Geologist says 'Runestone' found in 1898 by Olof Ohman is not hoax; local descendents agree

Isanti County News Minnesota ^ | 9/21/05 | Rachel Kytonen

[pillbox_girl]

Nobody is claiming the kensington stone itself isn't ancient. Most stones outside of regions of active volcanism are eons old. What is in dispute is the age of the inscription on the stone. And a single report that finds mica weathering on the stone, which can be faked by mechanical or chemical means, does not counter all the other things about the inscription that demonstrate its inauthenticity.

Here are just some of the things wrong with the kensington stone:

1. The text is written using a combination of post medieval norwegian, swedish, badly spelled modern english, and one icelandic word spelled identically to the same word used in contemporary transcriptions of the icelandic sagas. The grammar and sentence structure are that of modern english.
2. The date and numbers in the inscription bear no similarity to that used in authentic runic texts. Their form is barely disguised modern dating and numbering.
3. The runes and their usage is nothing like those used in actual authentic runic inscriptions. The runes on the kensington stone come from many different time periods and locations. More to the point, the kensington stone inscription includes many "secret" runes commonly used by scandinavian tradesman societies during the runic revival that occurred during the middle 1800's.
4. To support the "discovery", various paper copies of the runic inscription were disseminated by the discoverer. Upon examination, it turns out these paper copies were not exact renditions of the runic inscription. One would assume that they would be exact if they had been copied from the stone inscription. From their text, the opposite was true; the stone was copied from them. Taken together, these pages are obviously rough drafts done before the inscription was carved in the stone.
5. Other papers bearing modern tradesman runic inscriptions with texts nearly identical to the kensington stone have recently surfaced. These documents predate the stone's "discovery", but not the claimed medeival date of it's inscription.

There are a lot of other things that are wrong about the kensington stone which clearly demonstrate it is a hoax. Do you want more?

More to the point, it is possible to artificially wear inscriptions. Given the number of people who have demonstrated an almost religious need for the kensington stone to be genuine, I wouldn't rule that possibility out. However, the probability of an actual viking in the 1300's carving a runestone using modern swedish, norwegian, icelandic, and english with a modern english grammar and sentence structure using tradesman runes from the 1800's is an absolute zero. The chance that papers from the mid 1800's with almost exact copies of the pecular runic inscription could have been written while the stone was purportedly still in the ground is also zero.

I have no doubt that Scott Wolter is being honest in his findings. I also have no doubt that he has been fooled, just like so many others have been by the kensington hoax.

[pillbox_girl]

I forgot about the fairy photographs.

I'll have to modify my thinking. It looks like the only people who attempt hoaxes are men and little english girls. And that doesn't actually help defend men against my premise that they are basically strange creatures with far too too much time on their hands. Adult women are just more sensible and have better things to do.

[judgeandjury]

Groovy and far out, man!

[KamperKen]

You still raise an interesting point. Virtually all of the hoaxers have been male. But curiously, in the other realms of human malfeasance, there have been equally infamous (though not as numerous) females, from Livia and Countess Bathory to Anne Bonney. However, I don't include Boadicea. She was provoked! :)

[SunkenCiv]

No surprise there. :')

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[Bear_Slayer]

the rock was found one day after school

This sentence could be read in many ways:

One day after [the] school [year started]

One day after [the] school [year ended.]

One day after school [let out in the afternoon]

[solitas]

A link to another stone story:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1537607/posts

[SunkenCiv]

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