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Still not sure about that Viking sunstone story from last year

I read about this crystal called a sunstone that Vikings supposedly used to navigate on cloudy days. Sounded like a myth to me, like something from a fantasy novel. But then a researcher did a test with a piece of calcite and got within 5 degrees of the sun's position. That kind of precision is wild for a handheld rock in 900 AD. Has anyone else here looked into the actual archeological evidence for these things? I want to believe but I need more than one lab test.

2 comments

2 Comments

sandra71524d ago

a handheld rock in 900 AD" is such a funny phrase, I keep picturing a Viking just squinting at a pebble and hoping for the best. I'd probably get lost in my own backyard with that thing.

ivan_hayes2924d ago

Haha @sandra715, you nailed it with "squinting at a pebble" - that's exactly how I feel every time I think about this. I actually tried something similar with a piece of clear quartz I had lying around last summer, just messing around in my backyard on an overcast day. Let me tell you, I ended up pointing dead west when the sun was actually southeast by my best guess. So yeah, I'm with you on getting lost in my own backyard with one of those things. But that lab test they did still gets me, that kind of accuracy blows my mind for something so simple. I guess maybe the Vikings had generations of practice that we just don't have. Still feels like magic to me though.