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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 the History Channel's television series Vikings, a sun compass very similar in appearance to the Uunartoq disc was a significant plot device in the first season, as it allowed the Norsemen to maintain a consistent latitude while sailing west on the open ocean to raid Britain, though it was shown floating in water rather than hand-held as ...
The Galloway Hoard, now in the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, is a hoard of more than 100 gold, silver, glass, crystal, stone, and earthenware objects from the Viking Age, discovered in the historical county of Kirkcudbrightshire in Dumfries and Galloway in Scotland, in September 2014.
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.
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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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
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