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L’Anse aux Meadows - Activity
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Location: East bank of Black Duck Brook
Structures: A long structure (A) with four rooms and two smaller one-room buildings (B and C)
Materials: Each building was built of sod over a timber frame
Observations:
- Charred remains of posts were found on site.
- Two rooms in Hall A contain the remains of central longfires (centrally located fireplaces containing a stone hearth, a cooking pit, and an ember pit used to keep embers burning overnight).
- Buildings B and C each contain a simple fireplace.
- Areas of debris (middens) outside the doorways were found to contain ashes, charcoal, food bones, and a few discarded and broken items. Middens were limited in size and not very deep.
Artifacts:
- Ringed pin found in Hall A – A cross-section reveals that the upper part of the shank is circular while the lower part is square (common to other archaeological sites dating to the 10th century; e.g. Iceland).

Ringed pin. Parks Canada [4A-1413RAT]
- Hall A – Fragments of smithing slag found near a large shallow pit (Slag is the vitreous mass left as a residue by the smelting and smithing of metallic ore.) Similar material was found in House B.

SOURCE: Wallace, Birgitta 1990 “L’Anse aux Meadows: Gateway to Vinland,” Acta Archaeologica vol. 61, p. 173 (fig. 6).
- Ten lumps of smelting slag and some smithing slag were found in Building C.

Slag. Parks Canada [4A 1519-T]