Vikings used crystals to navigate - Independent Online

Many historians prefer to believe that the Vikings relied on portable sun dials and night skies.

London - They were feared as the greatest, and bravest, sailors of their age.

Now the mystery of how Viking warriors and tradesmen navigated the high seas centuries before the first compasses reached Europe may have been solved.

Scientists on Monday claimed the Norsemen used crystals called sunstones to reveal the location of the sun, even when it was hidden by fog and cloud.

The crystals, which are common in Scandinavia, detect the way sunlight is scattered when it hits the Earth s atmosphere.

The study shows that by holding one up to the sky Vikings would immediately be able to find the sun.

The idea of sunstones as a navigational aid was first raised in the 1960s. But many historians are sceptical, preferring to believe that the Vikings relied on portable sun dials and the position of the stars.

Sunstones work by detecting the polarisation of sunlight the way rays of light are scattered in different planes when they reach the atmosphere.

The researchers found that the crystals reveal the location of the sun in totally overcast skies and when the ground was covered in snow and ice.

"To our great surprise, the patterns of the direction of polarisation under totally overcast skies were very similar to those of the clear skies," the authors reported. - Daily Mail