Archeologist who unravelled the story of North America’s only Viking site has died

Birgitta Wallace is shown in this handout photo sitting on a bucket at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland in 1976. The celebrated Swedish-Canadian archeologist was known for her work unravelling the story of the Vikings at L’Anse aux Meadows, which is the only acknowledged Norse site in North America. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO

ST. JOHN’S — A celebrated Swedish-Canadian archeologist who helped unravel the story of the Vikings at the only acknowledged Norse site in North America has died.

Birgitta Wallace Ferguson presented evidence that Leif Ericsson briefly established a Vinland base at L’Anse aux Meadows, at the tip of Newfoundland’s Great Northern Peninsula. Her work deepened the world’s understanding of Norse history and transformed a rural, far-flung area of Newfoundland into a thriving tourist destination.

Her colleagues and family remembered her Wednesday as a titan in her field, known for being effortlessly kind and generous with her time.

Loretta Decker is an acting national historic site manager with Parks Canada at L’Anse aux Meadows, and she knew Wallace Ferguson her entire life. The 56-year-old was emotional as she described the archeologist’s influence on her.

“Seeing this strong, professional woman who had all this knowledge and experience, the way she treated people so lovingly, the way she was so kind and giving, it really inspired me to say, ‘Okay, I can look at having a career,”’ Decker said in an interview. “Maybe I should consider something other than a simple life.”

Wallace Ferguson was born in Sweden in 1934, though her husband, Robert Ferguson, said an early paperwork error misstated her birth year and many public records say she was born in 1944. She began her career in Pittsburgh at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. She was also an adjunct professor of archeology at the city’s university.

She was always passionate about Norse history, and in 1964 she was invited to work on excavations at the L’Anse aux Meadows site, which was discovered in 1960 by Norwegian explorers Helge and Anne Stine Ingstad.

Excavations there over the years led archeologists to declare the site was Norse. It was declared a UNESCO world heritage site in 1978.

Wallace Ferguson became a senior archeologist with Parks Canada, and she retired in 1997. She made many contributions to archeological work across Atlantic Canada, but L’Anse aux Meadows was her passion and her life’s work, her husband said.

She was working the day before she died, dictating comments to him from her hospital bed about a paper she was co-authoring about the site, he said.

“I think a big part of it was the community, just how much she loved everybody there and they loved her,” Ferguson said in an interview.

Though they had no special training, she often hired people from the L’Anse aux Meadows area to work on her excavations, he added.

“They were so careful and so insightful. They knew what to look for,” he said. “She always said they could see strawberry seeds in the ground.”

Led by Norse explorer Leif Ericsson, the Vikings’ voyage to Newfoundland -- completed almost 500 years before Christopher Columbus would lay claim to the continent -- was described in two medieval Icelandic documents, the Saga of Erik the Red and the Saga of Greenlanders.

Wallace Ferguson sought first to understand the site at L’Anse aux Meadows and how the Vikings may have lived there. She then turned to the sagas to see if her discoveries matched their tales, her husband said.

Shannon Lewis-Simpson, an adjunct archeology professor at Memorial University, said Wallace Ferguson’s focus on the humanity of a civilization set her apart. People are drawn to Vikings for the swords and shields, but Wallace Ferguson wanted to understand their day-to-day lives and how they fit within the greater context of their history and environment, she said.

That perspective has had a lasting impact on the field, Lewis-Simpson added.

Wallace Ferguson died May 20 in Halifax. She was 91.

L’Anse aux Meadows is home to about 180 people and the Viking site draws about 39,000 visitors a year.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 28, 2025.