Stories about the Vikings have filled thousands of books with thousands of tapes, with countless series or movies about them. But among all the amazing stories, there is one in which it is said that they used special stones, called solar stones, to locate themselves while they were sailing, even if the Sun was hidden between the clouds.
To try to test this theory have taken over the last few years a lot of studies, but there is one, published in this 2017, that seems to have hit the nail on whether they really worked.
Sólsteinnen: the solar rocks used by the Vikings
The new study on these solar stones was carried out by the researcher Gabor Horvath, from the Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, and published in the science journal Proceedings of the Royal Society A.
In the new study indicates that some minerals such as tourmaline or calcite would have been responsible for providing its operation to the stones, as they have the ability to divide sunlight into two, depending on the angle or the location from which it comes .
The functionality of these rocks was demonstrated by specialists within a laboratory. It is clear that it is not the same to use a rock in a controlled environment like this, to use them on the high seas, with the sudden movements of the water or the clouds that populate the sky.
However, knowing that they work ends up turning what until now was an urban legend into a historical reality. The stones of the laboratories were tested in a variety of meteorological conditions to test their reliability.
But before you rush to change your compass to one of these Viking solar rocks you have to keep in mind that the researchers warn that it is not simply a matter of looking at the stone and knowing where the sun is, but that you need experience and knowledge to to be able to use it. That is, you need to adapt to them before using them successfully.
The idea that the Vikings used solar rocks to navigate great distances is not an idea that came from nothing, but was taken from various texts of the time where they were related to their existence. History says that the Vikings used these stones to locate in the sea in the days of fog or especially cloudy where the Sun was not visible to the naked eye.
Indeed the history of human civilizations has many saved curiosities that promise to surprise us. The history of the Solsteinnen is indeed marvelous, demonstrating that human ingenuity has no limits.
What do you think about the solar stones of the Vikings? Would you like to have one of them, although it may take months to learn to use it?