Posted on 06/28/2011 6:07:46 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Anything short of a million pages is simply not a 'record" worth worrying about.
“Heavener Runestone” ~ thanks for the Gloria reference. She seems to be interested in that particular Runestone in Oklahoma. It has the same general shape as your typical Spanish boundary marker ~ so I’ll look up more on it and see if it’s on or near any of the baselines and meridians established by the Spanish in the early 1600 period.
The top part of the Heavener stone is very typical of the shape the Spanish liked to give their boundary markers ~ and this one, again, just like the one in Kensington, is UNIQUE ~ it's huge and it has Rune letters on it. It also has its distance in leagues from some baseline maybe to the South ~ 1012 ~ encrypted. The two other stones found in the area may be better understood in the context of this stone as being some sort of adjustment that would need to be made by future surveyors in this area.
The Kensington stone also has shows its distance in leagues from a baseline probably through New Orleans.
It's possible that many other boundary stones or benchmarks exist East and West of that point at intervals of about 1 degree (to the best of what they could do in 1600 or so).
Not to take the mystery out of these stones, but the Spanish got busy and started surveying North America shortly after King Philippe II of Spain died in 1598 ~ preparatory to imposing a settlement on France and England ~ they'd both get certain areas to settle or use, but there was a large area left to the discretion of Spain. There was no way Spain could enforce it's rights without benchmarks, boundary markers, maps, etc. and that took surveying.
We know they laid out a boundary between the English in the East along the Appalachians. They also drew a boundary between their privileges in the Far North and that of the French to the South (Yes, Spain used to own the Canadian Arctic), and they agreed to a boundary between themselves and the Russians in the far Northwest ~
I think all these ancient (1600s is ancient BTW) surveys link up in at least their design, and appear to have been done mostly by an independent party of Scandinavian entrepreneurs ~ not the far older Vikings.
I was visited regularly on Saturday mornings by Mormon missionaries in college. Usually, when they saw what I looked like the morning after they would turn around and leave. ;-))
You mention that the Heavener stone has Rune letters on it. So my questions are, why would a Spanish marker have runes on it and if they had 1600s Scandinavians doing surveying, were they still using runes by that time?
This is an interesting translation. I see they got the murder item right. What is this about the adultery/idolatry commandment? I would think that idolatry was pretty well covered in 1 and 2. Wouldn’t they need adultery to cover the behavior of women, since number 10 only refers to coveting someone’s wife? Does anyone know more about this issue?
They didn't get out much ~ the 30 Years War hadn't yet happened, and the idea Sweden would be a major world player had not yet penetrated ~ they were still mostly illiterate except plenty of smart guys did learn and use Rune alphabets.
The big issue in dating all the Rune stones in the USA has been whether or not they were placed by Vikings in the early Middle Ages, or by Other Scandinavians in Modern Times.
My proposal here is they were placed by Late Medieval/Age of Exploration and Discovery Swedes employed by the Richest Man in the World ~ aka Philippe of Spain!
Being surveyors and navigators they'd been quite educated for their time, and it probably occurred to at least one of them that if he set benchmark stones in place with Rune or Hebraic Characters cut into them PEOPLE WOULD KNOW THEY WERE benchmarks and not just something else.
I think at the time most Scandinavians were totally unaware of the voyages to Vinland ~ Iceland was, after all, far away and very much outside the main avenues of world commerce. People weren't into digging through the Sagas ~ and translating them into English.
I think we actually know the surnames, and some of the Christian names of the Scandinavian surveyors who worked for Philippe in carving up North America!
I looked at Runes in Farley’s book. It appears there were two forms. One of Old Norse (Futhark of 24 runes with likely dates in the US of 600 to 900 AD). the other the Scandinavian Futhork of 16 runes called the Younger Futhork and used in the time of Phillip. There is a lot of material in her book on the runic inscriptions.
I'm going to do a net search to find OTHER STONES that could be benchmarks located at roughly 1 degree intervals East and West, and maybe North and South.
All I have to do is FIND ONE and the die is cast ~ book time!
New film now available from Man vs Archaeology!
Hidden Mt. & the Mystery of the Decalogue Stone.
http://manvsarchaeology.wordpress.com/2012/11/10/the-mystery-of-the-decalogue-stone/
Thanks manvsarchaeology.
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