Difference between revisions of "Sunstone (medieval)"

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* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunstone_(medieval) Sunstone (medieval)] @ Wikipedia
 
* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunstone_(medieval) Sunstone (medieval)] @ Wikipedia
 
* [http://www.atoptics.co.uk/fz767.htm Viking Sun Stone] @ Atmospheric Optics
 
* [http://www.atoptics.co.uk/fz767.htm Viking Sun Stone] @ Atmospheric Optics
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[[Category:Light]]
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[[Category:Minerals]]
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[[Category:Navigation]]
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[[Category:Vikings]]

Latest revision as of 03:36, 1 April 2016

The sunstone (Icelandic: sólarsteinn) is a type of mineral attested in several 13th–14th century written sources in Iceland, one of which describes its use to locate the sun in a completely overcast sky.

Description

Sunstones are also mentioned in the inventories of several churches and one monastery in 14th–15th century Iceland.

A theory exists that the sunstone had polarizing attributes and was used as a navigation instrument by seafarers in the Viking Age.

A stone found in 2013 off Alderney, in the wreck of a 16th-century warship, may lend evidence of the existence of sunstones as navigational devices.

See also

External links