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Did scientists just find the fabled Viking Sunstone?The mythical rock was said to help ancient sailors navigate the seven seas
GPS makes it relatively easy for seafarers to accurately point their ships where they want to go. But long ago, well before the Chinese employed the first magnetic compass, navigating the uncharted ocean's vast expanses was a truly treacherous task that required wits, training, improvisation, and, thanks to the limited tools available, a little ingenuity.
In his book Chasing the Sun: The Epic Story of the Star That Gives Us Life, author Richard Cohen describes a mythical crystal that helped the ancient Vikings navigate their ships through fog and cloud-covered skies in which the sun and stars weren't visible. Historians call this device the sunstone.
Ancient texts say it was carved from natural crystal, which was said to work as a prism, refracting light into "two shafts of color"; staring into it, therefore, revealed two reflected faces. By orienting the sunstone to unite the faces into a single image — which could only be done with the sun in a certain position relative to the stone — directionless sailors could effectively determine east and west even when the sun wasn't clearly visible. [ link to news.yahoo.com]
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