Solar stones - the secret to helping Vikings rule the sea for more than three centuries

Thanks to knowing the sea surface like the palm of their hand, they have been spreading along the North Atlantic Sea and creating countless great trophies .

As artisans who have created countless great ships, both sailors who have wavered, they, the Vikings ruled the North Atlantic waters from 900 to 1200. They often travel hundreds of miles on the sea, expanding territory to two colonies in Iceland and Greenland.

On clear days, the Vikings used the sun's direction to steer their sails. But in the cloudy days, when the sun is no longer visible, how do the Viking boats determine the direction? This is still a mysterious question for scientists.

The Vikings used crystal blocks, which they called solar rocks, to find their direction in the harsh weather

Recently, two Hungarian researchers have used electronic simulations to prove a long-held hypothesis that Vikings use crystal blocks , which they call solar stones , to find directions. going in extreme weather, a method of direction that made them the king of the sea for three centuries.

This sun stone is also mentioned in some ancient works of art, which is typically the poem 'The Victory of Olaf King'. In 1967, in the Washington Post magazine, a Danish archaeologist claimed that the Vikings followed the path outlined by the sun rocks.

Solar rock works based on a phenomenon called depolarization principle . When sunlight hits the atmosphere, it creates depolarization rings, with the sun at the center of the center. If placed in the right position and angle, some crystal stones, such as calcite, cordierite and tourmaline, will clearly show these depolarization rings, helping the seafarers find the sun, even on cloudy days. cover.

Solar rock works based on a phenomenon called depolarization principle.

In 2013, it was found that a calcite crystal which the Vikings called Iceland spar in the British shipwreck since the 16th century. Perhaps British sailors learned this positioning technique from their predecessors. theirs in northern Europe. But since no solar stone was found on or near the area where the shipwreck occurred, many historians rejected this theory and considered it a myth rather than reality.

The Royal Society Open Science magazine reported on the study of Dénes Száz and Gábor Horváth from the Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest. They simulated thousands of trips by a Viking ship from a single point in Norway to a single point in Greenland. After running the simulation about 36,000 times, they found that, if the Viking sailors used kordierite crystals to orient the sun every three hours, their boat could orient to 92.2% to 100 %

Viking ship.

That is only the most favorable case. But the author also acknowledges the results of the simulations vary greatly. Horváth interviewed: "No one knows, in what way the Vikings have used the method. In addition to the sun stones, they can rely on how to sail over familiar islands, watching wave models. and observe the whale's movement ".