Magical Viking stone may be real

[Still Waters]

A Viking legend which tells of a glowing "sunstone" that, when held up to the sky, disclosed the position of the Sun on a cloudy day may have some basis in truth, scientists believe.

The ancient race are believed to have to discovered North America hundreds of years before Christopher Columbus.

Now experiments have shown that a crystal, called an Iceland spar, could detect the sun with an accuracy within a degree – allowing the legendary seafarers to navigate thousands of miles on cloudy days and during short Nordic nights.

Dr Guy Ropars, of the University of Rennes, and colleagues said "a precision of a few degrees could be reached" even when the sun was below the horizon.

An Iceland spar, which is transparent and made of calcite, was found in the wreck of an Elizabethan ship discovered thirty years ago off the coast of Alderney in the Channel Islands after it sank in 1592 just four years after the defeat of the Spanish Armada.

Viking legend tells of an enigmatic sunstone or sólarsteinn that, when held up to the sky, revealed the position of the sun, even on overcast days or below the horizon, the study reveals.

Read more...

[Von Bismarck]

Pretty well known if you have been to a viking museum before.

[BackFromTheDead]

Still wouldnt convince me to cross the Atlantic though

Icelandic Spar is not magical, it is calcite, I have a crystal at home that certainly does not perform the accuracy described in the article. In fact, nothing at all on a cloudy day.

Why Vikings would embark on a 3 month long journey to somewhere that they did not even knew existed, is way beyond me. The stores they would have had to carry would have sunk their longships before leaving port... the whole idea is just a romantic notion, with no factual base to support it..

[Damrod]

Still wouldnt convince me to cross the Atlantic though

Icelandic Spar is not magical, it is calcite, I have a crystal at home that certainly does not perform the accuracy described in the article. In fact, nothing at all on a cloudy day.

Why Vikings would embark on a 3 month long journey to somewhere that they did not even knew existed, is way beyond me. The stores they would have had to carry would have sunk their longships before leaving port... the whole idea is just a romantic notion, with no factual base to support it..

Well...seeing how it is actually proven they landed in Canada years before Columbus hit the continent...doesn't really matter now does it? They have found long house foundations dating to the 11th and 12th century and other viking relics...Columbus was not the first...Welcome to Vinland btw...

Edited November 2, 2011 by Damrod

[Swadwa]

It’s not surprising that Leif was not acknowledged for the achievement and Columbus was because he was not a Christian. Christian society couldn’t in the past (and today) acknowledge and honor the achievement of a pagan. Even though Columbus was a genocidal mad-man who made Hitler look like a juvenile delinquent. http://socyberty.com/history/christopher-columbus-and-the-genocide-of-the-taino-nation/ He was even hauled back to Spain for his atrocities in chains – but Spanish Royalty exonerated him. So we name cities after him and honor him with a holiday – but what do you expect from a society that honors its criminals and mad-men – most of them today are in D.C.

[+DieChecker]

I'd like to see a video of someone using two or three in the described manner to offer proof of hypothises.

[PersonFromPorlock]

Why Vikings would embark on a 3 month long journey to somewhere that they did not even knew existed, is way beyond me.

Drink probably had something to do with it.

[Setton]

Still wouldnt convince me to cross the Atlantic though

Icelandic Spar is not magical, it is calcite, I have a crystal at home that certainly does not perform the accuracy described in the article. In fact, nothing at all on a cloudy day.

Why Vikings would embark on a 3 month long journey to somewhere that they did not even knew existed, is way beyond me. The stores they would have had to carry would have sunk their longships before leaving port... the whole idea is just a romantic notion, with no factual base to support it..

I think from what they're saying it's just that one crystal that works for it. Certainly most calcite crystals won't do it. I assume it's something to do with the fractures within the spar that they happen to be aligned in such a way as to refract sunlight into a focussed point. Just a guess though.

[Aus Der Box Skeptisch]

You know after some thought I find this plausible. Can't label it factual yet but plausible is a good start.

[Druidus-Logos]

This is relatively old news.

Now, in this thread somewhere, someone wonders why they would have embarked on such a journey. First of all, under proper conditions, 3 months is far too long an estimate for the trip from the west coast of northern Europe to Greenland, which is right next to Baffin Island and the rest of NA proper. Once you reach iceland, which the Vikings clearly had, you can see weather evidence of land to the west. Not only that, but more than just the Vikings had already reached at least American waters. There is some support for the idea that northwestern European countries may have sailed to certain places relatively close to NA for fishing. This "new land" they fished by was never explored, because these were fishermen who wanted to keep the valuable knowledge of the location of plentiful fish stock secret. As a maritime mercenary/trade culture, the Vikings clearly would have explored routes to new lands, for plunder or trade (they traded with many cultures too, not just pillaging, that's a common misconception).

Of course, once the temperature of the world briefly went down for a couple centuries, the Vikings lost contact with their colonies in Greenland, Newfoundland, and wherever else they'd reached.

[Abramelin]

This is relatively old news.

Now, in this thread somewhere, someone wonders why they would have embarked on such a journey. First of all, under proper conditions, 3 months is far too long an estimate for the trip from the west coast of northern Europe to Greenland, which is right next to Baffin Island and the rest of NA proper. Once you reach iceland, which the Vikings clearly had, you can see weather evidence of land to the west. Not only that, but more than just the Vikings had already reached at least American waters. There is some support for the idea that northwestern European countries may have sailed to certain places relatively close to NA for fishing. This "new land" they fished by was never explored, because these were fishermen who wanted to keep the valuable knowledge of the location of plentiful fish stock secret. As a maritime mercenary/trade culture, the Vikings clearly would have explored routes to new lands, for plunder or trade (they traded with many cultures too, not just pillaging, that's a common misconception).

Of course, once the temperature of the world briefly went down for a couple centuries, the Vikings lost contact with their colonies in Greenland, Newfoundland, and wherever else they'd reached.

Columbus had never crossed the ocean, he miscalculated the circumference of the earth, he had no concept of another continent and he swore Cuba was the mainland. Who gave him specific information on the distance to the New World? The information had to come from those who had been crossing the Atlantic for centuries before him -- the Norsemen and the Basques.

Nordic seafaring skills were passed on to other groups, and we know that by medieval times Basque seamen reached the Scandinavian fjords, the Baltic seas and later, with the development of the rudder and compass, reached Iceland and the coast of Terranova as they followed the cod and whale in pursuit of fish oil, the liquid gold of those years. Except for Canadian scientists, who have excavated Basque galleons, burial grounds and blubber-rendering works in Iceland and Terranova, the activities of the Basque whalers from the 11th to the 15th centuries have been overlooked.

http://www.nytimes.com/1992/07/23/opinion/l-add-basques-to-the-precursors-of-columbus-349492.html

[darkbreed]

Of course, there is tremendous amounts of evidence from ancient times, all over the world, showing for a fact that they new about americas already thousands of years ago and regularly traveled between americas and africa & europe. Vikings have been found in burials all over the world, from china to egypt, and there's plenty of other cultures that were sailing around the world, explorers, merchants having trading routes with different continents etc. There is absolutely no doubt about that and it is ridicoulous that large masses of people still believe Colombus discovered the Americas, and was one of the first people in the old world visiting the new world.

I've covered large amounts of research with evidence in my American Atlantis thread, where I've really gone in the depths and found some of the best evidence that leaves no question about ancient peoples of different continents being in touch and trading with eachother and sailing around to new lands.

Further on, Colombus himself already knew about Americas, and thats the reason he went there. He and his men were professional well-trained experienced sailors and would not fall that far off their ass as ending up in America instead of India as the official story says - and is still taught in schools to children.

Colombus worked on behalf of the Vatican, and it was the Pope that sent him on the mission, since they knew about Americas and the large amount of resources and possibilities there. His mission was to start the beginning of establishing the "New Atlantis", the Americas, as well as to get rid of large amounts of the natives and destroy their cultures and spiritual practices - just as they did with the witches in Europe. An additional missing was to retrieve valuable artifacts and items, among other things the Mayan calendar was brought back to the Vatican, where it went to analysis and studying until they figured it out and adjusted the Gregorian Calender in accordance with the Mayan Calendar, by making a new date be corresponding to the end date of the mayan calendar - 21st december 2012. This was highly signifcant because they are far from christians, more the opposite, and practices rituals, magick, occultism, esoteric activities and so on in serious depths. So they wanted to change the calendar of those days, which was the Julian one, to create the Gregorian one that had been synchronized in a much more useful occult way with the Mayan Calendar - including several very impotant dates that were already known about and planned back then. They are very obsessed with numerology and decided to make an event they had planned take place at a very deep, occult magical date, 12/21/12 - extremely esoteric and perfect for such ritualistic purposes. There was also another date of importance, which they needed to have on a specific date that would be more powerful numerologically towards the planned event of theirs, which would be the 911 incident. Another perfectly calculated numerological date, a date that is further on connected to 911 attack - or sacrificial occult ritual as it really were - was the 9/11 that passed recently this year 2011 - on the tenth aniversary date, straight on the very same date.

On that exact topic, more information with research evidence presented in my video presentation called "911 Mega Ritual - a centuries old plan" can be seen and checked out here:

http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=217303&view=findpost&p=4109633&hl=&fromsearch=1

And some more bits of evidence showing ancient contact between different continents and cultures thousands of years back can be found in my extensive American Atlants thread:

http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=134193&view=findpost&p=2471576&hl=&fromsearch=1

[Abramelin]

They found Viking burials in China??

You don't happen to mean those Tocharians, right?

[BackFromTheDead]

Well...seeing how it is actually proven they landed in Canada years before Columbus hit the continent...doesn't really matter now does it? They have found long house foundations dating to the 11th and 12th century and other viking relics...Columbus was not the first...Welcome to Vinland btw...

Just curiosity (not doubting you) but which part of Canada do you refer to? Baffin Island?

[Damrod]

Just curiosity (not doubting you) but which part of Canada do you refer to? Baffin Island?

Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and Labrador Island...I think...lol...I am positive the evidence was found and validated to something like the 11th or 12th century. Roundhouse/longhouse foundations and iron and bronze artifacts... but honestly, I forget specifically what part, but I know it was one of the three....I am inclined to think it was Newfoundland/Nova Scotia and from there they went south into "Vineland" aka...land of grapes and wine....which would/could be north-eastern USA but we still don't have a collective agreement on where "Vineland" was.

No... it's pretty cut and dry and archaeologically proven that the Nordics hit the east coast of North America a couple centuries before Columbus did... but....who wants to pay to re-print all of those text books?

Side note...there is some (emphasis on "some") evidence that the Asians may have hit the west coast of north America even earlier...anchor stones (typical of Chinese "junks") off the coast of California seemingly date to the 8th or 9th century....nifty eh?....no more proof than that though...very cool stuff though.

Edited November 15, 2011 by Damrod

[darkbreed]

It is amazingly much evidence of explorers of the atlantic oceans and how they've been visiting eachother's cultures and started business and trading routes, and settled down in non-native continents, and how such explorations, trading routes and contact have been ongoing for thousands of years. I'm working on a new documentary on my American Atlantis research linked to in my previous post, that will feature large amounts of evidence for such travels and contact, as well as what and where Atlantis really was and how it was connected to different later civilizations on opposite sides of oceans and different continents.

For some evidence and information on all this read my old American Atlantis thread , its fairly filled with evidence and information.

[dreamgoddess11]

Lol. If I was a Viking in the cold with no TV...

I would gladly hop on a boat for an adventure & chance to discover something new :-)

[NGhostStalkerY]

Still wouldnt convince me to cross the Atlantic though

Icelandic Spar is not magical, it is calcite, I have a crystal at home that certainly does not perform the accuracy described in the article. In fact, nothing at all on a cloudy day.

Why Vikings would embark on a 3 month long journey to somewhere that they did not even knew existed, is way beyond me. The stores they would have had to carry would have sunk their longships before leaving port... the whole idea is just a romantic notion, with no factual base to support it..

Its called conquest, and you must be completely naive to believe it to be a "romantic notion"....being that the wikings and the Norse were known for their sailing and ship building prowess, see low-draft long boats. Please research something before you make a statement like:

"Why Vikings would embark on a 3 month long journey to somewhere that they did not even knew existed, is way beyond me. The stores they would have had to carry would have sunk their longships before leaving port... the whole idea is just a romantic notion, with no factual base to support it.."

http://www.mnh.si.edu/vikings/voyage/subset/markland/history.html

[PHFATY]

You idiots should stop claiming that the Vikings or Christopher Columbus who was known to be gay discovered North America. The continent was already occupied and settled for thousands of years before the arrival of the Vikings or Christopher Columbus. That is why when Columbus arrived, he wasn't greeted by Vikings, instead he was greeted by the native people of North America who he most likely on purpose gave the wrong names as "Indians". The historical facts that cannot be changed are done so using cleverly veiled and hidden in plain sight lies that can be easily overlooked by zombie minded sheeple who no longer have control over their minds.

This is the danger that can happen to whole civilizations even in modern times. Your whole history can be erased and rewritten by someone more clever than you are. So next time you ask yourself who discovered the Americas - do not automatically default to the lie that is being forced down into your minds by sinister forces who have done more to undermine the natural cosmic processes that are the supreme laws of nature with their own versions which rely on lies to appear real and true.

A great lie has been forced upon you as a species. And because this lie was seeded into your world thousands of years ago, you have come to accept it as being the truth.

The truth is that this world you call your reality is not really the true world. Your actual waking state is your sleep state. Your minds are more awake when you are asleep. Focus inward and seek the truth within. The God realm is inside you and not in the skies above. The gateway to the real world has been hidden from you to keep you here in this state of slavery for eternity.

[The_Spartan]

You idiots should stop claiming that the Vikings or Christopher Columbus who was known to be gay discovered North America. The continent was already occupied and settled for thousands of years before the arrival of the Vikings or Christopher Columbus. That is why when Columbus arrived, he wasn't greeted by Vikings, instead he was greeted by the native people of North America who he most likely on purpose gave the wrong names as "Indians". The historical facts that cannot be changed are done so using cleverly veiled and hidden in plain sight lies that can be easily overlooked by zombie minded sheeple who no longer have control over their minds.

This is the danger that can happen to whole civilizations even in modern times. Your whole history can be erased and rewritten by someone more clever than you are. So next time you ask yourself who discovered the Americas - do not automatically default to the lie that is being forced down into your minds by sinister forces who have done more to undermine the natural cosmic processes that are the supreme laws of nature with their own versions which rely on lies to appear real and true.

A great lie has been forced upon you as a species. And because this lie was seeded into your world thousands of years ago, you have come to accept it as being the truth.

The truth is that this world you call your reality is not really the true world. Your actual waking state is your sleep state. Your minds are more awake when you are asleep. Focus inward and seek the truth within. The God realm is inside you and not in the skies above. The gateway to the real world has been hidden from you to keep you here in this state of slavery for eternity.

Well. it is evident that everyone is well aware of the natives or the "indians" as you say.

The discussion is the 1st contact of the rest of the world (majorly the vikings/Scandinavians, asians etc) with the Americas. The discussion is not about any zombie minded civilization etc.

The forum is for discussing ancient mysteries and not metaphysics (the brainwashing truth within **** etc).

Edited November 16, 2011 by Space_Man_Spiff

[DENNISSTARR]

You idiots should stop claiming that the Vikings or Christopher Columbus who was known to be gay discovered North America.

Constitutive Criticism: It is a closed mind that refers to others as Idiots or Sheepole. If you have all the answers why do you name call? Spread you message if you like yet with some sort of compassion. Answer questions even if they insult your level of understanding? If you are unwilling to do this why are you on this forum? This is a discussion board after all. It appears that you wish not to do that (discuss) but rant and spit out your commanding knowledge.

[HawkLord]

I believe the switch to the Gregorian calendar was due to the Julian calendar being in error.

Wikipedia Article

The Gregorian calendar, also known as the Western calendar, or Christian calendar, is the internationally accepted civil calendar. It was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII, after whom the calendar was named, by a decree signed on 24 February 1582, a papal bull known by its opening words Inter gravissimas. The reformed calendar was adopted later that year by a handful of countries, with other countries adopting it over the following centuries. The motivation for the Gregorian reform was that the Julian calendar assumes that the time between vernal equinoxes is 365.25 days, when in fact it is presently almost exactly 11 minutes shorter. The error between these values accumulated at the rate of about three days every four centuries, resulting in the equinox occurring on March 11 (an accumulated error of about 10 days) and moving steadily earlier in the Julian calendar at the time of the Gregorian reform. Since the Spring equinox was tied to the celebration of Easter, the Roman Catholic Church considered that this steady movement in the date of the equinox was undesirable.

The Gregorian calendar reform contained two parts, a reform of the Julian calendar as used up to Pope Gregory's time, together with a reform of the lunar cycle used by the Church along with the Julian calendar for calculating dates of Easter. The reform was a modification of a proposal made by the Calabrian doctor Aloysius Lilius (or Lilio). Lilius' proposal included reducing the number of leap years in four centuries from 100 to 97, by making 3 out of 4 centurial years common instead of leap years: this part of the proposal had been suggested before by, among others, Pietro Pitati. Lilio also produced an original and practical scheme for adjusting the epacts of the moon for completing the calculation of Easter dates, solving a long-standing difficulty that had faced proposers of calendar reform.

The Gregorian calendar modified the Julian calendar's regular cycle of leap years, years exactly divisible by four, including all centurial years, as follows:

Every year that is exactly divisible by four is a leap year, except for years that are exactly divisible by 100; the centurial years that are exactly divisible by 400 are still leap years. For example, the year 1900 is not a leap year; the year 2000 is a leap year.

In addition to the change in the mean length of the calendar year from 365.25 days (365 days 6 hours) to 365.2425 days (365 days 5 hours 49 minutes 12 seconds), a reduction of 10 minutes 48 seconds per year, the Gregorian calendar reform also dealt with the past accumulated difference between these lengths. Between AD 325 (when the Roman Catholic Church thought the First Council of Nicaea had fixed the vernal equinox on 21 March), and the time of Pope Gregory's bull in 1582, the vernal equinox had moved backward in the calendar, until it was occurring on about 11 March, 10 days earlier. The Gregorian calendar therefore began by skipping 10 calendar days, to restore March 21 as the date of the vernal equinox.

Because of the Protestant Reformation, however, many Western European countries did not initially follow the Gregorian reform, and maintained their old-style systems. Eventually other countries followed the reform for the sake of consistency, but by the time the last adherents of the Julian calendar in Eastern Europe (Russia and Greece) changed to the Gregorian system in the 20th century, they had to drop 13 days from their calendars, due to the additional accumulated difference between the two calendars since 1582.

The Gregorian calendar continued the previous year-numbering system (Anno Domini), which counts years from the traditional date of the nativity, originally calculated in the 6th century and in use in much of Europe by the High Middle Ages. This year-numbering system is the predominant international standard today.

[HawkLord]

It is an interesting theory. They would have had to have used a particular type of calcite and then it would have probably been cut and polished in some specific manner to work.

I would like to see some experiments with the various types of possible "Sunstones" to determine if it is indeed possible.

[Corp]

It's been proven and acknowledged that Vikings settled for a time in Newfoundland. And it wasn't a one shot trip but rather a progression. They settled Iceland, from there settled Greenland, and from there settled Newfoundland. However they were long gone by the time 15th century Europeans showed up.

[Nordmann61]

Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and Labrador Island...I think...lol...I am positive the evidence was found and validated to something like the 11th or 12th century. Roundhouse/longhouse foundations and iron and bronze artifacts... but honestly, I forget specifically what part, but I know it was one of the three....I am inclined to think it was Newfoundland/Nova Scotia and from there they went south into "Vineland" aka...land of grapes and wine....which would/could be north-eastern USA but we still don't have a collective agreement on where "Vineland" was.

No... it's pretty cut and dry and archaeologically proven that the Nordics hit the east coast of North America a couple centuries before Columbus did... but....who wants to pay to re-print all of those text books?

Side note...there is some (emphasis on "some") evidence that the Asians may have hit the west coast of north America even earlier...anchor stones (typical of Chinese "junks") off the coast of California seemingly date to the 8th or 9th century....nifty eh?....no more proof than that though...very cool stuff though.

.

Nice post, I just want to inform you that the name "Vineland" correctly spelled is Vinland, and the vin part of the name in the old nordic language of the vikings means meadow, vin means meadow, "meadowland" litterary translated. Historians here in Norway think they called it that, since the meadows were attractive grassland for the vikings farm-animals.

Cheers,

Nordmann61.

Edited January 18, 2012 by Nordmann61