Changes

[[File: Vinland_Map_HiRes.jpeg|300px|thumbnail|left|The Controversial 15th Century Vinland Map]]

After the discovery of the Viking settlement in L’Anse aux Meadows, the majority of Norse scholars in the 1960s and 1970s believed that it was synonymous with the enigmatic Vinland. <ref> Larsson, Mats G. “The Vinland Sagas and Nova Scotia: A Reappraisal of an Old Theory.” <i>Scandinavian Studies</i> 64 (1992) p. 305</ref> An examination of the evidence from the site seemed to confirm that idea on some levels: there were as many as ninety inhabitants there during its peak, and iron rivets and slags were found there along with the remains of a blacksmith’s shop, all of which indicate what was intended to be a long-term colony. <ref> Haywood, p. 98</ref> But a more critical examination of flora and fauna mentioned in the Vinland Sagas pointed to a more southerly location for Vinland.

In the late 1970s, the idea that L’Anse aux Meadows was a permanent colony that functioned as a transit point for Norse explorers heading farther south into Vinland was popularized. The fact that the Gulf of St. Lawrence is the northernmost point where grapes can grow in the wild led scholars to look for Vinland somewhere in that region. <ref> Haywood, p. 98</ref> The Norwegian historian Gustav Storm first forwarded the idea in 1887 that Vinland was located in the modern Canadian province of Nova Scotia, based on flora and fauna of the region. <ref> Larsson, p. 306</ref> Storm’s assessment was refuted because there are no wild grape vines found in Nova Scotia today, but early modern French explorers mentioned them in their observations, and it should be noted that the area was warmer in 1000 AD.