L'Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site of Canada
Opening of the Norsk Hydro / Petro-Canada Viking Furnace
The Sponsors/The Legacy
Petro-Canada and Norsk Hydro Canada Oil & Gas are active in Newfoundland and Labrador's offshore oil industry and are partners in Hibernia, Terra Nova, and a number of other significant discoveries in the Jeanne d'Arc Basin. The special Viking celebration year in 2000 offered both companies another opportunity to partner - this time in a legacy project to commemorate the Viking Millennium. Participation in the project to construct a replica Viking furnace hut at L'Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site appealed to Norsk Hydro because of the company's Norse heritage, and it complemented Petro-Canada's corporate support of the Vikings! 1000 Years celebrations. The replica of the furnace greatly enhances Parks Canada's presentation of the Viking story at L'Anse aux Meadows.
Scene of the first iron production in North America
At L'Anse aux Meadows, the Vikings collected bog iron ore (abundant in the immediate area) from which they produced iron on the site. The making of iron was probably not planned but a necessity to replace boat nails that had weakened. This is the first known instance of the smelting of ore to produce iron in North America (cold-working of meteoritic iron was known among aboriginal people of North America at this time.) Finding remnants of iron production at the site was an important early clue that Norse had visited. Evidence indicates that the furnace was fired only once producing a yield of about 3 kg of iron. However, without this iron, the occupants may have never again seen their homelands of Greenland and Iceland.
Archaeological evidence of iron working
Evidence of iron working by the Vikings at L'Anse aux Meadows is found in the form of a small furnace that was built of large stones set on their edge to form a low shaft. The inside of the shaft was made airtight with clay. Only a few kilograms of iron could be made in one firing.
The original furnace at L'Anse aux Meadows was set up in a sod hut, which indicates that it was probably built and fired in a spell of bad weather. Similar huts are known from Norway.
A large stone was found near the furnace and is thought to have served as an anvil for the first hammering of the iron after it was retrieved from the furnace. The charcoal kiln was a pit kiln built a short distance away from the hut. It was a simple pit dug into the ground, with wood lit inside, then covered with sod and left to smoulder. Slag and other residue from smelting and smithing slag from forging the iron into objects were also found at the site.
Bellows were used to force air into the furnace to raise the temperature. The Vikings would have taken the original bellows back to Greenland or Iceland. The only original part of these bellows remaining at the site today is the metal mouth piece, also evidenced by holes in the slag where it left an impression. The replica bellows are based on those shown on the portal in Hylestad church in Norway and in the Sigurd carving in Sweden. They were built by an experienced blacksmith familiar with how such bellows function.
A National Historic Site of Canada and UNESCO World Heritage Site
The archaeological site at L'Anse aux Meadows, where evidence reveals a Viking presence in this part of North America about 1000 years ago, was declared to be of national historic significance by the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada in 1968. The United Nations designated it a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1978.
Themes of national historic significance
- L'Anse aux Meadows was occupied in the early 11th century by Vikings, the first Europeans known to have established a site in North America;
- The site was a base camp used by the Vikings to explore and exploit Vinland and other areas mentioned in the Vinland sagas;
- The site is strategically located at the entrance to Vinland; and
- The arrival of the Vikings in Vinland represents the first known contact between North American Aboriginal peoples and Europeans.
Theme of international significance
- L'Anse aux Meadows was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1978 in recognition of its symbolic significance in the history of world-wide exploration and movement of peoples.
Information:
Janet Brewer
> Parks Canada
(709) 458-2417
Mona Rossiter
> Petro-Canada
(709) 778-3691
Janet Lahey
> Norsk Hydro Canada Oil and Gas
(403) 268-7450