Birgitta Wallace: A pioneering Viking Age archeologist remembered

Birgitta Wallace, the former director of the L'Anse aux Meadows site in Newfoundland, Canada, has passed away at the age of 91. The Viking Herald's Jonathan Bennett pays tribute to a preeminent Viking Age archeologist whose work will stand the test of time.

Closing the circle 

When I interviewed Birgitta Wallace in the summer of 2023, she was 89 years old and officially in retirement. Yet while she did require a little technical assistance with the video call from her husband, the British-born archeologist Robert Ferguson, it was immediately obvious that Birgitta's mind remained extremely sharp.

She was also still very much active in the archeological community, talking excitedly about the latest dendrochronology research at L'Anse aux Meadows, the site she had managed for so long.

Birgitta was very obviously brilliant, but she was also hugely accommodating and generous with her time.

This was one of my first interviews for The Viking Herald, and my knowledge of the exploits of the Norse in North America was, at that time, rather limited.

Birgitta, however, patiently and effortlessly painted a picture of how this small band of travelers had, almost by accident, completed a historic piece of exploration.

She was also utterly free from bombast or exaggeration with regard to both her own achievements and those of Leif Erikson and his crew, who had succeeded in reaching the New World approximately 500 years before Columbus.

Birgitta memorably described the Vikings' momentous voyage as simply sailing to the "next landmass along."

Instead, she argued that the most notable aspect of this journey was probably the encounter between the Vikings and the indigenous people of North America, an act that, after an interval of some 60,000 years, closed the circle of human migration from Africa to the east and west. 

• READ MORE: In the spotlight – L'Anse aux Meadows

L'Anse aux Meadows marks the farthest known westward reach of Norse explorers during the Viking Age. Photo: Russ Heinl / Shutterstock

Decades of dedication

Born in Sweden in 1934, Birgitta Wallace graduated in Nordic archeology from the University of Uppsala before moving to the United States to work as a curator at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh.

In 1964, she was invited to work for the first time at the L'Anse aux Meadows site in Newfoundland by Anne Stine Ingstad, who, together with her husband Helge Ingstad, had discovered the Viking settlement just four years previously.

It would be the defining step of Birgitta's career. After working for several summers at the site, Birgitta began working full-time at L'Anse aux Meadows in 1975 and was named director three years later.

Incidentally, L'Anse aux Meadows was also the place where she would meet her future husband, on an archeological dig, of course.

Over the next few decades, Birgitta helped establish L'Anse aux Meadows as the only recognized Viking site in mainland North America. She also published extensively about the exploits of the Vikings and the nature of migration.

The article L'Anse aux Meadows and Vinland: An Abandoned Experiment, published in 2003, is particularly illuminating. A book, Westward Vikings: The Saga of L'Anse aux Meadows, offers a more in-depth exploration of the Norse voyages to the shores of North America. 

• READ MORE: The history of Vikings in Canada – A primer

Birgitta Wallace's dedication ensured that L'Anse aux Meadows remains a living site of discovery, not just a ruin from the past. Photo: Birgitta Wallace

A lasting legacy 

Today, L'Anse aux Meadows is a major tourist attraction, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and a lasting testament to the remarkable seafaring abilities of the Scandinavians of the Viking Age.

It is also a site of living archeology as experts from around the world continue to explore the Viking legacy in North America.

Amid the sadness of Birgitta's passing, for many, there will also be a sense of joy at the extent of her achievements, her kindness of spirit, and devotion to her profession.

During a brief correspondence, Birgitta Wallace's husband, Robert Ferguson, informed me that Birgitta was still working on her research until just before her death, dictating letters to her colleagues from the hospital bed.

This should perhaps come as no surprise. As Birgitta herself indicated to The Viking Herald two years ago, we still have so much to learn.

"The new research is wonderful: you never know what to expect, and often, what you do expect doesn't come true," Birgitta commented. "There are so many things being done now, more than ever before, with DNA, drone photography, all things we would have loved. I wish I were starting all over again!"

You can read the first part of The Viking Herald's 2023 interview with Birgitta Wallace here.

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