Preliminary design sketch - Module 1


The exhibit is custom built allowing for a flexible arrangement in a single or series of exhibit halls.
While the spread of humanity created a world of infinite diversity and great isolation, all cultures lived off the land in the same basic way. This is the beginning of the story of how the descendants of the people who turned left met the descendants of the people who turned right. We are standing on the threshold of globalization. Soapstone Mould of Sea Serpent


Introducing the peoples at the centre of the story - those on either side of the Atlantic barrier, and how their cultures had changed since parting company so long ago in Africa. For the Vikings, increasing population pressure was to lead to one maritime exploration after another - until only one step remained for the circle to be closed.



When Leif Ericson first set foot on the shores of Vinland and laid eyes on the native peoples of this province, he could not have known that one hundred thousand years of isolation and separation was now at an end. This is the story of why the Vikings came, why they stayed, and why they finally decided to leave.

Only a few centuries after the Vikings abandoned L'Anse aux Meadows, climate change resulted in the collapse of the Greenland colony. Mere decades following this, European whalers flocked to the New World, bringing disease and death in their wake. The closing of the circle was a measureless calamity for the people living on the Western side of the Atlantic.

 Viking Bone Spoon
While the sagas recount glory tales of adventure in Vinland, the details of the voyage had long been lost in the mists of time. It would not be until 1960 that the exact location of Vinland would be found on the tip of Newfoundland. Much has changed since the circle was closed one thousand years ago - both for the better and for the worse. As we stand on the threshold of a new millennium, the visitor will leave the exhibit with a sense of what has been... and what is to come.