Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
Statue of "Big Ole the Viking" in Alexandria, Minnesota, proclaiming the city the "Birthplace of America," based on an assumed authenticity of the Kensington Stone. The Kensington Runestone is a slab of greywacke stone covered in runes that was discovered in Western Minnesota, United States, in 1898.
A runestone is typically a raised stone with a runic inscription, but the term can also be applied to inscriptions on boulders and on bedrock. The tradition of erecting runestones as a memorial to dead men began in the 4th century and lasted into the 12th century, but the majority of the extant runestones date from the late Viking Age.
The Narragansett Runestone, also known as the Quidnessett Rock, [1] is a 2.5 t (2,500 kg) slab of metasandstone located in Rhode Island, United States. It is 5 (1.5m) feet high and 7 feet (2.1m) long. [ 2 ]
A number of runestones have been found in Oklahoma. All of them are of modern origin dating to the 19th century "Viking revival" or were produced by 19th-century Scandinavian settlers. The oldest find is the "Heavener Runestone," first documented in 1923.
Two groups of runestones erected in Denmark mention a woman named Thyra, which suggests she was a powerful Viking sovereign who likely played a pivotal role in the birth of the Danish realm.
The runestones are unevenly distributed in Scandinavia: The majority are found in Sweden, estimated at between 1,700 [2] and 2,500 (depending on definition). Denmark has 250 runestones, and Norway has 50. [2] There are also runestones in other areas reached by the Viking expansion, especially in the British Isles. [3]
Purported runestones have been found in North America, most famously the Kensington Runestone. These are generally considered forgeries or misinterpretations of Native American petroglyphs . [ 107 ] There are many unsubstantiated claims of Norse colonization in New England.
The term "United States," when used in the geographic sense, refers to the contiguous United States (sometimes referred to as the Lower 48, including the District of Columbia not as a state), Alaska, Hawaii, the five insular territories of Puerto Rico, Northern Mariana Islands, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and minor outlying possessions. [1]