Thomas E. Lee

Thomas E. Lee (?, southwestern Ontario – 1982, Manitoulin Island, Ontario) was an archaeologist for Canada's National Museum in the 1950s and Laval University's Centre for Northern Studies in the 1960s and 1970s. His discoveries include Sheguiandah, on Manitoulin Island in 1952 and the Cartier Site on Quebec's Ungava Peninsula in 1964. In the time between these finds, Lee's mentor was ousted from the National Museum. Lee resigned out of loyalty & wasn't offered full-time archaeological work until taking a position with Laval. Upon his return to the profession, Lee discovered the Cartier Site, which he thought could be the earliest European settlement in North America. (This conclusion was extrapolated from results of carbon-14 testing). This, and similar discoveries in the Canadian Arctic, were of stone foundations that he suspected to be "temporary shelters built by Norse voyagers visiting the region around A.D. 1000". This would make these sites the same age as L'Anse aux Meadows. Lee returned to the site of his 1952 discovery, a week before his death there in the summer of 1982.

References

Mowat, Farley. The Farfarers: before the Norse. Key Porter Books Limited, 10, 163, 201-206.