Anne Stine Ingstad (11 February 1918 – 6 November 1997) was a Norwegianarchaeologist who along with her husband, explorer Helge Ingstad, discovered the remains of a Norse settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador in 1960.[1][2][3] They were thus the first to prove conclusively that the Icelandic/Greenlandic Norsemen such as Leif Erickson had found a way across the Atlantic Ocean to North America, roughly 500 years before Christopher Columbus and John Cabot. He also thought that the mysterious disappearance of the Greenland Norse Settlements in the 14th and 15th centuries could be explained by their emigration to North America.[4]
Anne Stine Moe was born and raised in Lillehammer, in Oppland county, Norway. Her parents were attorney Eilif Moe (1889–1954) and Louise Augusta Bauck Lindeman (1886–1966). Ingstad was the sister of Norwegian art historian and pianist, Ole Henrik Moe (1920–2013). She married Helge Ingstad in 1941, after which she became his scientific collaborator.[4]
She studied archaeology at the University of Oslo in the 1950s. She took a master's degree in Nordic archeology in 1960. From 1960 to 1961, she was curator at the Norwegian Forestry Museum at Elverum.[2]
Between 1961 and 1968, Helge Ingstad and Anne Stine Ingstad conducted research resulting in the discoverery of settlement traces at L'Anse aux Meadows on the island of Newfoundland. They led an excavation of the settlement with an international team of archaeologists from Sweden, Iceland, Canada, U.S. and Norway. The excavation revealed the remains of an early 11th century Norse settlement. These remains included sod houses, a forge, cooking pits and boathouses. The settlement is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a National Historic Site of Canada.
1977年に国の研究員になった後、アンネ・スティーン・イングスタッドは、カウパンとオーセベリの発掘現場から出土した織物遺物の処理という新たな研究分野に着手した。彼女は、考古学者のビョルン・ミューレと アルネ・エミル・クリステンセン・ジュニアと共に、オーセベリ遺跡の織物遺物の分析に関する著書『Osebergdronningens grav 』 (1992年)を執筆した。[ 5 ]
アンネ・スティーン・イングスタッドは1997年11月に79歳で亡くなり、98歳の夫ヘルゲと、オスロ大学の医療人類学教授である娘ベネディクテ・イングスタッドを残した。[ 7 ]