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Sunstones

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Pete McK:
For centuries, it has been a crystal of legend locked in the verses of Norse myth with little or no evidence that it was ever real. Now it seems scientists at last have grounds for believing that the Viking “sunstone” used to navigate the seas did indeed exist. Read the full article at http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/archaeology/not-just-the-stuff-of-legend-famed-viking-sunstone-did-exist-believe-scientists-8521522.html 

Lyle Brotherton:
Wow, this is some story!

Hugh Westacott:
I have a copy of Viking Navigation; Sun Compass Guided Norsemen First to America by Soren Thirslund published by the author in 2001, in which he relates the discovery in Greenland of half of a small wooden disc that looks remarkably like a compass rose. It is inscribed with lines that could be interpreted as gnomens indicating latitudes in the north Atlantic. It is believed, and the theory appears to have been confirmed by practical experiments at sea, that the instrument could have been used to navigate using the shadow of the sun.

The author mentions the quotation in the Sagas about King Olaf but states that experiments using various minerals, including Icelandic spar, had not been successful in locating the sun when it is obscured. It seems that there may have been a breakthrough.

Hugh

Lost Soul:
This website has an interesting take on the theory and purpose of Viking Sunstones.

http://www.naturalnavigator.com/viking-sunstones-navigation/

adi:
If I remember correctly after watching the TV series which I believe was called  Kon-Tiki which actually documented Ra & Ra II which were reed boats built from Egyptian plans cross the Atlantic in the early 70s. If I remember correctly they demonstrated and used both Polaris and Sunstones to navigate.

Also there was another expedition that was televised where a Viking ship was taken through Russia and Europe to Constantinople to prove that the Vikings had trade routes to the middle east via river with only a single portage of about 200 meters in the whole journey meaning the vikings had quicker trade routes to the rest of northern Europe who would have to sail around Spain to Gib and into the Med. I believe they used sunstones on that trip to test the theory that they worked.   

Finally and most recently there was an expedition to sail a viking ship to rein-act the discovery of Greenland and the Americas by the vikings and again they used sunstones.

So that is at least 40 years of experimental archaeology into the use of sunstones so I don't think there can be any argument that they existed.         

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