Roxana Cooper Wrote:
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> L'anse isn't wooded *Now* but things might have
> been different a thousand years ago. Has anybody
> done pollen testing? Not that I have any
> objections to 'vinland' being elsewhere - but for
> now L'Anse is all we've got and Kenuchelover can
> quite legitimately argue it's all there is.


I wouldn't mind seeing pollen data myself, since as you note, it's possible that it WAS wooded in Norse times (wood carpentry debris, preserved in the peat bog, was the most common type of artifact found during excavations).

But offhand, I suspect it's MORE likely that the site was picked for the high visibility (can see anybody approaching, especially additional Norse arrivals).... and for it's pasturage (Karlsefni brought livestock, & the Meadows are one of the few decent pastures anywhere nearby.... note the spindle whorl found at the site, which suggests the presence of women & sheep)..... with wood imported from just a few miles away (roughcut timber hauled overland, or towed by ship).

After all, if you’re logging, the “treeline” keeps moving AWAY from you, and it makes more sense to construct your permanent camp in the BEST overall site that is close enough to trees to allow easy transport of rough cut wood, rather than to build in a nearer-to-tree site that might NOT be the best spot to winter in. You can always build a lean to at the actual logging site for temporary use.

See these links:

[www.mnsu.edu]
[www.gov.nf.ca]
[www.gov.nf.ca]

L'anse aux Meadows lies in a largely treeless ecoregion termed "Strait of La Belle Isle Barrens".... but just two miles inland is the heavily forested "Northern Peninsula subregion" (also reachable by a few miles sail in either direction around Newfoundland). Transporting timber would only have involved either TOWING it a few miles, or sledging it ~ 2 miles in a generally downhill direction. They could also have cut & finished it away from the Meadows, leaving it piled along the coastline for later pickup (EVERY recorded voyage to "Vinland" ended with taking back a shipload of timber), and only immediately transporting what was needed for ship repair.

Kenuchelover.