification of hay production cal. AD 1225-1325, reflecting either the spread of settlement from the lowland valleys, or evolution of the site into a full farm in response to population pressure. A reduction of human impact cal. AD 1300-1390 suggests a reversion to shieling activity,

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Section: Was the Mountain Farm A Shieling?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Shieling activity in the Norse Eastern Settlement: Palaeoenvironment of the ‘Mountain Farm’, Vatnahverfi, Greenland

2013

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“…The Norse site at L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland, is probably the remains of Leifr Eiriksson (Leif Erikson)'s exploration camp of ca. AD 1000 (Wallace 2009). Although Vinland was largely forgotten, a geographic memory of the Norse route to the west may have echoed into early modern times: Newfoundland's northern tip, which faces the Strait, is the only part of the North American coast that we can securely associate with Zuan Chabotto (John Cabot)'s exploratory voyage of 1497 (Pope 2000).…”

Section: A Brief Ethnohistorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Bretons, Basques, and Inuit in Labrador and northern Newfoundland: The control of maritime resources in the 16th and 17th centuries

Pope

2016

etudinuit

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Sur la côte atlantique du Canada, les premiers contacts entre Européens et Inuit soulèvent un problème complexe de l’ethnohistoire de l’exploitation des ressources. Au XVIe siècle, les équipages bretons, normands et basques ont développé une industrie saisonnière de pêche et de salaison de la morue sur les côtes du nord de Terre-Neuve et du sud du Labrador, autour de la même période où les Inuit se déplaçaient vers le sud, le long de la côte du Labrador. Les Basques exploitaient également le détroit de Belle Isle, entre Terre-Neuve et le Labrador, pour chasser la baleine à partir du rivage. À un certain moment, avant 1620, les Européens paraissent s’être retirés du Labrador jusque vers 1680, époque où les marchands canadiens de Québec ont commencé à exploiter les saumons et les phoques du détroit, tandis que les équipages saisonniers français effectuaient à nouveau des poussées vers le nord à partir de Terre-Neuve. Le retrait des Européens du Labrador coïncide dans une large mesure avec une longue guérilla menée par les Inuit contre les pêcheurs bretons et basques qui exploitaient la Grande Péninsule du Nord de Terre-Neuve. La coïncidence chronologique laisse penser que le déplacement des Inuit vers le sud du Labrador à la fin du XVIe siècle pourrait bien avoir incité les Européens à éviter cette côte durant la plus grande partie du XVIIe siècle. On peut contextualiser les attitudes des Français envers les Inuit du Labrador en les comparant avec des façons contemporaines d’envisager les relations entre Européens et Inuit dans d’autres lieux. Il est plus difficile de cerner les attitudes des Inuit envers les Européens, mais le fait d’admettre qu’ils luttaient pour avoir accès aux ressources constitue une avancée pour reconnaître l’agir des Inuit dans l’histoire.Early Euro-Inuit contacts in Atlantic Canada raise a complex issue in the ethnohistory of resource exploitation. In the 16th century, Breton, Norman, and Basque crews developed a seasonal salt-cod fishery on the coasts of northern Newfoundland and southern Labrador, in about the same period that the Inuit moved southwards along the Labrador coast. The Basques also exploited the Strait of Belle Isle, between Newfoundland and Labrador, for shore-based whaling. Sometime before 1620, Europeans then appear to have withdrawn from Labrador until about 1680, when Canadian merchants based in Quebec began to exploit the Strait for salmon and seals, while French migratory crews edged northwards again from Newfoundland. European withdrawal from Labrador largely coincided with a long-running guerrilla war, waged by the Inuit against Breton and Basque fishermen exploiting Newfoundland’s Great Northern Peninsula. The chronological coincidence suggests that the movement of Inuit into southern Labrador by the end of the 16th century may well have motivated Europeans to avoid this coast through much of the 17th century. French attitudes to the Labrador Inuit can be contextualized by comparison with contemporary understandings of Euro-Inuit relations elsewhere. Inuit attitude...

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“…According to medieval sources, timber was imported from Norway and regions on the north-east coast of North America (Halldórsson 1978;Seaver 1996;Wallace 2003), and excavations of Norse Greenlandic sites have generated large quantities of wood artefacts and debris. In this article, wood taxa analysis, a method that has been used successfully in the study of a number of North Atlantic and Arctic archaeological contexts, is used to distinguish between imported, drift and native wood (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Timber imports to Norse Greenland: lifeline or luxury?

Guðmundsdóttir¹

2023

Antiquity

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The native trees of Greenland are unsuitable for larger construction projects or shipbuilding. Instead, the Norse colonists (AD 985–1450) relied on driftwood and imported timber. The provenance and extent of these imports, however, remain understudied. Here, the author uses microscopic anatomical analyses to determine the taxa and provenance of wood from five Norse Greenlandic sites. The results show that while the needs of most households were met by local woodlands and driftwood, elite farms had access to timber imports from Northern Europe and North America. By demonstrating the range of timber sources used by the Greenland Norse, the results illustrate connectivity across the medieval North Atlantic world.

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L'Anse Aux Meadows, Leif Eriksson's Home in Vinland

Cited by 42 publications

References 6 publications

Shieling activity in the Norse Eastern Settlement: Palaeoenvironment of the ‘Mountain Farm’, Vatnahverfi, Greenland

Shieling activity in the Norse Eastern Settlement: Palaeoenvironment of the ‘Mountain Farm’, Vatnahverfi, Greenland

Bretons, Basques, and Inuit in Labrador and northern Newfoundland: The control of maritime resources in the 16th and 17th centuries

Timber imports to Norse Greenland: lifeline or luxury?

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