Vinland: Norse arrival in America (L'Anse aux Meadows)
Vinland: llegada nórdica a América (L'Anse aux Meadows)
- Date
- c. 1000 · confidence high
- Place
- L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland, Canada
- Credited to
- Leif Erikson; site excavated by Helge and Anne Stine Ingstad (1960)
- People
- 👤 Leif Erikson972–1020
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What was discovered
Leif Erikson reached the north-eastern coast of America around the year 1000; the settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows, found in 1960, is the only confirmed archaeological evidence of pre-Columbian European presence. Dendrochronology fixes activity in 1021.
Coordinates of the archaeological site. First documented European contact; the region was inhabited by Indigenous peoples (the 'skrælingar' of the sagas, probably Beothuk or Dorset). Priority over Columbus is a matter of historiographical and political dispute.
What it led to
- Recognition of the first European contact with America, five centuries before Columbus
- Debate over the 'first arrival' in America
- World Heritage status (1978)
Built on
- Viking longship with clinker hull and square sailc. 800-1000
- Colonisation of Greenland
- Bjarni Herjólfsson's sighting (986)
Made possible
- John Cabot's voyage to Newfoundland24 de junio de 1497
- Cosmic-ray dating in tree rings (993 event)