5 Viking Artifacts Archaeologists Can't Explain

5 Viking Artifacts Archaeologists Can't Explain
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Although considered by many to be a ruthless and violent horde, the Vikings have also left behind a few treasures, trinkets, and artifacts which suggest that they were in possession of technologies far beyond what was previously believed.

In the 1990s, on the island of Gotland, Sweden, the excavation of Viking graves turned up a number of pieces of quartz crystal that appeared to have been manufactured into precise shapes.

It was first assumed that these were ornaments until closer examination found that they had been crafted into elliptical lenses and that, as lenses, they performed nearly as well as modern equivalents.

Amongst the weapons, jewelry, and looted treasures that have been recovered from the graves of prominent Vikings, the Visby Lenses are arguably the most astonishing.

Some of the lenses have been treated as jewelry, set in decorative and intricately carved silver mounts, although it is believed that the lenses themselves may be a great deal older than their housings.

The Lenses have been cited as evidence that sophisticated artisan manufacturing techniques were being used more than 1,000 years ago, when the laws of refraction were not yet understood. The precision with which they were made suggests that a primitive turning lathe must have been used.

Some have suggested that the process involved in the making of the lenses may have been a secret shared by just a few master artisans or perhaps held by just one and that all of the Visby Lenses may have been the work of one single pair of hands.

The potential uses for the lenses have been discussed by historians, with various explanations being put forth. Some have suggested that they were used for reading. One researcher stated that, “they could have been used to start fires or to burn wounds and cuts so that they did not get infected.” The most intriguing possible use, however, is as part of a telescope.

If it were the case that the Visby Lenses are indeed elements of what was once a telescope, it would predate the 16th-century Dutch telescope invention by some 500 years…

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About the Author: Dark5 Ancient Mysteries

42 Comments

  1. I like the sweedes. They can leave the rookstone out in the open for everyone to enjoy without fear of vandalism or some climate change goofballs gluing themselves to it or throwing paint on it.

  2. I believe the Vikings landed in North America in more than the one documented site in Canada. There are many accounts of blonde, blue eyed Indians from European colonists from St. Augustine in Florida all the way up the east coast. Some artifacts have also been found in the midwest. This is in addition to accounts of Native Americans tribes telling the so called first settlers that they were not the first people with fair skin and light hair to arrive in the area in large boats. For some reason, most historians ignore all of this evidence, much like they do other ancient legends.

  3. I don't know anything, not a historian by any means, but in the Vikings series on the History channel, a Frenchman showed Ragnar a piece of crystal which was used in the sunlight to help them keep a true direction to cross the ocean, and those Visby lenses made me think of that. Maybe these were made by the French or the English, but were plundered by the Vikings. It probably isn't, but that's just the first thing I thought of when I saw them.

  4. One thing that gets me is at the end if the video, they changed the name from "the BIRKA WARRIOR" to "THE BIRKA FEMALE WARRIER" ? Why not call her what she is "THE BIRKA SHIELD MAIDEN" that sounds way more badass in my opinion. Still a dope video tho

  5. I recall that an artifact, maybe it was a coin, linked to the Varangian Guard (Viking mercenaries in service of Byzantine emperors) were found in the Persian Gulf region, implying that Vikings (or Byzantines) circumnavigated the African continent. They really got around!

  6. Viking is a job title btw, it wasn't a people. Women could participate if they so chose and the supernatural elements you speak of are actually just myths about how Odin smiled on his female warriors because he knew from his time with Freya how strong women could be. Many modern writers think the men of the Viking clans were sexist but nothing could be further from the truth. There were also sex between men but the only way this was acceptable in the public view was the man who was the top was not considered less than a man because he was the giver. Even so, while gay men did have to hide their natures, they were able to work around the beliefs of this cultural disdain on bottoms, by having versatile sex which means both men were equally givers and therefore did not lose face in the eyes of the public. Women were often supportive of their husbands relations with other men because they wanted their men to be happy and since life was so harsh there were many many times that women didn't have the energy to perform in bed so they would secretly allow their men to sneak out in the middle of the night to meet with their cohorts.

  7. I believe that the lenses are likely used to start fires in sunlight and likely sunstones, which allowed the vikings the ability to always know what time of the day it was even on cloudy days which was the standard sky in most places in Europe of the time. If you're out at sea and you see fire to cook etc, you need something to light the torches, they didn't have matches and wet flint wasn't practical.

  8. Americans are desperate to say vikings had discovered America before the English so they can have some actual history, coins may land on other parts of the world they could have swapped it for something you know how money works? Then ended up with an Indian who thought it was from the gods and his whole tribe worshiped it

  9. I've heard tell that the lenses helped em navigate on cloudy days by making the Sun's location more clear, even with it cloudy and overcast. Might also have been used as a firestarter.

  10. Women have been fierce enough to fight along with men since the dawn of time. It’s so silly that scientists have to “rethink history”when the find a woman just doing her damn job. IMO, we’re scarier than men, if a woman is mad enough to pick up a weapon, everybody better watch out.

  11. The problem with the Vikings is the propaganda just doesn't fit the facts. The idea that they were big super soldiers was pushed repeatedly by historians who simply repeat what they were told. The Danish army with a large contingent of Vikings were totally wiped out by one clan after an unfortunate campaign of theirs in Scotland. One Clan. I think that history is nonsense. ESPECIALLY IN the west

  12. Ever since I was a kid, I have been fascinated by the "Money Pit." A supposedly cursed buried treasure with flooded caverns and boobytraps that many people have lost fortunes to in an attempt to reveal its secrets.

  13. We're the English the first to discover America? Nope.
            (SUMERIAN)                      (IROQUOI)
           MELAMMU             SHIKELLAMY
            BRIGHT;                            HE WHO CAUSES
           AWE-INSPIRING               IT TO BE LIGHT;
             LUMINOSITY                     ENLIGHTENER

  14. Sadly the same sort of conspiracy theory nonsense as one sees in aliens as an explanation for anything. This 'may' or this 'could have' is neither scholarship or fact. Seriously flawed history, unprovable assumptions, and data-free claims render this video intellectual trash.

  15. The Visby lenses are cabochons by another name. Any half-awake consciousness might recognize the similarity of a drop of water and light passing through clear quartz crystal. No special knowledge beyond that is necessary to produce a "lens."

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