The exploration of North America by Norsemen began in the late 10th century. Voyages from Iceland reached Greenland and founded settlements along its western coast. Norse settlements on Greenland lasted almost 500 years, and the population peaked at around 2,000–3,000 people. The settlements consisted mostly of farms along Greenland's scattered coastal fjords. Settlements relied heavily on hunting, especially of walruses and the harp seal. For lumber, they harvested driftwood, imported wood from Europe, and sailed to modern-day Canada.
Archaeological evidence indicates that the Greenland settlers used lumber and possibly iron ore imported from North America. Archaeologists found remains of one short-term settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows near the northern tip of Newfoundland. The remains of buildings excavated there in the 1960s dated to approximately 1,000 years ago. It was not a permanent settlement and lacked graves and livestock areas. The site was abandoned, seemingly deliberately, by 1145 AD with no valuables or tools left behind. Some wood fragments and nuts in the Norse remains were from plants not found in Newfoundland, but native to the continental mainland across the Gulf of St. Lawrence. No other settlements in Canada and no settlements on the North American mainland have been conclusively identified as Norse.
