posted on Nov, 15 2011 @ 02:06 PM
Viking legend has it that sailors could hold up crystal sunstones to the sky to help them find their way. Turns out the legend could be truea team of
researchers found that a type of crystal called an Icelandic spar commonly found in that country could accurately reveal the position of the sun in
cloudy or near-dark conditions.
Researchers have long wondered and argued about how the Vikings were able to successfully navigate their way around the Northern Hemisphere in the
late eighth to 11th centuries, hundreds of years before the magnetic compass reached Europe around 1300. Besides the direction of the wind, waves, and
swell, the only way to navigate during the day away from shore is by knowing the sun’s direction. But that’s not so easy on a foggy or stormy day,
or during the long twilight of Northern summers.
One such crystal was recently found in the 1592 shipwreck of an Elizabethan vessel in the English channel. The researchers think its likely to have
been used to aid navigation, due to its shape and their calculation that the presence of even the one large cannon found aboard would interfere with
compass readings. This suggests these types of sunstones were in use more than 200 years before polarized light was first discovered, and possibly
used even earlier by the Vikings to navigate the open seas. (Source Discover Magazine)
Modern people hear terms like "Sunstone" and scoff at the superstitious silliness, but there's so much about history we just don't (and probably
never will) understand. Hearing about ancient Scandinavians using mystical crystals to navigate the seas just makes me smile..