VIKING CAVE
The following quote is from Arctic Odyssey, the Life of Rear Admiral Donald B. Macmillan, p 155f:
"Bob Bartlett had told Mac (millan) of a cave on Turnavik, and Bartlett said his father, and older men generally, believed it had been inhabited by Vikings. When the Boray arrived there, Don went looking for it, guided by a native, Tom Evans.
"They worked their way slowly up a rocky valley, arriving at a mass of debris at the base of an inferior cliff. This was not part of the talus slope but evidently boulders brought to the Island during the last glacial period. Beneath two huge rocks, on which lay numerous smaller stones, there was a very good natural cave, about eight feet in diameter and roughly five feet in height, hardly large enough for a small family.
"There were unmistakable signs of having been inhabited. The roof, which was the bottom of a large boulder, was black with soot, and the floor bore evidence of many fires"
Comment: A good case for Norse occupation of the area can be made on the basis of the names alone. The names in the region of "Turnavik" ("Tunit cove") and nearby "Makkovik" ("Easy cove") can be translated with the Modern Norwegian dictionary. "Hopedale" and "Postville" might be Norse names as well as English. Cape "Harrison," too, may have been Norse, meaning, "warrior's son."
Furthermore, the "father, and older men generally, believed it had been inhabited by Vikings" making dismissal as "just another cave on a rocky coastline" more difficult.
