Summative Readings by Birgitta Wallace

Part III: Social and Historical Interpretation

The Norse occupation did not last long, a few years at the most.  This is shown by the small size of their garbage heaps  (the Norse always dumped their garbage just outside the door), in sharp contrast to the huge garbage middens found in Iceland and Greenland where the Norse lived for a long time.  Another indication that the occupation was short is the thin cultural deposits, few artifacts, and the fact that the buildings never needed repair.  Sod buildings of this kind normally need complete rebuilding after fifty years, even faster in exposed areas like L'Anse aux Meadows.¹  Nor is there any sign of burial fields or cemeteries which would be required had the site been occupied for a long period of time.  The even spacing of the three building complexes on the terrace and the architectural details show that all three complexes existed at the same time.

The number of sleeping places available within the complexes gives us an idea of the approximate number of people who lived on the site, anywhere between ca. 70 and 90.  The activities on the site, iron manufacture, smithing, carpentry, and boat repair are all male projects in a Norse context, so it is probably safe to conclude that most of the occupants were men.  Although many Norse men could knit, women almost always did the spinning and sewing, so the spindle whorl indicates the presence of at least some women.  The little needle hone is also of a variety used in women’s sewing kits.  The bronze pin is of a kind used primarily by men in the late Viking Age and was particularly common in the West Norse area (Fanning 1994: 21).

A peculiarity for the site is that each complex is associated with a particular activity: carpentry in the smallest, boat repair in the largest, and fine-smithing and bog ore roasting in the third, plus iron smelting in a spot by itself.  What is truly remarkable about the activities associated with the three complexes is that they form the individual facets of one single operation: 1) the smelting of iron for nails in the furnace hut, 2) various form of iron working in one complex, 3) the exchange of old rusted nails for new ones in a second complex; and 4) the replacing of damaged wooden components of the ship or ships with new ones in the third complex.  These activities would have had to be fully integrated with each other. To do so, would have required a strong leader to plan and coordinate the overall operation.  The integration of activities is another indication that all 3 complexes were occupied at the same time.

The layout of the buildings also shows that people on the site did not enjoy equal status.  Halls A and F are grand halls are of the size and shape normally inhabited only by chieftains and big land owners, the social and economic elite.  Small, separate sleeping/living chambers in each of these halls form the kind of separate quarters usually occupied by the lord of the manor and his family or closest retainers. Thus the two largest halls each housed a person of importance.  The most prominent of the two would have resided in hall F which is also the most complex one.

Hall D was of the kind used by relatively well-to-do farmers but not the elite.  It has fewer rooms than the other two, and only one communal sleeping/eating room indicating a certain equality among its inhabitants.  This communal room is larger than those in the larger halls.

The small one-roomed house B next to one of the halls was of the kind people low on the social scale lived in back in Iceland and Greenland, and the square huts would have been for servants. The small rounded hut C was most likely slave quarters.

By way of summary, we conclude that there was one leader on the site who resided in hall F.  He was assisted by a second-in command who lived in hall A and probably controlled the iron manufacture.  Their closest subordinates lived in the communal hall of hall D.  As can be gleaned from the type of activities on the site, these subordinates formed a work force rather than a normal household.  People of lower status, who were also part of the work force, lived in the s  mall house and the square huts.  Serfs must have been present as well because in the 11th century, sod cutting and digging for bog ore were heavy chores usually done by serfs (Graham-Campbell 1980: 127).  As stated, the round hut was probably their quarters.

One interesting consideration of the L'Anse aux Meadows site is that the site was not a normal Norse community, or the type of settlement established as a result of emigration.  First, its location on the outer exposed coast differs from that of the Greenland settlements, which were all in the protected inner parts of the fjords.  Second, there are no barns or byres for livestock, the normal focus of Norse sustenance.  Instead there are three large halls almost next to each other.  In a normal West Norse community they would have been spaced two to six kilometres apart (Bojsen-Christensen 1991: 159).  There is only minor evidence of common household activities and none of the normal dairy food pantries, present on all Greenland and Iceland farms.  By the same token, the proportions of floor space for storage are abnormally high.  This is an indication that the site was a place where goods were collected and stored.  In my view, resources were brought to L'Anse aux Meadows from distant areas, and the site was a base for further explorations.

SOURCE: Norse Expansion into North America
(Birgitta Linderoth Wallace. 2001. Parks Canada, Halifax and L’Anse aux Meadows)