Medieval History
Was it the hammer of the Gods that drove Viking ships to new lands, or the light-polarizing qualities of a crystal called Iceland Spar?
Ancient Viking mariners may have been able to navigate the high seas from Norway to North America centuries before Christopher Columbus thanks to a crystal "sunstone" GPS, according to new French research.
The crystal, called Iceland spar, is a transparent form of calcite that is sensitive to the polarisation of light and is commonly found in Scandinavia.
Click here to read this article from News.com.au
The Viking Sunstone Revealed?
To avoid getting lost on their voyages across the North Atlantic 1000 years ago, Vikings relied on the sun to determine their heading. (This was long before magnetic compasses had been invented.) But cloudy days could have sent their ships dangerously off course, especially during the all-day summer sun at those far-north latitudes. The Norse sagas mention a mysterious "sunstone" used for navigation. Now a team of scientists claims that the sunstones could have been calcite crystals and that Vikings could have used them to get highly accurate compass readings even when the sun was hidden.
The trick for locating the position of the hidden sun is to detect polarization, the orientation of light waves along their path. Even on a cloudy day, the sky still forms a pattern of concentric rings of polarized light with the sun at its center. If you have a crystal that depolarizes light, you can determine the location of the rings around the hidden sun.
Click here to read this article from ScienceNow
Click here to access the article A depolarizer as a possible precise sunstone for Viking navigation by polarized skylight from the Royal Society
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Dr Elizabeth Ashman Rowe reports: The Viking Society for Northern Research was founded in 1892 and is now a professional organisation for scholars and researchers in the fields of Viking Age Scandinavia and Old Norse literature. In addition to offering...
- Archaeological Research Reveals New Insights About The Vikings In Wales
Recent excavations by archaeologists from the National Museum Wales at the Viking age settlement of Llanbedrgoch on the east side of Anglesey have shed important new light on the impact of Anglo-Saxon and Viking-age worlds operating around the Irish...
- Vikings Not Alone When They Crossed The North Atlantic ? Mice Hitched A Ride Too
New research has revealed that when the Vikings sailed across the North Atlantic to places like Iceland, Greenland and Newfoundland, they brought with them the common house mouse. An international team of researchers from the UK, USA, Iceland, Denmark...
- Viking Hoard Discovered In England
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- Interesting New Book
From the ISAS organization: Beowulf & Other Stories: A New Introduction to Old English, Old Icelandic & Anglo-Norman Literatures Edited by Richard North (University College London) and Joe Allard (University of Essex) ISBN: 1-4058-3572-9 Price £16.99...
Medieval History
Viking navigation secrets explained?
Was it the hammer of the Gods that drove Viking ships to new lands, or the light-polarizing qualities of a crystal called Iceland Spar?
Ancient Viking mariners may have been able to navigate the high seas from Norway to North America centuries before Christopher Columbus thanks to a crystal "sunstone" GPS, according to new French research.
The crystal, called Iceland spar, is a transparent form of calcite that is sensitive to the polarisation of light and is commonly found in Scandinavia.
Click here to read this article from News.com.au
The Viking Sunstone Revealed?
To avoid getting lost on their voyages across the North Atlantic 1000 years ago, Vikings relied on the sun to determine their heading. (This was long before magnetic compasses had been invented.) But cloudy days could have sent their ships dangerously off course, especially during the all-day summer sun at those far-north latitudes. The Norse sagas mention a mysterious "sunstone" used for navigation. Now a team of scientists claims that the sunstones could have been calcite crystals and that Vikings could have used them to get highly accurate compass readings even when the sun was hidden.
The trick for locating the position of the hidden sun is to detect polarization, the orientation of light waves along their path. Even on a cloudy day, the sky still forms a pattern of concentric rings of polarized light with the sun at its center. If you have a crystal that depolarizes light, you can determine the location of the rings around the hidden sun.
Click here to read this article from ScienceNow
Click here to access the article A depolarizer as a possible precise sunstone for Viking navigation by polarized skylight from the Royal Society
- Asnc Hosts Viking Society Student Conference
Dr Elizabeth Ashman Rowe reports: The Viking Society for Northern Research was founded in 1892 and is now a professional organisation for scholars and researchers in the fields of Viking Age Scandinavia and Old Norse literature. In addition to offering...
- Archaeological Research Reveals New Insights About The Vikings In Wales
Recent excavations by archaeologists from the National Museum Wales at the Viking age settlement of Llanbedrgoch on the east side of Anglesey have shed important new light on the impact of Anglo-Saxon and Viking-age worlds operating around the Irish...
- Vikings Not Alone When They Crossed The North Atlantic ? Mice Hitched A Ride Too
New research has revealed that when the Vikings sailed across the North Atlantic to places like Iceland, Greenland and Newfoundland, they brought with them the common house mouse. An international team of researchers from the UK, USA, Iceland, Denmark...
- Viking Hoard Discovered In England
In what is being described as a ?very exciting find? over 200 items dating back to around the year 900 have been discovered near Silverdale, in north Lancashire. Now known as the Silverdale Viking Hoard, the collection cotnains a total of 201 silver objects...
- Interesting New Book
From the ISAS organization: Beowulf & Other Stories: A New Introduction to Old English, Old Icelandic & Anglo-Norman Literatures Edited by Richard North (University College London) and Joe Allard (University of Essex) ISBN: 1-4058-3572-9 Price £16.99...