WHERE WAS VINLAND?
Could it have been somewhere on Cape Breton?
Come discuss on September 22, 2012 in the Belle Cote Community Centre
The location of Vinland has been the subject of considerable speculation and research over the past two centuries. The Norse settlement at L’Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland, found in the 1960s by Helge Ingstad, provided proof that the Norse had reached North America around 1000 AD. How L’Anse aux Meadows fits into the Icelandic Sagas remains unclear, and the locations mentioned in the sagas remain the subject of interpretation as scholars have tried to separate fact from fiction. On four of six voyages mentioned in the sagas, the Norse reached Vinland and spent some or all of their time at Lief Eiricksson’s camp; could this camp have been located on CapeBreton, maybe even along the Margaree River?
A one-day symposium, to be held at the Belle Cote Community Centre, will bring together a variety of specialists with interest in the subject to discuss these possibilities. Included in the forum will be respected elders from the Mi’kmaq Community, who will share information from their traditions that may support contact with early European explorers and some archaeologists.
This interesting and informative day may shed new light on an old mystery.
Schedule:
9:00: Welcoming Remarks: Del Muise (East Margaree) and Albert Marshall (Mi’kmaq Elder, Eskasoni)
9:30: Steve Voluckas, (New England Antiquities Research Association) “Crossing Paths, Crossing the Atlantic”
10:15: Murdena Marshall, (Mi’kmaq Studies, Cape Breton University – Retired) “Mi’kmaq Oral Traditions of “Red Bearded” Visitors and Encounters with Strangers”
Coffee/Tea Break
11:00: David Richeson (Canadian Museum of Science and Technology retired) “The Viking Occupation of Greenland”
11:30: Bill Danielson, (North Highlands Community Museum, University of Hartford Retired) “Speculating about weather and climate in the year 1000.”
Lunch break: Duck Cove Inn.
1:30: Terry Deveau, (NS Archaeology Society and NEARA) “The Mystery of the Torbay Axe”
2:00: Rob Rondeau, (Pro-Com Marine) “Medieval Norse Voyages to North America?”
2:30: FUTURE DIRECTIONS: A ROUND TABLE DISCUSSION FEATURING SYMPOSIUM PARTICIPANTS AND THE AUDIENCE.
The symposium is open and free to all; a special buffet luncheon will be provided for participants at the Duck Cove Inn. In order to gauge requirements for seating and provisioning, please indicate your intention to attend the symposium and luncheon intentions to delmuise@rogers.com (902-235-2583). The Belle Cote Community Centre is located at 10615 Cabot Trail, a half km north of the Margaree Harbour Bridge; the Duck Cove Inn is immediately south of the Harbour Bridge.
