Vikings are Cooler than Previously Thought

The crystals were covered in an earlier thread

Viking used sunstones

I noticed a number of posters used the cliche, 'they are hiding stuff from us', so I must ask; whom and what? Also if they are hiding it from you - how do you know about it?

reply to post by Hanslune


Hi Hanslune, I did check to see if it was done before i guess i typed in the wrong words my boo boo..I wasn't saying they were hiding this ..But i do believe there is many things in history they have hidden from us..Peace,sugarcookie

Originally posted by Hanslune
The crystals were covered in an earlier thread

Viking used sunstones

I noticed a number of posters used the cliche, 'they are hiding stuff from us', so I must ask; whom and what? Also if they are hiding it from you - how do you know about it?

Oh, I would argue that the Vikings were not one to hide anything. All the stranger that they left so little trace of themselves in the new world. Lets be honest, the Viking were known for many things but modesty was not among them.

reply to post by arbiture


arbiture,I never thought about that but its true they didn't leave hardly any trace of themselves in the new world good thinking..Peace,sugarcookie1

Or any evidence of them was destroyed before it was relevant.

A lot of discoveries are hidden for many years, I believe many things have been hidden due to it not fitting "history" (aka, vikings before columbus, would have discredited spain from discovering the new world, although columbus was an idiot that they wanted out of europe). Basically, blame the Catholic Church and the Vatican for destroying precious things from antiquity for the past millenia.

reply to post by phaesporia63incarnate


I agree with that the Catholic Church and the Vatican destroying precious things from antiquity for the past millennia. Id love to get into there vaults under the Vatican just to see what history was really like..Peace,sugarcookie1

This sounds similar to the book "The Bronze Age Computer Disc" by Alan Butler. I'll post the synopsis below:

Here we pursue and resolve the obscure riddle of the Phaistos Disc and reveal an amazing truth: that Minoan Bronze Age man had a level of knowledge to match that of 20th-century Europe. Their mathematics was ahead of the Greeks and to this day we use a unit of their measure: the Nautical Mile. Here we demonstrate that Bronze Age man knew the world to be round, and that he could measure its circumference to within hundreds of metres! This true detective story also demonstrates that the movement of the Earth in relation to the planets was fully understood. And that the Minoans had their own self-correcting calendar, which is something that we still haven't managed to achieve! This is the story of their 366[degrees] circle and a most elegant system lost to mankind. Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas (The Second Messiah) have tested this research for themselves and write: '...the story Alan told was far stranger than we could have imagined...and sounded rather fanciful. But the cold-blooded result of our efforts was clear. Alan had to be right'. 'He has rediscovered prehistoric knowledge and a system of super elegance that was lost before Moses reached the Promised Land. This is thinking of the highest order, of which any civilisation would justly be proud'. 'The sheer volume of supporting evidence from Megalithic sources make his explanation totally compelling' - Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas.

reply to post by sugarcookie1


To be fair, the Icelandic sagas show that the settlement at L'Anse Aux Meadowes was pretty much beset by scraelings throughout and also by infighting between Greenlanders and Icelanders so in fairness there wouldn't be much left to discover!

reply to post by doulos33


Thanks for the synopsis that was a great read goes to show our ancient ancestors had allot of knowledge ..I will have to read into the The Bronze Age Computer Disc..Thank you..peace,sugarcookie1

reply to post by Flavian


L'Anse aux Meadows represents a failed Viking colony ..But they did find a soapstone spindle whorl and a bronze-ringed pin process, as well as other iron, bronze, stone, and bone items. Radiocarbon dates placed the occupation at the site between ~990-1030 AD.
L'Anse aux Meadows was not a typical Viking village there is only three building complexes no barns it showed they did no farming so your right not much there to talk about ..Peace,sugarcookie1

Originally posted by sugarcookie1
reply to post by doulos33

 

Thanks for the synopsis that was a great read goes to show our ancient ancestors had allot of knowledge ..I will have to read into the The Bronze Age Computer Disc..Thank you..peace,sugarcookie1

Some did many didn't!

that Minoan Bronze Age man had a level of knowledge to match that of 20th-century Europe

Quite a claim, the term 'match' is a problem - what one could say correctly is that a few Minoans had knowledge that is still used by a 20th Century man. Match? Nope, Minoans couldn't hope to be equal in mathematics, chemical science, geology, astrophysics, physics, medicine, etc, with a 20th century man


Phaistos disk: one of my favorite items - IMHO it was a treasured keepsake of a parent or grandparent of something made for them by a child

I just want to briefly go on record and state that I have always thought Vikings are cool.

Also, Its important to remember that the Viking history we know of was written by their enemies and their enemies had plenty of incentive to make the vikings appear as blood thirsty savages. I am not saying they weren't brutal.... they absolutely were, however it was a brutal time. Christian cultures were no less brutal (It's remarkable to me that things like witch trials are so easily forgotten about), anyway, i guess that's a different topic.

Lastly, I will just say that Scandinavia "viking" culture was the first to bring things like trial by jury, parliaments, the right to bear arms, and the rights of women into there societies..... that's the end of my defense for vikings.... thanks for listening.

reply to post by GameOverManGameOver


GameOverManGameOver,Thanks for posting allot of what you said is true ..That was a great defense for the Vikings ! And here is your first star from me..peace,sugarcookie1

Originally posted by GameOverManGameOver
I just want to briefly go on record and state that I have always thought Vikings are cool.

Also, Its important to remember that the Viking history we know of was written by their enemies and their enemies had plenty of incentive to make the vikings appear as blood thirsty savages. I am not saying they weren't brutal.... they absolutely were, however it was a brutal time. Christian cultures were no less brutal (It's remarkable to me that things like witch trials are so easily forgotten about), anyway, i guess that's a different topic.

Lastly, I will just say that Scandinavia "viking" culture was the first to bring things like trial by jury, parliaments, the right to bear arms, and the rights of women into there societies..... that's the end of my defense for vikings.... thanks for listening.

Well being half Danish I must rise to the defense of my brethen. Yeah they were nasty at times but probably not any worse than many others. It is notable that they colonized instead of wiping out peoples. I suspect they had nothing on the Huns, Vandals, Mongols or the other usual suspects.

reply to post by Hanslune


I'm Swedish and all my family and distant relatives are from Sweden my family brought me here when i was very young but i still have allot of relatives in Sweden we call the( old country ) Ive always found the Viking history to be interesting...sugarcookie1

They probably used a crystal which aided in seeing the polarization lines in the sky. Sometimes at certain angles we can see them with the naked eye. Bees can see the lines and use them for navigation.

Interestingly, in the late 40's the US National Bureau of Standards (now NIST) developed a Sky Compass based on the same principle. It was inspired by a previous "twilight compass" developed by Dr. A. H. Pfund of Johns Hopkins University. From a NBS 1949 paper: "The principal advantage of the sky compass . . . is during twilight, and when the sun is several degrees below the horizon, as well as when the region of the sky containing the sun is overcast, so long there is a clear patch of sky overhead. The sky compass is thus of particular value when the sun compass and the sextant are not usable. Since the extent of polarization of the sky's light is greatest at right angles to the incident beam of sunlight, the compass is most accurate in the polar regions, where it is also most useful, because of the long duration of twilight . . ." The US Navy and Air Force experimented with the sky compass in the 1950's and Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) used it for several years on its polar flights

source

reply to post by circlemaker


Viking legend has it that sailors could hold up crystal sunstones to the sky to help them find their way
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.
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
Thats what they were useing Peace,sugarcookie1

The two other viking sunstone threads from this month on the first page:

Legendary Viking Sunstone: "Solved"?

The secret of ancient Viking navigation was transparent crystals

Originally posted by sugarcookie1
reply to post by arbiture

 

arbiture,I never thought about that but its true they didn't leave hardly any trace of themselves in the new world good thinking..Peace,sugarcookie1

Its possible that the end of the medieval warm period was so abrupt, they were caught unprepared. There is some evidence that volcanic eruptions affected the weather dramatically, and change the latitude of the frost line about 800 miles further south. Either way they made the same mistake that is common in all civilizations that come and go. They thought they were immortal.

reply to post by 11andrew34


Its already been pointed out to me and i already stated the reason it was posted..sugarcookie1