![]() ![]() Today a temporary Norse presence in North America is accepted as historical fact. That and a bunch of runestones with marks that looked vaguely Scandanavian and were probably phony. All they had to go on was an ancient account of a place called Vinland across the western sea. Still, for a long time scholars didn't take seriously the notion of ancient Norse presence in North America. Sometimes people are trying to make a dishonest buck, like the guys who make authentic flint arrowheads to sell in gift shops. So what does she think is the source of the runestones? She believes them to be hoaxes and frauds, sometimes the result of "enthusiasm." Sometimes people make a game out of fooling the experts, of demonstrating that the emperor has no clothes. Therefore, she is not disposed toward taking seriously the notion of Ozark Vikings. She further told me that scholars have absolutely identified one and only one sure-as-shootin' Norse settlement in North America, and that one is in Newfoundland, and even in that spot no authentic runestones were found. She told me that of all the purported runestones found in North America (and there have been dozens), none have been authenticated by authorities with serious credentials even though they have been assiduously studied by legitimate scholars. ![]() I went down to Arkadelphia (City of Brotherly Ark) to Henderson State University to visit the Arkansas Archaeological Survey, where I spoke with Professor Early about the phenomenon of Viking runestones. They don't have the stones on hand, but Gary Blythe told me he knows where some are located. If you want to hear about a couple more runestones, you can call Blythe's Museum in Waldron. He translated the runes as, "This stone Ari cut for (his) son Nikolas." ![]() How that conclusion was reached is not specified. According to documentation accompanying the exhibit, it was found in Lawrence County by Cleamon and Elsie Nicholson, who submitted drawings of it in 1977 to Barry Fell, President of the Epigraphic Society of Arlington, Mass.Īfter two years of careful study of the drawings, Barry came to the conclusion that the stone was a 500-year-old Amerindian copy of a 1000-year-old Norse grave marker. Unlike the stone in the top picture, this one has been examined by runestone enthusiasts. The runes themselves have been darkened with pencil so they can be seen better. Stone number two can be found at Powhattan Court House State Park way up near the Missourri bootheel. ![]() Still, the Norse hypothesis is always the one that comes up in conversations. This stone has not been examined by any experts, and nobody has suggested that the marks mean anything specific in millennium-old Scandanavian. The keepers of said museum make no specific claims about the origins of the stone other than to report the name of the guy who turned it in and the place where the stone was found. It's in the Logan County Museum in Paris. Here's a stone found in the Arkansas River valley. Lots of true believers are interested in them, so here's what poop I have on the local occurrences of stones etched with mysterious glyphs. I figure some day somebody will hold one up to a mirror and it will read, "Hah! Hah! From all the guys at moose lodge 352!" Still, a couple of them have turned up in Arkansas museums. I'm not a big believer in Viking runestones. ![]()
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