How do we know that the Vikings actually settled settled in Vinland?

Answer 1

Vinland (Old Norse: Plain land ) was the name given to an area of North America by the norseman Leif Eiríksson, about the year 1000 AD. At that time, the word "vin" meant not wine or indeed vine as in grapevines, but plain or pasture. These homonyms are often confused.

In 1960 archaeological evidence of Norse settlement in North America was found at L'Anse aux Meadows on the northern part of the island of Newfoundland, in what is now the Canadian Province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Although this proved conclusively the Vikings' pre-Columbian discovery of North America, whether this exact site is the Vinland of the Norse accounts is still a subject of debate. It must be recognised that the Vikings did not perceive the exploration and settlement of Greenland and Vinland as any different from that of founding Iceland. It was merely an extension of their homeland, and notions of a different world only surfaced upon meeting the natives.

There is a consensus among scholars that the Vikings did reach North America, approximately five centuries prior to John Cabot.

Answer 2

Vinland (Old Norse: Plain land ) was the name given to an area of North America by the norseman Leif Eiríksson, about the year 1000 AD. At that time, the word "vin" meant not wine or indeed vine as in grapevines, but plain or pasture. These homonyms are often confused.

In 1960 archaeological evidence of Norse settlement in North America was found at L'Anse aux Meadows on the northern part of the island of Newfoundland, in what is now the Canadian Province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Although this proved conclusively the Vikings' pre-Columbian discovery of North America, whether this exact site is the Vinland of the Norse accounts is still a subject of debate. It must be recognised that the Vikings did not perceive the exploration and settlement of Greenland and Vinland as any different from that of founding Iceland. It was merely an extension of their homeland, and notions of a different world only surfaced upon meeting the natives.

There is a consensus among scholars that the Vikings did reach North America, approximately five centuries prior to John Cabot.