Vinland (Old Norse Vínland, 'Wine Land') is the name given to the lands explored and briefly settled by Norse Vikings in North America around 1000 CE, particularly referring to Newfoundland, where a Viking site known as L'Anse aux Meadows was uncovered in the 1960s CE, and the Gulf of St Lawrence. The term Vinland is sometimes used to indicate all areas frequented by the Vikings in North America, in which case it also stretches to Labrador, Baffin Island, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island, all in present-day Canada.
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Definition
Timeline
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c. 790 - c. 1100The Viking Age.
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c. 970 - c. 1030Approximate time-indication of the Vikings' expeditions to Vinland (Newfoundland, North America).
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980 - 1020Radiocarbon dates given for the remains of the Viking settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows (Newfoundland, Canada).
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c. 1000Vikings first land in North America, in Newfoundland and other parts of eastern Canada.
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c. 1220 - c. 1280The Saga of the Greenlanders & Erik the Red's Saga, together known as the Vinland Sagas but written independently, are composed in Iceland.
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1961 - 1968Helge Ingstad discovers the Viking settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows (Newfoundland, Canada); subsequent excavations are carried out by the Ingstads until 1968.
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1973 - 1976Parks Canada leads further excavations at the Viking site of L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland, Canada.
