What stone did the Vikings use?

The Vikings, the great navigators of antiquity, used “sun stones” – crystals that polarize sunlight – for navigation during daylight hours. Gabor’s new research supports this theory. 31.01.2011/19/02, Mon, XNUMX:XNUMX, Moscow time The Vikings, the great navigators of antiquity, used “sun stones” – crystals that polarize sunlight – for navigation during daylight hours. This theory is supported by new research by Gabor Horvath, an optics researcher at the University. Eötvos in Budapest, and Susanne Akesson, an ecologist and migration specialist at Lund University, Sweden. Vikings crossed thousands of miles, traveling between Northern Europe, the British Isles, Iceland, Greenland and even North America. In high northern latitudes, due to the polar day, stars may not be visible for several months. At the same time, navigation by the sun may be impossible due to unfavorable weather conditions. But the magnetic compass was not yet known in Europe. Viking legends tell of “sun stones” (solarsteinn), with which it was possible to determine the position of the Sun even through clouds. The saga describes how, in cloudy and snowy weather, King Olaf asked Sigurd where the Sun was. To test Sigurd’s answer, Olaf took the “sun stone” and saw where the sun was. The first suggestions that the “sunstone” was not a fiction and could be one of the polarizing crystals, such as Iceland spar, were put forward back in 1967. Such crystals transmit only light polarized in certain directions. By rotating the crystal, you can see how the intensity of the glow changes depending on its position relative to the Sun. Some historians have disputed this claim, arguing that this method only works if the crystal is pointed at a relatively clear area of ​​the sky. And in such conditions, you can estimate the position of the Sun with the naked eye, for example, focusing on the bright light from behind the clouds. In one of their studies, Gabor Horvath and Susanne Akesson photographed partly cloudy skies at dusk in northern Finland through a fisheye lens covering a 180° panorama and asked subjects to estimate the position of the Sun. The spread in the estimate reached 99°, therefore, the Vikings could not rely on assessing the position of the Sun with the naked eye. To test the properties of the “sunstones,” Horvath and Akesson conducted light polarization studies in a wide range of weather conditions while crossing the Arctic Ocean on the Swedish icebreaker Odin. In foggy or completely cloudy weather, the pattern of light polarization was the same as in clear skies. They are now planning further experiments to see if volunteers can accurately determine the position of the Sun using the crystals in different weather conditions. Sean McGrail, who studied ancient maritime history at Oxford University, says the research is interesting, but there is no real evidence that the Vikings actually used such crystals. “You can show how they can be used, but that’s not proof of their actual use,” he says. “People were swimming long before this without any tools.” “Surviving written evidence suggests that Vikings and sailors of the early Middle Ages navigated the North Atlantic using the position of the sun on clear days, as well as coastlines, bird flight, whale migration routes and distant clouds over the islands,” says Christian Keller. ), specialist in North Atlantic archeology at the University of Oslo. “You don’t have to be a master, you just have to combine many different types of observations.” The idea that the Vikings used crystals is “completely open” but awaits archaeological evidence, Keller said. “If we find the remains of a shipwreck with a crystal on board, then I will be happy,” he says. Light polarization – one of the fundamental properties of optical radiation (light), consisting in the inequality of different directions in a plane perpendicular to the light beam (the direction of propagation of the light wave). Polarization of light is also called geometric characteristics that reflect the features of this inequality. Viking journeys often took them through subpolar regions shrouded in fog, rain, and cloudy skies that obscured the sun and stars. Could a special crystal help a sailor find his way across the ocean? Related video Have you ever wondered about the great mystery of how the Vikings managed to navigate treacherous waters to reach America more than millennia before the advent of GPS systems? In recent years, a popular theory has emerged that they could use a special crystal to navigate the terrain, writes IFLScience. Focus.Technology has its ownTelegram channel. Subscribe so you don’t miss the latest and most interesting news from the world of science! If you’ve ever watched the hit TV show Vikings on the History Channel, you’ll no doubt remember the scene in which Ragnar Lothbrok reveals to his brother a secret method for navigating in cloudy conditions. He makes a translucent crystal known as Iceland spar, which he uses to enhance the sun’s rays. This scene gave rise to the idea that has long been discussed by historians and scientists, and has now become generally accepted – the Vikings used Iceland spar to guide their ships. Iceland spar, also known as sunstone, is a type of transparent calcite that can be found in parts of Scandinavia and Iceland. This crystal has a unique property known as birefringence or birefringence, which causes it to split polarized light into two beams of different speeds and refractive indices. The result is a double image of what is being looked at through the crystal. Currently, Iceland spar and similar crystals are used in precision optical instruments and LCD screens. Iceland spar was also a vital mineral during World War II, where it was used in the sighting equipment of gunners and bombers. The theory is that seafarers such as the Vikings may have used these crystals as natural Polaroid filters for navigation. When light passes through the atmosphere, it becomes polarized and scattered. If a crystal like Iceland spar is held up to the sky and rotated, the light passing through the crystal becomes brighter and dimmer in accordance with the polarized light in the atmosphere centered on the Sun. The double refraction of the crystal is most intense when it is precisely aligned, allowing you to determine where the Sun is, even in cloudy conditions. By taking two readings at different points in the sky, the navigator can determine the direction to the Sun and use it to calculate geographic north. This method of navigation is very interesting and is believed to be mentioned in the ancient Scandinavian sagas, which describe mystical “sun stones” used to determine the location of the Sun and plot the course of a ship. It was not until the late 1960s that Danish archaeologist Thorkild Ramskou made the connection to Iceland spar. But do we have hard evidence that the Vikings actually used this method, and does it even work? Today, researchers answer this question with a “maybe” at best. The first obstacle is that to date, no sunstone has been discovered on either a Viking ship or burial site. In 2013, French researchers from the University of Rennes claimed to have discovered a piece of Iceland spar from a British ship that sank in the English Channel in 1592. Although a team of researchers tested it and suggested that it could have been used as a backup method of navigation in conjunction with inaccurate compasses, there is no evidence to support this theory. Additionally, this find relates to a shipwreck that occurred several centuries after the Vikings are thought to have used this technique. Another challenge is determining how reliable this navigation method is. In 2016, a group of scientists tried to test this hypothesis in practice. They recreated the conditions that Viking explorers might have encountered during their travels and examined three types of crystals – calcite, cordierite and tourmaline. In some cloudy conditions, cordierite and tourmaline outperformed calcite, but in very low polarization conditions, calcite was most effective. However, in conditions of excessive cloudiness and fog, all three crystals were ineffective. This shows that the theory that the Vikings used sun stones for navigation may not be entirely accurate. While it is possible that the Vikings used sunstones for navigation, there is no concrete evidence to support this claim. Sunstones have not been found on Viking ships or burial sites. Additionally, the reliability of this navigation method is questionable. Perhaps if the method does not work in cloudy conditions using such imperfect crystals as the Vikings had, then the theory is most likely wrong. On clear days, a calibrated sundial would have been an easier and more reliable means of navigation. In conclusion, the idea that the Vikings used sun stones for navigation remains unconvincing. While this is an intriguing and romantic idea, further research is needed to determine the accuracy of this theory. However, as with many aspects of Viking history, there is still a lot we don’t know, and there’s a good chance that everything we thought we knew about the Vikings is wrong. We also wrote about an archaeological discovery that puzzled researchers. In Norway, a Viking ship was found in a mound that was thought to be empty.

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