Kingittorsuaq Island (old spelling: Kingigtorssuaq) is a small, uninhabited island in the Avannaata municipality in northwestern Greenland. It is a small island in the southern part of the Upernavik Archipelago, located on the southwestern shores of Upernavik Icefjord, near the mouth of the latter where it opens into Baffin Bay.[1] The name of the island means "a large protruding rock" in the Greenlandic language.
History
The Kingittorsuaq runestone (old spelling: Kingigtorssuaq runestone) dating from the Middle Ages[2] was found in 1824 on the highest point of the island, in a group of three cairns forming an equilateral triangle. The stone is now located at the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen.
References
- ^ Upernavik, Saga Map, Tage Schjøtt, 1992
- ^ Enterline, James Robert (2002). Erikson, Eskimos & Columbus: Medieval European Knowledge of America. Center for American Places (illustrated ed.). JHU Press. pp. 127–129. ISBN 0-8018-6660-X. Retrieved 2010-08-26.