See also
- Elbow Lake Runestone, another hoax planted in Minnesota
The AVM Runestone, also known as the Berg-AVM Runestone, is a hoax created in 1985 by students carving runes into a boulder near Kensington, Minnesota, not far from where the Kensington Runestone was found in 1898. In 2001, a carving expert and her geologist father found the AVM Runestone, told the press that it was proof of early Viking or Norse settlement in Minnesota, [1] and began an investigation to prove its authenticity. The creators said it was a hoax and not an artifact of Viking explorers.
In the spring of 2001, stone carving expert Janey Westin, of Minneapolis, and her father, Robert G. Johnson, an adjunct professor in the geology department of the University of Minnesota, were making a systematic survey of stones in the vicinity of the Kensington Runestone Park, for the research team set up for further understanding of the Kensington Runestone. Investigating a small island in a lake on the farm of Arlen and Ruby Sabolik, about 400 metres (1/4 mile) from the 1898 find site, on May 13, Westin found the carved letters "AVM" on a lichen-covered, pinkish-brown granite gneiss boulder [2] (about 110 cm or 43 inches long, weighing perhaps a tonne [3] ) which they had inspected previously in different light conditions. They took photographs and reported their find. Two weeks later, they returned to the site with Minneapolis geologist Scott Wolter and removed lichen to reveal more inscribed characters: the date 1363 in the same pentadic numerals as seen on the Kensington Runestone and a second line of three runes, possibly "ASU", "XSU" or "XSV". Although the symbols of the top line were similar to those on the stone found in 1898, those in the second line were not.
In June, the Runestone Museum in Alexandria established a special committee to investigate the discovery and contacted archaeologists. On June 9, the site was carefully mapped and documented; on July 11, the stone was removed. Three archaeologists from Minnesota institutions conducted a preliminary dig of nine test-holes at and around the site, on July 25, finding no evidence of Norse presence. They found a few Native American artifacts, including two quartz flakes, probably waste from arrowhead production.
The discovery was announced in the Minneapolis Star Tribune on August 11, 2001, [4] with Westin pre-empting accusations by making it very clear that she had not carved the stone. The team suggested that the stone might have been made as a grave marker for some of the Norse explorers. [3] After a public display and press conference at Kensington, the stone was taken to Wolter's St. Paul laboratory for detailed photography and analysis of the weathering of stone and carving. The state archaeologist, Mark Dudzik, was skeptical, maintaining the position that it was "just not logical" to believe that Scandinavian explorers — who, he argued, specialized in exploiting resources along coastlines — had penetrated to Minnesota in the 1360s. Russell Fridley, a former director of the Minnesota Historical Society, expressed a similar view with the observation that "It's a great testimony to Scandinavian humor on the frontier."
Immediately after the announcement, local Norse enthusiast Bob Berg came forward to report that he had found the stone while undertaking a similar survey in late 1994 [5] and reported on it in April 1995 to the Viking research group of which he was a member. Their firm conclusion had been that it was a hoax, not worth further effort.
On September 5, 2001, Kari Ellen Gade, then chair of the Department of Germanic Studies at Indiana University, and Jana K. Schulman, associate professor in English at Southeastern Louisiana University, wrote a letter to the Minnesota Historical Society. They explained that in June 1985, while students at the University of Minnesota, they and three friends (who chose to remain anonymous) had carved the AVM stone with a hammer and chisel [2] as a test of willingness to believe in mystery artifacts (and "for fun"). [6] They also revealed that the odd runes on the second line were supposed to read "ALU" (a pagan magical invocation) in an older style of runes, but the chisel had slipped. [2]
Breaking the news on November 5 on behalf of the Special Committee, Scott Wolter — who had found "specific points that bothered me" during his scientific investigation — accepted the confession, saying "I give them credit for coming forward and admitting it." Westin was less forgiving: She had paid for transportation of the stone to its initial safe storage and had devoted time and energy that could have gone "into my work, where it belonged." Gade stated that the confession was made specifically because "We saw that people were being asked to make financial contributions to have the rock tested ... we didn't feel it would be right to carry this further." She also said "I'm sorry that people spent their time and money on the stone, but it was clearly a fake." [6]
Local researcher Barry Hanson, in a book he was then writing about the original Kensington Runestone, explained the main concerns that had emerged before the confession. The scientific testing had quickly shown that the carved surfaces had too much iron pyrite, which ought long ago to have oxidized to ferrous sulfate if the carving was genuinely ancient. Also, the site, though an island in 2001, ought to have been under water in 1363. [7]
An out-of-place artifact is an artifact of historical, archaeological, or paleontological interest to someone that is claimed to have been found in an unusual context, which someone claims to challenge conventional historical chronology by its presence in that context. Some people might think that those artifacts are too advanced for the technology known to have existed at the time, or that human presence existed at a time before humans are known to have existed. Other people might hypothesize about a contact between different cultures that is hard to account for with conventional historical understanding.
The Norse exploration of North America began in the late 10th century, when Norsemen explored areas of the North Atlantic colonizing Greenland and creating a short term settlement near the northern tip of Newfoundland. This is known now as L'Anse aux Meadows where the remains of buildings were found in 1960 dating to approximately 1,000 years ago. This discovery helped reignite archaeological exploration for the Norse in the North Atlantic. This single settlement, located on the island of Newfoundland and not on the North American mainland, was abruptly abandoned.
The Kensington Runestone is a slab of greywacke stone covered in runes that was discovered in Western Minnesota, United States, in 1898. Olof Ohman, a Swedish immigrant, reported that he unearthed it from a field in the largely rural township of Solem in Douglas County. It was later named after the nearest settlement, Kensington.
A runestone is typically a raised stone with a runic inscription, but the term can also be applied to inscriptions on boulders and on bedrock. The tradition of erecting runestones as a memorial to dead men began in the 4th century and lasted into the 12th century, but the majority of the extant runestones date from the late Viking Age. While most of these are located in Scandinavia, particularly Sweden, there are also scattered runestones in locations that were visited by Norsemen. Runestones were usually brightly coloured when erected, though this is no longer evident as the colour has worn off.
A number of runestones have been found in Oklahoma. All of them are of modern origin dating to the 19th century "Viking revival" or were produced by 19th-century Scandinavian settlers.
The Glavendrup stone, designated as DR 209 by Rundata, is a runestone on the island of Funen in Denmark and dates from the early 10th century. It contains Denmark's longest runic inscription and ends in a curse.
A runemaster or runecarver is a specialist in making runestones.
Fot was a runemaster who flourished in mid-11th century Sweden.
The Spirit Pond runestones are three stones with alleged runic inscriptions, found at Spirit Pond in Phippsburg, Maine in 1971 by a Walter J. Elliott, Jr., a carpenter born in Bath, Maine. The stones, currently housed at the Maine State Museum, are widely dismissed as a hoax or a fraud.
The Sigurd stones form a group of eight or nine Swedish runic inscriptions and one picture stone that depict imagery from the Germanic heroic legend of Sigurd the dragon slayer. They were made during the Viking Age and constitute the earliest Norse representations of the matter of the Völsung cycle that is the basis of the Middle High German Nibelungenlied and the Sigurd legends in the Poetic Edda, the Prose Edda, and the Völsunga saga.
Alice Beck Kehoe is a feminist anthropologist and archaeologist. She has done considerable field research among Native American peoples in the upper plains of the US and Canada, and has authored research volumes on Native American archaeology and Native American history. She is also the author of several general anthropology and archaeology textbooks.
The Beardmore Relics are a cache of Viking Age artifacts, said to have been unearthed near Beardmore, Ontario, Canada in the 1930s. The cache consists of a Viking Age sword, an axe head, and a bar of undetermined use.
Uppland Runic Inscription 308 or U 308 is the Rundata catalog designation for a memorial runestone that is located in Ekeby, Stockholm County, Sweden, which was in the historic province of Uppland. While the tradition of carving inscriptions into boulders began in the 4th century and lasted into the 12th century, most runestones date from the late Viking Age.
Johan Andreas Holvik was a Norwegian-American author and a professor at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota.
The Sønder Kirkeby Runestone, listed as runic inscription DR 220 in the Rundata catalog, is a Viking Age memorial runestone that was discovered in Sønder Kirkeby, which is located about 5 kilometers east of Nykøbing Falster, Denmark.
The Narragansett Runestone, also known as the Quidnessett Rock, is a 2.5 t (2,500 kg) slab of metasandstone located in Rhode Island, United States. It is 5 (1.5m) feet high and 7 feet (2.1m) long. The stone is inscribed with two rows of symbols, which some have indicated resemble runes, characters used by Germanic peoples starting around the second or third century CE, with variants used in Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian cultures during the medieval period.
Runic alphabets have seen numerous uses since the 18th-century Viking revival, in Scandinavian Romantic nationalism (Gothicismus) and Germanic occultism in the 19th century, and in the context of the Fantasy genre and of Germanic Neopaganism in the 20th century.
A runic carving is defined as a runic inscription in stone or other material, according to the definitions of the Swedish National Heritage Board. The term refers to both prehistoric and medieval runic carvings in raised stones or on blocks, on rock slabs, early medieval tombstones and "Eskilstuna coffins" with runes, runic carvings in materials other than stone, e.g. in plaster on churches, as well as historical and recent runic carvings. Viking Age runic carvings are often memorial inscriptions, usually after dead relatives. The runic inscription has usually been arranged in ribbons, which are often shaped like elongated animal bodies with head, feet and tail. The carving surface is often adorned with crosses and animal ornaments. Sometimes the runic carvings have also been decorated with more complicated image representations. Older, Old Norse, runic-carved stones usually lack ornamentation and have the text arranged in horizontal or vertical rows. Early medieval tombstones and "Eskilstuna coffins" with runes are given the property value "in grave context". Early medieval tombstones and Eskilstuna coffins without runes are registered under the relic type gravvård.
The Runestone Museum is a historical museum located in Alexandria, Minnesota, United States. Established in 1958, the museum is renowned for housing the Kensington Runestone, a controversial artifact considered by some to be evidence of pre-Columbian Viking exploration of North America.