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Iceland spar, possibly the medieval sunstone used to locate the Sun in the sky when clouds obstruct it from view. The sunstone (Icelandic: sólarsteinn) is a type of mineral attested in several 13th–14th-century written sources in Iceland, one of which describes its use to locate the Sun in a completely overcast sky.
In 2013, researchers from Eötvös University in Hungary argued that the Uunartoq disc could have also been used to determine a traveller's latitude. [13] The researchers pointed to a series of very short inscribed lines stacked atop one another on the disc's north index mark, whereas gnomonic lines by necessity run from west to east across the sun compass's face.
Similarly, researchers and historians continually debate the use of the sunstone in Viking navigation. Because a sunstone is able to polarize light, it is a plausible method for determining direction. By showing which direction light waves are oscillating, the sunstone has the potential to show the sun's position even when the sun is obscured ...
The recovery of an Iceland spar sunstone from a ship of the Elizabethan era that sank in 1592 off Alderney suggests that this navigational technology may have persisted after the invention of the magnetic compass. [49] [50] William Nicol (1770–1851) invented the first polarizing prism, using Iceland spar to create his Nicol prism. [51]
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Sunstone is a microcline or oligoclase feldspar, which when viewed from certain directions exhibits a spangled appearance. It has been found in Southern Norway , Sweden , various United States localities and on some beaches along the midcoast of South Australia.
These include the largest and most varied collection of Viking-age gold objects yet found in Britain and Ireland. [4] Research has revealed that the vessel was made in western Asia. The items among the treasure originated across a wide geographic area that includes Anglo-Saxon England, Ireland, and Scandinavia. The hoard has some similarities ...
Researchers called the finds a Viking’s “missed shot, but an archaeological bull’s eye.” Prehistoric Viking weapons revealed as glaciers melt in Norway during heat wave Skip to main content