Bless~The~Maker @BlessTheMaker - Twitter Profile

Bless~The~Maker @BlessTheMaker

about 19 hours ago

The whole thing is sad

Ryan

@forbiddenmerch

1 day ago

"I asked for surrender 5 times before we attacked Warsaw, everything was refused. I asked that the women and children be sent out of the area, not even the parliamentarian was received, everything was rejected!" - A.H.

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BlessTheMaker retweeted

Ghost of Hellas

@ghostofhellas

2 days ago

Mycenaean daggers/swords, 16th - 14th century BC National Archaeological Museum, Athens-Greece

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Bless~The~Maker @BlessTheMaker

about 19 hours ago

Yep

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Bless~The~Maker @BlessTheMaker

5 days ago

Love this

ArchaeoHistories

@histories_arch

6 days ago

For over a thousand years, historians thought the Viking "sunstone" was nothing more than a myth, until the ocean gave up its secret... The Norse sagas repeatedly referenced a mysterious object called a "sólarsteinn" or sunstone, a navigational tool so powerful that Viking sailors could locate the exact position of the sun even on the most overcast and cloudy days. For centuries, scholars debated whether this was real technology or simply folklore embellished over generations of retelling. Most assumed it was legend. They were wrong. In 2013, marine archaeologists excavating a British warship that sank near the Channel Islands in 1592 made a stunning discovery buried among the wreckage. Alongside navigational instruments including a pair of dividers and a slate, they found a rectangular chunk of translucent crystal. Testing confirmed it was Iceland spar, a remarkably pure form of calcite with extraordinary optical properties. The fact that it was found stored alongside other precision navigation tools was not a coincidence. Iceland spar possesses a property called birefringence, meaning it splits a single beam of light entering the crystal into two separate beams. When you hold the crystal up toward the sky and slowly rotate it, the two beams will vary in brightness independently until, at one specific angle of rotation, they become perfectly equal in intensity. That precise angle points directly toward the sun, regardless of whether the sun is visible to the naked eye. Cloud cover, fog, and even twilight conditions cannot defeat it. Researchers from the University of Rennes in France conducted extensive testing and published their findings in the Proceedings of the Royal Society A. Their experiments demonstrated that Iceland spar could locate the sun's position with an accuracy of within one degree, even under completely overcast skies. For Viking navigators crossing the North Atlantic toward Iceland, Greenland, and eventually North America, this accuracy would have meant the difference between a successful voyage and sailing hopelessly off course into open ocean. The Viking Age spanned roughly 793 to 1066 AD, and during this period Norse sailors were completing oceanic crossings that would not be replicated by other European cultures for another 400 years. Historians had long puzzled over how they achieved such consistent navigational precision without magnetic compasses, which did not reach Europe until the 12th century. The sunstone appears to be a significant part of that answer. What makes the Channel Islands find especially compelling is that the 1592 shipwreck is far outside the traditional Viking era, suggesting that knowledge of this navigational technique survived and was still being used by European sailors centuries after the Viking Age officially ended. The crystal was not a relic or a curiosity on that ship. It was working equipment. The sagas specifically describe King Olaf consulting a sunstone on a cloudy day to verify the position of the sun, with a separate observation then confirming the stone's accuracy. For generations this was dismissed as poetic invention. Science has now confirmed that every element of that description is physically possible and practically achievable with a simple piece of Icelandic calcite. The Vikings were not lucky explorers stumbling across new lands by accident. They were sophisticated navigators armed with technology so elegant and effective that it required no moving parts, no maintenance, and no power source beyond the sky itself. 📷 : the original calcite crystal alongside Elizabethan navigation dividers next to a cannon Alderney Museum #archaeohistories

histories_arch's tweet photo. For over a thousand years, historians thought the Viking "sunstone" was nothing more than a myth, until the ocean gave up its secret...

The Norse sagas repeatedly referenced a mysterious object called a "sólarsteinn" or sunstone, a navigational tool so powerful that Viking sailors could locate the exact position of the sun even on the most overcast and cloudy days. For centuries, scholars debated whether this was real technology or simply folklore embellished over generations of retelling. Most assumed it was legend. They were wrong.

In 2013, marine archaeologists excavating a British warship that sank near the Channel Islands in 1592 made a stunning discovery buried among the wreckage. Alongside navigational instruments including a pair of dividers and a slate, they found a rectangular chunk of translucent crystal. Testing confirmed it was Iceland spar, a remarkably pure form of calcite with extraordinary optical properties. The fact that it was found stored alongside other precision navigation tools was not a coincidence.

Iceland spar possesses a property called birefringence, meaning it splits a single beam of light entering the crystal into two separate beams. When you hold the crystal up toward the sky and slowly rotate it, the two beams will vary in brightness independently until, at one specific angle of rotation, they become perfectly equal in intensity. That precise angle points directly toward the sun, regardless of whether the sun is visible to the naked eye. Cloud cover, fog, and even twilight conditions cannot defeat it.

Researchers from the University of Rennes in France conducted extensive testing and published their findings in the Proceedings of the Royal Society A. Their experiments demonstrated that Iceland spar could locate the sun's position with an accuracy of within one degree, even under completely overcast skies. For Viking navigators crossing the North Atlantic toward Iceland, Greenland, and eventually North America, this accuracy would have meant the difference between a successful voyage and sailing hopelessly off course into open ocean.

The Viking Age spanned roughly 793 to 1066 AD, and during this period Norse sailors were completing oceanic crossings that would not be replicated by other European cultures for another 400 years. Historians had long puzzled over how they achieved such consistent navigational precision without magnetic compasses, which did not reach Europe until the 12th century. The sunstone appears to be a significant part of that answer.

What makes the Channel Islands find especially compelling is that the 1592 shipwreck is far outside the traditional Viking era, suggesting that knowledge of this navigational technique survived and was still being used by European sailors centuries after the Viking Age officially ended. The crystal was not a relic or a curiosity on that ship. It was working equipment.

The sagas specifically describe King Olaf consulting a sunstone on a cloudy day to verify the position of the sun, with a separate observation then confirming the stone's accuracy. For generations this was dismissed as poetic invention. Science has now confirmed that every element of that description is physically possible and practically achievable with a simple piece of Icelandic calcite.

The Vikings were not lucky explorers stumbling across new lands by accident. They were sophisticated navigators armed with technology so elegant and effective that it required no moving parts, no maintenance, and no power source beyond the sky itself.

📷 : the original calcite crystal alongside Elizabethan navigation dividers next to a cannon

Alderney Museum

#archaeohistories

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Who to follow

Bless~The~Maker @BlessTheMaker

6 days ago

Lotta great AK variants

ScaarAT @ScaarAT

6 days ago · Vienna

Mancave goals: The showroom of the Austrian gun store Waffenhof Gurtner

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Steve Kirsch

@stkirsch

8 days ago

"12 years as an ER nurse and every SIDS case had a well visit within 72 hours of their death. Every single one." This MATCHES the real life experience of Paramedic Harry Fisher @harryfisherEMTP who for the last 5 years has been asking that question whenever he gets a SIDS call.

stkirsch's tweet photo. "12 years as an ER nurse and every SIDS case had a well visit within 72 hours of their death. Every single one." This MATCHES the real life experience of Paramedic Harry Fisher @harryfisherEMTP who for the last 5 years has been asking that question whenever he gets a SIDS call.

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Larry Cook

@stopvaccinating

7 days ago

The Henry Ford Vax vs. Unvax Study with over 18,000 children was so damning that the pro vaccine researchers refused to publish it due to backlash concerns. Now you know why…

stopvaccinating's tweet photo. The Henry Ford Vax vs. Unvax Study with over 18,000 children was so damning that the pro vaccine researchers refused to publish it due to backlash concerns. Now you know why… https://t.co/7ebLb7MWRL

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Ryan

@forbiddenmerch

7 days ago

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BlessTheMaker retweeted

RussiaNews 🇷🇺

@mog_russEN

8 days ago

YOU WILL NEVER SEE THIS ON WESTERN MEDIA! 🇺🇸🇪🇺❌ Meet Sofia, a 10-year-old Ukrainian girl found alone in a basement. Her mother passed away, and her grandparents were killed when a Ukrainian drone struck their home. RUSSIAN SOLDIERS PROTECTED HER FOR A MONTH, sharing food, bringing gifts, and guarding her shelter until they safely evacuated her on their backs, by motorcycle, and by car. She now calls these soldiers her friends by name, stating her only wish was just "kindness." THE WEST WILL HIDE THIS TO PROTECT THEIR LIED NARRATIVE!