The Vikings of L'Anse aux Meadows
Norse sagas told of a land called Vinland to the west. In 1960 a Norwegian couple found Viking houses in Newfoundland.
What was reported
Icelandic sagas tell of Leif Eriksson and others sailing west from Greenland around the year 1000 to lands they called Helluland, Markland and Vinland. For centuries historians argued over whether the voyages really happened.
In 1960 the Norwegian explorer Helge Ingstad and his wife, the archaeologist Anne Stine Ingstad, were shown grassy mounds at L'Anse aux Meadows by a local man, George Decker. Excavations revealed Norse turf buildings, an iron forge and a bronze cloak pin.
Explanations offered
It's the only confirmed Norse site in North America and the earliest known European presence in the Americas. A 2021 study of tree rings in wood cut with metal tools dated activity there to the year 1021. Whether it was the Vinland of the sagas, or a base for reaching it, is still debated.
- When
- Found in 1960
- Where
- L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland, Canada
- Witnesses
- Helge and Anne Stine Ingstad, guided by a local man
- Status
- Confirmed
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.