Posted on 05/24/2005 9:45:19 PM PDT by FreeManWhoCan
Kensington, Minn. (WCCO) Researchers have found new evidence of a secret code concealed on the Kensington Runestone, one of the most controversial pieces of Minnesota history.
The rock was found near Alexandria, Minn. a century ago. It bears an inscription that places Norwegians here in 1362.
Were Vikings exploring our land more than 100 years before Columbus? Or is the Kensington Runestone an elaborate hoax?
New research suggests the rune stone is genuine, and a hidden code can prove it.
"Eight Goths and 22 Norwegians on an exploration journey ... 10 men red with blood and dead ... 14 days journey from this island ... year 1362."
The Kensington Runestone's carved words have haunted the Ohman family for more than 100 years.
Olof Ohman has been accused of authoring Minnesota's most famous fraud. The farmer claimed he found the stone buried under a tree in 1898.
Critics believe the language on the rune stone is too modern and that some of the runes are made up. They say Ohman carved it himself to fool the learned.
The Ohman family's faith in the stone has never wavered, however.
"I just never had any doubt," said grandson Darwin Ohman. "I mean, I was very emphatic about it. Absolutely it's real. There's no doubt."
"(Critics are) calling (Olof Ohman) a liar," Minnesota geologist Scott Wolter said. "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."
Wolter and Texas engineer Dick Nielsen believe hidden secrets are carved in the Kensington Runestone.
"It changes history in a big way," Wolter said.
In 2000, Wolter performed one of the very few geological studies on the Kensington Runestone. He said the breakdown of minerals in the inscription shows the carving is at least 200 years old, placing it before Olof Ohman's time.
Wolter's findings support the first geological study that also found the stone to be genuine, which was performed in 1910.
"In my mind, the geology settled it once and for all," Wolter said.
Linguistic experts believe some of the stone's runes are made up, but Nielsen said he found one of the disputed runes in a Swedish rune document dating back to the 14th century.
"If they were wrong about that, what else were they wrong about?" Wolter said.
Wolter documented every individual rune on the stone with a microscope.
"I started finding things that I didn't expect," Wolter said.
Wolter discovered a dot inside each of four R-shaped runes.
"These are intentional, and they mean something," Wolter said.
Wolter and Nielsen scoured rune catalogs and found the dotted R's.
"It's an extremely rare rune that only appeared during medieval times," Wolter said. "This absolutely fingerprints it to the 14th century. This is linguistic proof this is medieval. Period."
Wolter and Nielsen traced the dotted R to rune-covered graves inside ancient churches on the island of Gotland off the coast of Sweden.
"The next thing that happened is, we started finding on these grave slabs these very interesting crosses," Wolter said.
Templar crosses are the symbol of a religious order of knights formed during the Crusades and persecuted by the Catholic Church in the 1300s.
"This was the genesis of their secret societies, secret codes, secret symbols, secret signs -- all this stuff," Wolter said. "If they carved the rune stone, why did they come here? And why did they carve this thing?"
Wolter has uncovered new evidence that has taken his research in a very different direction. He now believes 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 stone.
Linguists single out two runes representing the letters L and U as evidence 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.
"Maybe they're saying, 'Pay attention to me,'" Wolter said.
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," Wolter said. "It was like, oh my God, is this an accident? Is this a coincidence? I don't think so.
"We think, if it’s the Templars, they confirmed the date which is on the stone -- 1362 -- by using a code in the inscription."
But why would Templars come to America, carve this stone and code the date?
"If it's the Templars, who were under religious persecution at the time, that would be a pretty good reason to come over here," Wolter said. "Maybe the rune stone is a land claim.
"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."
Wolter and Nielsen said they expected their work to be criticized. The developments in their research are too recent to have been reviewed by other rune stone experts.
The pair are preparing a book, "The Kensington Rune Stone: Compelling New Evidence," for future publication.
The Knights Templars were disbanded as a legal order by papal decree. The Templars reportedly persisted (at a very low level, very discreetly) in Scotland because, due to an oversight by which the order to disband was never read in Scotland. :')
Nice post!
Ping.
There isn't any proof at all that Columbus had a map given to him.
He did, however, visit Iceland prior to his voyages, to scout for information about the landmasses rumored to exist across the Atlantic. The information existed there because the Vikings had already made the trip.
Among the items of solid proof is the Viking settlement remains on Newfoundland. That was discovered about forty years ago, and is one reason plenty of people are "buying the viking story".
Hey, that's where my family comes from!
One interpretation of the text has them entering the continent via Hudson Bay, proceeding up the Nelson River to Lake Winnipeg, camping for an extended period on an island in that lake (now Deer Island?, where associated artifacts have been unearthed), then making their way up the Red River of the North and one of its tributaries.
The adjacent area is extremely flat and poorly drained. They may well have floated all the way to the base of the hill on the Spring floods.
Pyngh.
:') C'mon, give us a sample of the dialect. ;')
An online buddy has a Scandinavian origin, and claimed that his family has medieval records from the far-flung, family-owned trade business (part of the Hanseatic League? I dunno). At its peak it was sailing the NE passage -- the Siberian coast of Asia -- then heading south through the Bering Strait, and trading with the eastern coast of Asia.
This trading would, it seems to me, have to have predated the early 14th century, when the Little Ice Age came down hard.
Their ocean-going boats could easily have made their way into Hudson's Bay, up the Nelson River to Lake Winnipeg (where several islands have reportedly yielded Viking-style artifacts), then up the Red River of the North and one of its tributaries into Western Minnesota.
The land between the Red River and Alexandria is very flat and poorly drained. It would have been essentially submerged during Spring floods and a boat could have been floated literally to the base of the hill.
The granite in the stone is said to be a match for rock found in the Canadian Shield, around Lake Winnipeg.
Net:net -- any Viking travellers didn't have to travel overland to get to what is now the hill outside Kensington.
I don't think that would have deterred colonists..
A run of bad luck for one exploring group would not be enough to blind them to the opportunity of such a vast new land..
Another problem that arose was the cooling off -- the Little Ice Age -- which led to the abandonment of the Greenland colonies.
This, I believe was the true cause of "abandonment" by the vikings as a settlement..
The subsequent bad weather for more than a century was probably a major factor..
It had probably become more and more difficult to make it to Greenland, much less Vinland, and there was nothing of value to haul on the return trip.. economics and weather..
Yes, I conjecture much the same in my #49..
Point being, they state they buried the stone on an island, suggesting they could have only gotten there by boat...
Secondly, spring flooding, without today's modern levees, would have spread for miles and miles in all directions..
As you (and I) have noted, the area in question is east of the headwaters for the Red River, and would have flooded as well from spring melt into the river basin..
All in all, very condusive to travel by boat or raft..
That run of bad luck wasn't luck at all -- it was a countryside filled with hostile, unknown people. Furthermore, the expedition was sent by the king of that time in an attempt to locate an earlier expedition which had not returned. The existence of and conduct of the second expedition (and the first, probably) wasn't disseminated by the media.
Also, the year of their return was at or near the beginning of a time of dynastic turmoil.
For the Templars an expedition to discover an optimal trade route free from enemies as well as to secure new lands for future colonization was the equivalent of the Quest for the Holy Grail. This quest was eventually inherited by later explorers seeking the Northwest Passage. For more info that could be seen as corraborating the newest K.R.S. findings have a look at: www.heartlandgrail.com
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