Visual Evidence: The Scandinavian Settlement at L’Anse aux Meadows
This activity corresponds to the "Visual Evidence: The Scandinavian Settlement at L’Anse aux Meadows" feature in your textbook. The questions below are designed to help you learn more about the topic. Once you have answered the Comprehension questions, submit your answers and move on to the subsequent questions included in the Analysis and Outside Sources sections. Each section is designed to build upon the one before it, taking you progressively deeper into the subject you are studying. After you have answered all of the questions, you will have the option of emailing your responses to your instructor.
Introduction
Unlike the ancient Mesopotamians, Egyptians, or Romans, the Norse built neither cities nor huge stone monuments. A largely agricultural people, the Norse lived on individual farms or in small villages, their dwellings and other structures built of highly perishable materials. Consequently, archeologists working on Germanic Northern Europe (including the Viking Age) must draw more conclusions from less evidence than their counterparts working on Mesopotamian and Mediterranean civilizations. This is why the settlement at L’Anse aux Meadows was such an important find. As well as helping scholars determine the location of Vinland, this especially rich and complete site has enabled historians and archeologists to substantially deepen their understanding of daily life among the Viking Age Norse, around the turn of the eleventh century. Use the links and questions below to learn more about Viking Age archeology and its challenges.
Comprehension
1. What did the Ingstads look for as they tried to identify the likely site of Vinland?
2. What conclusions did they draw about the climate of the site around 1000, and how did they reach those conclusions?
3. What indicates that the Viking Age settlers remained at the settlement only for short periods?
Analysis
1. Go to http://canadianmysteries.org/development/sites/vinland/lanseauxmeadows/indexen.html and read more about the archeological site at L’Anse aux Meadows. What conditions account for the fact that archeologists have been able to learn so much about the settlement?
2. At http://www.ioa.ucla.edu/backdirt/Fall99/viking.html, read about recent excavations of Viking Age sites in Iceland. What challenges have archeologists confronted in Iceland that they did not face at L’Anse aux Meadows?
3. The links below take you images of Viking Age houses in Demark.
· The town of Hedeby: http://www.schlossgottorf.de/wmh/haueser.php
· The fortress of Trelleborg: http://www.copenhagenpictures.dk/trlborg.html
What features do these houses share with those at L’Anse aux Meadows? How are they different?
Outside Sources
1. At http://web.comhem.se/vikingbronze/casting.htm, you can read about Viking Age bronze-casting techniques. What kinds of objects did the Vikings make from bronze, and how did they do it?
2. Go to http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/vikg/hd_vikg.htm and read a short overview of Viking Age art. (You can click on the images to enlarge them.) What are the distinctive features of the art of this period?
3. Go to http://www.mnh.si.edu/vikings/voyage/subset/homelands/archeo.html and click on the image of the Mammen Axe. For what do you think this axe was used? What evidence leads you to your conclusion(s)?