Norse Voyagers Build Houses at L’Anse aux Meadows

Near the northern tip of Newfoundland, archaeological excavations revealed the first confirmed pre-Columbian European settlement in the Americas beyond Greenland. In 1960, a local resident named George Decker guided Norwegian explorer Helge Ingstad to grassy mounds near the hamlet of L'Anse aux Meadows. From 1961 to 1968, archaeologist Anne Stine Ingstad led excavations with Helge Ingstad that brought to light the foundations of Norse dwellings and workshops, confirming Norse presence in North America centuries before Columbus.

Prior to the arrival of European seafarers, the location had experienced recurrent human occupation spanning thousands of years. Archaeological records show that several Indigenous traditions used the site over thousands of years, including the Maritime Archaic, Groswater and Middle Dorset peoples. These Indigenous occupations occurred centuries before or after the Norse period, meaning that the Norse lived there without direct overlap with Indigenous inhabitants at that exact location.