Saulės Akmuo

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Saulės Akmuo praverstų.

Iceland spar, possibly the Icelandic medieval sunstone used to locate the sun in the sky when obstructed from view.

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. 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 Alderney amid the wreckage of a 16th-century warship in early 2013 may lend evidence of the existence of sunstones as navigational devices.

 

Now it seems scientists at last have grounds for believing that the Viking “sunstone” used to navigate the seas did indeed exist.