NordP
Posted on 08/25/2007 12:21:22 PM PDT by BGHater
It's one of Minnesota's greatest mysteries. It's something that puts settlers in America well before Columbus. A Minnesota geologist thinks the controversial Kensington Runestone is the real thing and there is evidence that he says backs up the theory.
The Kensington Runestone is a rock found near Alexandria a century ago. It's inscription speaking of Norwegians here in 1362. It begs the question. Were Vikings exploring our land more than 100 years before Columbus? Or is it just an elaborate hoax?
New research shows that the stone is genuine and there's hidden code that may prove it. It contains carved words that have haunted these hills and the Ohman family for more than 100 years, yet their faith has never wavered.
"I just never had any doubt. I mean I was very emphatic about it. Absolutely it's real. There's no doubt," said Darwin Ohman. His grandfather found the Runestone.
Darwin's grandfather Olof Ohman has been considered the author of Minnesota's most famous fraud, the Runestone. He says he found it buried under a tree in 1898. Critics say the language on the stone is too modern to be from 1362, that some of the runes are made up. They say this simple farmer carved it himself to fool the learned.
"You're calling him a liar. If this is a hoax he lied to his two sons, he lied to his family, lied to his neighbors and friends and lied to the world," said Scott Wolter a geologist and researcher of the Runestone.
Wolter and Texas engineer Dick Nielsen are sharing for the first time new evidence about the hidden secrets they say are carved in this stone.
"It changes history in a big way," Wolter said
In 2000 he performed one of the very few geological studies on the stone. He says the breakdown of minerals in the inscription shows the carving is at least 200 years old, older than Olof Ohman. Those findings support the first geological study in 1910 that also found the stone to be genuine.
"In my mind the geology settled it once and for all," he said.
Linguistic experts are not convinced. They say runes like those on the stone are made up. But Nielsen has now found the same one here in an old Swedish rune document dating back to the 1300's.
"It makes me ask the question if they were wrong about that what else were they wrong about?" Wolter said.
For the first time Wolter has documented every individual rune on the stone with a microscope. He started finding things that he didn't expect. He was the first to discover dots inside four R shaped runes on the stone. He said they are intentional and they mean something. So Wolter and Nielsen scoured rune catalogs.
"We found the dotted R's. It's an extremely rare rune that only appeared during medieval times. This absolutely fingerprints it to the 14th century. This is linguistic proof. This is medieval, period," Wolter said.
They traced the dotted 'R' to rune covered graves inside ancient churches on the island of Gotland off the coast of Sweden. What they found on the grave slabs were very interesting crosses. They were Templar crosses, the symbol of a religious order of knights formed during the crusades and persecuted by the Catholic Church in the 1300's.
"This was the genesis of their secret societies, secret codes, secret symbols, secret signs all this stuff. If they carved the rune stone why did they come here and why did they carve this thing?" Wolter asked.
He has uncovered new evidence that has taken his research in a very different direction. Wolter now believes that the words on the stone may not be the record of the death of 10 men but instead, a secret code concealing the true purpose of the rune stone.
Two runes in the form of an L and a U are two more reasons why linguists say Olof Ohman carved the stone. They are crossed and linguists say they should not be.
A third rune has a punch at the end of one line. Each rune on the stone has a numerical value. Wolter and Nielsen took the three marked runes and plotted them on a medieval dating system called the Easter Table.
"When we plotted these three things we got a year, 1362. It was like 'oh my god is this an accident? Is this a coincidence?' I don't think so," Wolter said.
They wondered why Templars would come to North America, carve the stone and code the date.
"If it's the Templars that were under religious persecution at the time, that would be a pretty good reason to come over here," Wolter figured.
"I'm sure a lot of people are going to roll their eyes and say oh it's the Davinci Code and if they do they do. This is the evidence. This is who was there. This is what the grave slabs tell us. It is what it is," he said.
Wolter and Nielsen's authored the book "The Kensington Runestone: Compelling New Evidence." Wolter is currently writing another book on the Runestone.
NordP
ping!
I’m not convinced either way, but I do find it quite plausible. If they could make it to Greenland, I see no reason they couldn’t go further from there.
I don’t know. Minnesota’s a pretty good ways from the beach.
They would've proceeded up the Nelson River to Lake Winnipeg. There is an island in the lake which also bears rune-like markings on a rock cliff.
From Lake Winnipeg, the explorers would have proceeded up the Red River (up, in this case, being south), then followed a tributary into Western Minnesota.
A topographic map of the area around Ohman's farm reveals it is on a hill -- and that the land between the hill and the streams feeding the Red is flat as a billiard table. It's not difficult to imagine the entire area under water during the Spring thaw -- easily navigable by a shallow draft boat. The troup could well have "beached" at the base of Ohman's Hill.
Point being: the geography of the area doesn't preclude a Viking visit in 1362. Indeed, it's quite feasible.
Wow..such an impressive rebuttal. I guess that settles the argument..the rune is real!.
See post #5.
It's not far-fetched, at all.
It’s pretty reasonable. No different than the Spanish explorers a few hundred years later. The Vinland story has a lot of evidence behind it and that was 300 years prior to this. I also think there is strong evidence that ice-age europeans made it to NA up to about 50,000 years ago.
I don’t understand what geologic evidence is involved.
there might be chemical or even isotopic evidence but geologic?
Correct me if I’m wrong, please. But I had been taught that the northern coast of the “new world” was well known to europeans long before Columbus’s voyages.
The northern european nations had fishing fleets fighting over control of the fisheries off of Newfoundland and some trading posts were established on the coasts.
Columbus was attempting to pass under the New World’s southern edge and bypass it to the eastern spice islands.
That’s what I/we were taught.
Is that wrong?
Breaking news
Interesting post. Thank you.
That's part of the problem. Many "scientists" are too quick to label anything that doesn't match "what we know to be true" as a hoax. A Canadian friend told of a buddy who was on an archaeological native indian dig and found something that "didn't belong". He excitedly showed it to the head guy, a professor, who took the item and told the kid his career would be ruined if he said anything about it.
There appears to be a concerted effort by Canadian and American governments to suppress ANY indication that others were here before the so-called "Native Americans". Look at what happened to the "Kennewick Man" site.
All kinds of anomalies pop up, like a gold chain half embedded in a lump of Pennsylvania anthracite (the "experts" say it was dropped by miners) or the finely crafted vase that fell out of a quarried block of pudding stone (limestone?) in 1888. It was handed over to a museum where it promptly disappeared. The Accretion theory wins out over Catastrophism every time.
The ending of Indiana Jones was intended as a joke but anomalies of history have a habit of disappearing into a box in the basements of museums. Granted hoaxes abound aka the Piltdown Man, but all too often real evidence is ignored or destroyed, many times because reputations and careers have been built on flawed theories.
The last marriage performed in the church in the Norse (Viking) settlement in Greenland occurred prior to 1492, although the attempt to colonize Greenland was even then failing due to a cooling climatic trend.
Same thing basically. There are chemical reactions in rocks that are cut and exposed that result in oxides or calcites that are deposited and can only develop thicknesses due to time.
Huh? Think about that statement for a minute. The fact that Minnesota has had a rich Scandanavian heritage since the westward migration period of American history is precisely the reason for all the skepticism about the Runic stone's authenticity.
I'm not saying anything about the Kennsington Stone's authenticity either way, only that it wouldn't be surprising if it were to be a forgery. The fact that the farmer may have lied to his family is not surprising either. If he were shooting his mouth off to neighbors or visitors he may have opted to maintain the story -- Clinton did.
The “rich Scandinavian and Finnish heritage” of Minnesota and neighboring states (of which I personally am a beneficiary), is based on massive immigration in the 19th century, beginning especially around 1840, and would have no linkage with Viking explorationis five centuries earlier.
I wonder what calendar the Vikings were using to date events in their wide-ranging explorations.
The Viking settlement at L’ Anse aux Meadows in the northernmost tip of Newfoundland has been dated to around 1000 A.D. (The Viking Discovery of America, by Helge and Anne Stine Ingstad, Checkmark Books, New York, 2001).
And, while not to the point of this article or today’s exchange, analysis of Norse language shows little no reason to suppose that the term “vin” has anything at all to do with grapes, or wine. According to Swedish philologist Prof Sven Soderberg, “vin” is the Old Norse term for pasture, or meadow, and is for that reason commonly found as a descriptive element in Norwegian place names.
The Anishinaabe and Dakota peoples explored Minnesota before the Vikings. Their artifacts predate the Kensington Runestone.
Yep, its just common sense, -- when the Greenland Vikings went looking for new settlements, the Hudson's bay route was a logical way south, -- considering that Canada's east coast was already heavily populated by natives.
Its highly likely that some Vikings settled in that area, which would account for all the blue eyed blond Mandans noted later on.
If this is a hoax he lied to his two sons, he lied to his family, lied to his neighbors and friends and lied to the world,” said Scott Wolter a geologist and researcher of the Runestone.
Lying to his friends, neighbors and family? Who does he think he is? Bill Clinton?
The "Kensington Runestone" Vikings went to Fargo and turned left.
The Mandans' predecessors turned right...
There are also runestones in Oklahoma, the Heavener Runestone being the most well known. The runes are carved on the side of a large boulder in eastern Oklahoma. Proponents theorize the Vikings went south around Florida, into the Gulf of Mexico, up the Mississippi River, then to the Arkansas River, and finally into present day Oklahoma. I’ve seen the runestone but the amount of travel required seems a little farfetched.
Dead-on right. It’s also why I find such areas of study as archaeology to be suspect from top to bottom. In other words, I don’t believe a damned word anyone in the field says, no matter how “sincere” they are or seemingly “scientific” in their approach.
Academia is all about politics.
Translated into proper English it says...REST STOP! for Vikings on their way to Heavner, Oklahoma!
That’s what I had been taught and it makes it all the more likely that some of the vikings might have explored inland. The vikings reached the black sea area by travelling down the rivers of eastern europe and russia.
I remember reading about some roman coins being found in Tennessee,rumors about medieval chain mail being found in a cave in 1900 in the deep south
How much of our real history has been covered up by self important boneheads ? and academic quacks
Didn’t various viking elements push all the way eastward thru the Russ and into central asia on missions of conquest?
I also seem to recall viking raids through the Mediterranean and into some of the middle east lands.
Those might be mistaken memories or memories from bad sources, but I’ve always had the impression that vikings were explorers and raiders that went where ever there appeared to be something to explore or raid.
I am not sure if it was a hoax or not but near Detroit Lakes Minnesota, several large boulders had 8-12 inch holes bored into them. Local legend suggests they were anchor stones used to secure the viking ships. This was on a lake that would have been connected to the waterways discussed in a previous post.
Some years ago, near Detroit Lakes Minnesota, large boulders with 8-12 inch holes were discovered-it was suggested the holes were used as anchor stones to moor viking ships. The anchor stones were located on a lake that is part of the waterway system noted in post 6.
As a young boy (about 45 years ago) I remember seeing the stones which were smooth bored.
Seems to me that the safest baseline assumption would be that vikings at least attempted to reach everywhere they could think of exploring.
They were a people heavily infected with wanderlust.
http://www.athropolis.com/arctic-facts/fact-runestone.htmNorse Stone Authenticity Put To Test - 10/03/2003
Isn't it even more likely that Viking explorers who entered the continent via Hudson's Bay and the Red River kept drifting south -- toward fairer weather and following the buffalo from the Dakota plains into Kansas and thence downriver on the Arkansas?
You don't have to posit a very unlikely voyage into the Gulf of Mexico.
It is the real deal, now if I could only get the History Channel to buy it.
Let me guess. It starts:
IN A.D. 1362...WAR WAS BEGINNING.
For sure, they haven't shyed away from crockumentaries that posed controversial points-of-view.
Are they really that afraid to challenge political correctness and the conventional wisdom it fosters?
When I was in the ad biz, I know I would've jumped at the opportunity to sponsor something like this. It's engaging...it's plausible...and, if true, important in a historical sense. But, more than anything, it's interesting!
Could it be that two cultures simultaneously developed the same rune?
A few pointers. First of all, they were “Norsemen”, as the Viking era ended with the Norman Conquest in 1066.
There was a Catholic Greenland colony in the 14th Century, that was under the sway of a Bishop. And if there were Knights Templar there, or some who had escaped Europe and headed to Greenland as the edge of the Christian world, figuring to keep going, it would have been pretty straightforward to get to Minnesota. The colony died out perhaps a hundred years later or less, or unknown causes but possibly starvation.
From the South of Hudson Bay, or its sub-bay James Bay, you would have had Lake Winnipeg to the northwest and Lake Superior to the southeast, channeling you towards Minnesota.
If you had brought with you horses and small boats, you could either go straight, dodging the minefield of small lakes, overland, or take the river and Lake Winnipeg route mentioned before. In such territory there rivers would be much preferable to going overland.
The big question is, what do you do in Minnesota?
Carving an elaborate rune stone, to include putting some of it in code, assumes that you either expect more people to follow you, either or both more friends, or the enemy. But finding a rune stone in all that territory would be very, very difficult, *unless* there was something unique about the place that would attract people to it.
And this implies that wherever they put it might have been a major crossroads, created by the terrain. A place where just about anyone heading in that direction would pass through, like a path between two obstacles.
The next question is back to where do you go once you get to Minnesota? Unless there is game and fish, you would want to keep going until you found some, probably being aware of the harsh winters in that region.
And finally, what of the Indians in the area? They would have been of the Mississippian Culture, who were starting to die out in the northern states at that time, due to the onset of the Little Ice Age.
It is unlikely that few Indians would have engaged some formidable looking Knights, perhaps on horseback. But the Little Ice Age problem is something else entirely. The Knights might very well have starved to death themselves, unable to find the game they needed to survive, and caught in a very harsh winter.
Hi, I’m Edwin Larson, the writer/producer/director of ‘1362-the Kensington Enigma’ The show is currently in worldwide television distribution, and is undergoing review at the History Channel. Don’t know who stubernx98 is though but am looking forward to finding out as he/she has no connection to the distribution of the film. We had a small crew that traveled across the U.S. and Canada as well as Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Germany, and England. The film debuted in Cannes this past April, during MIPDOC and MIP. More information including a promo vid can be viewed at www.1362runestone.com Thanks for the plug Stubernx98...but who are you?
The way I heard it was that since their menfolk had such a reputation for P.E. that it became axiomatic that the group became ‘scandalous for never finishing’ what they started.
yup. And some spoke a dialect close to Scandinavian = there are a plethora of books and documentation on all this. Eric and Leif came to Greenland 500 years before Columbus...there were about 30,000 there some 300 years later but the encroaching Little Ice Age drove them out. (Must've been those SUV's they were driving.)
Trade back and forth to the old world became impossible because of the ice burg laden seas,etc. No one knows where they all went to, but indications point to using the waterways to go inland, ending up along the Great Lakes and even further west...and intermarrying with the indigenous people.
Consider the People of the Longhouse = the peoples of the Iroquois Confederacy in upper New York. Their Longhouses are very "Viking" like. And it's the only area where the Indians used these type of dwellings.
Ditto the Mandans - called the "white" Indians with their light skin, blond hair and blue eyes - their living structures, round, dug partly into the ground, log rafters, etc, are very like other Viking dwellings.
Then there are books and information on the Templars who escaped the slaughter in France and ended up in the Orkney's in upper Scotland - and eventually, in the late 1300's, under the leadership of Sir Henry Sinclair - sailed to Nova Scotia - and eventually, may also have migrated further west over the waterways - Go to Amazon and look for books on Templars Nova Scotia, Sir Henry Sinclair (whose grandson, Sir William Sinclair, built Rosyln Chapel in Scotland - where the 'da Vinci Code' ends up....
Dan Brown didn't get his plot out of thin air.
I have only touched on a tiny part of what you can find...makes for good reading.
I went to Nova Scotia last year and visited some of the sites. Quite interesting - and one of the most prevalent names in Nova Scotia is Sinclair.
Your "impression" is factual
Right - There first winter up the Hudson convinced them it was no place to settle - and this was hundreds of years before Columbus, who not only didn't "discover" America, he never attempted to. He already knew it was here and his plan was to sail below it and around to the back end of the Indies. He initially thought he had succeeded - which is why the Native Americans were called Indians.
(Research points to Columbus having access to maps that showed the areas of Greenland, Nova Scotia and North America - ) What Columbus didn't know was that Central America was in the way.
The Vikings, sailing 500 years before Columbus, and Sir Henry Sinclair, 100 years before, were not explorers searching for treasures at the behest of rulers - but simply folk looking for a more peaceful living out of the reach of tyrants and/or the church. Therefore, they did not publicize their voyages, destinations, or settlements.
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