The Norse and their Neighbors in Northern Newfoundland
Description
Run Time: 1:01:22
Dr. Martin Kilmer, retired Professor of Classics, University of Ottawa, presented “The Norse and their Neighbors in Northern Newfoundland”. The presentation was held at the University of Toledo.
Bird Cove is a multi-faceted archaeological site on the west coast of Newfoundland, north of Gros Morne Park and south-southwest of L’Anse aux Meadows. Current population of the area is under three hundred. The site has been inhabited intermittently since 4530 +/- 60 BP (about 2500 BCE). Maritime Archaic Indians lived there first (their sites are found as far away as the northern coast of Labrador and coastal Maine).
Bird Cove presents a number of challenges for the study of food habits: the substrate is limestone, making plant remains fragile at best; the soil is peat, whose acidity tends to dissolve bone very quickly. Since the muscle tissue people prefer to eat does not survive well archaeologically, what’s left? In fact, there is a surprising amount of information. Some of the comparison data comes from the Norse (Viking) site at L’Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland, occupied around AD 1000.
Dr. Martin Kilmer, retired Professor of Classics, University of Ottawa, presented “The Norse and their Neighbors in Northern Newfoundland”. The presentation was held at the University of Toledo.
Bird Cove is a multi-faceted archaeological site on the west coast of Newfoundland, north of Gros Morne Park and south-southwest of L’Anse aux Meadows. Current population of the area is under three hundred. The site has been inhabited intermittently since 4530 +/- 60 BP (about 2500 BCE). Maritime Archaic Indians lived there first (their sites are found as far away as the northern coast of Labrador and coastal Maine).
Bird Cove presents a number of challenges for the study of food habits: the substrate is limestone, making plant remains fragile at best; the soil is peat, whose acidity tends to dissolve bone very quickly. Since the muscle tissue people prefer to eat does not survive well archaeologically, what’s left? In fact, there is a surprising amount of information. Some of the comparison data comes from the Norse (Viking) site at L’Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland, occupied around AD 1000.
