Monday, August 17, 2009

Vikings


























































































































At first I wasn’t too impressed with the Viking museum and its copies of artifacts and items behind glass of long ago.

The modern building of the L’anse Aux Meadows UNESCO World Heritage Site showed a sample of the recreated boat that brought the Vikings to North America. (It seemed very small.) Nails and a cloak pin that the archaeologist Anne Stine and her husband, Helge Ingstad used to authenticate the site as to a Viking 1000AD village site, were interesting. At first the distant sod houses didn’t look like much but on closer inspection, they were interesting. The site was more real as I walked the boardwalk to the recreated houses and met the enactors near the sites where the artifacts were found. They not only showed us what life was like 1000 years ago but also invited us to handle the reproduced artifacts. I could see them weave and make yarn and even look through the fence and see the icebergs like the Vikings did. But I think that Terry looks a little too happy to be handling an axe.

2 comments:

Jerry and Suzy said...

Fascinating! A recreated village is one thing, often static, but with costumed reenactors it must surely have come to life. What a wonderful trip you are on!

Gramma& Grampa DeVault said...

love your pictures we havce been full time for 2 years.....what an adventure just trying to figure what goes in what cubby!! any advice!