Norse America: Reports and Reassessments

The discovery of what proved to be a Norse site at L'Anse aux Meadows, an isolated location on the north coast of Newfoundland, near the eastern opening of the Strait of Belle Isle, in i960 brought a new dimension to the history and archaeology of European contacts with North America, apart from the long-debated literary-historical authority of the Sagas. Helge Ingstad, lawyer, traveller and scholar, and his wife, the archaeologist, Anne Stine Ingstad, found it in i960, and presided over its excavation during seven seasons between 1962 and 1968. To their skill, scholarship and tenacity lasting credit is due. Helge provided the drive in getting resources for the project and searching for comparable materials with which to assist in its identification, while Anne Stine carefully worked over the ground, organizing the excavation professionally and commanding successive teams of helpers during a long and arduous dig. Initial scepticism gradually gave way to acceptance of the discovery as what the Ingstads claimed it to be, and by 1968 it had been almost universally accepted as the first authenticated indication of the Norse presence in North America in the early years of the eleventh century, and proving that something, at least, of the Sagas was history rather than fiction. At last Vinland had a presence and a name. Anne Stine Ingstad published a preliminary report on the excavations in 19701 and a