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The Viking settlement site near L'Anse aux Meadows I visited last summer totally changed how I see Norse artifacts | Archaeology Discoveries - Librear

the_hayden•5mo ago

The Viking settlement site near L'Anse aux Meadows I visited last summer totally changed how I see Norse artifacts

I used to think the small iron rivets and bone fragments from Norse sites were boring compared to the big stuff. But after I went to the excavation at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland, I talked to a guide who showed me a before and after photo of the same area over 10 years. The original dig in the 1960s had just outlines of buildings, but from 2016 to 2019 they found over 800 new objects using ground penetrating radar. Seeing how a tiny piece of slag or a bent nail can prove trade routes or daily life really opened my mind. Now I'm hooked on the small finds because they tell the real story. Has anyone else had a similar moment where a site visit changed your mind about a certain type of artifact?

3 comments

3 Comments

karenf405mo ago

That time I saw the ceramic sherds from a Late Woodland site in Pennsylvania lined up in the museum's lab really clicked for me too. The guide explained how one small broken pot piece had residue from a 900 year old stew, which proved what they actually ate instead of just guessing. Now I get excited over the tiny stuff because it's like reading a diary instead of just looking at an old building.

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cameron3185mo ago

And it's funny because once you start looking for those tiny details, you realize how much of history is hiding in the little things nobody thought mattered. Like I started noticing how old gravel driveways have bits of coal and slag from when people heated with coal, and you can literally see what kind of fuel they used just by looking at the ground. It makes you wonder what kind of small stuff we're walking past every day that'll tell stories about us a thousand years from now.

anthonykim4mo ago

Three pounds of microplastics in my body right now probably just tells future archaeologists I really liked takeout and owning a water bottle that was too old to be safe. @karenf40 at least your 900 year old stew residue is way more dignified than my legacy of Tupperware fragments.