 | THE NORSE |
| THE NORSE |
THE MODERN RECONSTRUCTION
Anyway, now that I've managed to infiltrate myself into the site and we can go for a wander down to the interesting bits.
In case you are wondering, the buildings that you see here are not original Norse buildings, and they aren't even built on the same site as the originals. They are reconstructions built by the archaeological team using the best available historical evidence.
You will notice the darker green ring mounds in the foreground of the photograph. It is these that are the outlines of the original Norse buildings here.
I'm not quite sure about the purpose of the palisade here. It might be an attempt to show how the original buildings were fortified, although it doesn't look anything like strong enough to repel a horde of determined Skraelings, the Norse term for the local inhabitants.
It can't even keep out a determined tourist carrying a large stuffed moose and a camera
Before entering the compound I feel obliged to go for a walk around the perimeter of the site. To inspect the defences and look for any weak spots, one supposes. It's the kind of thing that you do. You can see the buildings much more clearly from a closer viewpoint such as this.
I don't think that the plank road in the foreground is of any particular Norse significance, said he, tongue in cheek.
And as well as that, I don't like the look of those rocks just offshore, especially as you are dependant upon a sail, a wind in a certain and very precise direction, a tidal ebb and flow and a body of exhausted oarsmen to help you negotiate a safe passage to shore.
Ripping the bottom of your boat can have devastating consequences if you end up marooned somewhere around here at the mercy of the winter weather and the Skraelings. In fact one of the Norse longships, that of Thorhall Gamlason, did go missing during a voyage in this region and on another occasion Thorfinn Karlsefni sighted a keel of a longship on some rocks along the coast.
So having strolled the perimeter, we can go within and inspect the buildings much more closely. After all, that's why I'm here.
There are no signposts, placards or tourist information (if you do go scaling walls and roofs outside of the usual tourist season you can't expect the red carpet treatment), and in the absence thereof I'm going to have to guess at the purpose that the buildings served.
Strawberry Moose has a quick perusal of the building of course.
So guessing at what each building might be, I would say that this is the central hub of any Norse settlement such as this - the long house. I suppose that the aim of such a building would be to promote communal living, for ease of heating, ease of defence and to promote solidarity in a "challenging" environment.
It also makes sense too from a building point of view. To build one large building rather than a series of individual dwellings takes less material and less time
We wander over to have a look at the door. It's quite small, but whether that means that the Norse were vertically-challenged (certainly in early Medieval times the average height was smaller than it is today) or they stooped to enter, that is not clear.
And note the very typical early 11th Century Norse padlock on the door. Dug up from a bog in Westmannsweid on the island of Johnskipping, it's purpose is clearly to prevent the Skraelings from looting and pillaging the Parks Canada supplies. MInd you, I doubt very much that even an immense horde of determined Skraelings would be able to fight their way past Strawberry Moose.
The other large building on the site is apparently a Norse forge or smithy, and it is known that the Norse did have such a smithy here at L'Anse Aux Meadows. It's kitted out with various appliances and apparatus but it isn't clear whether these artefacts were discovered here during the excavations, whether they are of Norse provenance but from another site, or simply modern replicas.
You can see how the experts consider that the buildings were constructed - a thick low wall of turf and with a turf and sapling roof.
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