A Critical Review of Radiocarbon Dating of a Norse Settlement at L'Anse Aux Meadows, Newfoundland, Canada

Abstract

Recent progress in high-precision calibrations of radiocarbon dates has led to evaluations of earlier research. This has been the case with dates from the Norse settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows which was discovered by Helge Ingstad in 1960. The most problematic feature of this series up to now was the use of sample material which partly derived from driftwood. The present paper concludes that charcoalfrom this site demonstrated no greater errors than normal from other settlement sites. With an assumed total systematic error of 30 +/- 20 years, as a mean for various tree rings, the calibrated age range of L'Anse aux Meadows is AD 975 -1020. This agrees well with the assumed historical age of ca AD 1000, a result which has also been recently corroborated by high-precision accelerator dating at the University of Toronto.