Scholium: A Viking Sun Compass?

The Uunatoq Disc vs the Astrolabe of Al_Sahli

The Uunatoq Disc, was a Sun Compass used for Navigation?

The Uunatoq fragment of disk dated in the year 1200 A.D.

as it can be seen in the Danish National Museum.
Diameter 7 cm.
http://samlinger.natmus.dk/DO/10775, "Traedisk_Grønland".
Background of photograph removed by Alfonso Pastor-Moreno.

The now called the "Uunatoq Disc" is an object that was discovered by the Danish archaeologist
Christen Leif Vebæk, when excavating the ruins of a catholic Benedictine convent between the
years 1945 to 1948, in an archaeological Norse site in a fjord in South_West Greenland which is
now known as Uunartoq (hot waters) due to his thermal waters.

Among other artefacts unearthed from the ruins of the Benedictine convent it was a half part of a
wooden disc that was found in the lower cultural layers, which were assumed to predate the
Benedictine convent. Vebæk dated the artefact as being made in the year 1200 A.D, and it was
found "buried in a heap of rubbish under the floor in one of the living-rooms, together with a
number of broken tools of wood and iron (some of them with the owner's name inscribed on them
in runes)".
(See Sølver. ‘The discovery of an ancient bearing dial’, Journal of the Institute of Navigation, 6,
294-6. 1953)

The object was a semi-circular part of a wooden disk of 7 cm diameter, having around its external
circular rim several triangular notches carved on it, giving to the whole the aspect of the base of a
wooden mould for butter or of a mould for shortbread, with a rim trying to imitate a radiating Sun,
resembling more an artefact to be used in a kitchen than for the purpose of navigation.

At the time of his discovery, the object did not attracted much attention and Vebaek simply
classified the object as part of a wooden disk.

In 1952, Vebæk published an article in The Illustrated London News, whit a black and white
photograph of the object which he classified as for unknown use.
(See: Vebæk . 1952. The Illustrated London News)
The Vebæk's article caught the attention of Captain Carl V. Sølver, a Danish compass
manufacturer, marine historian, and a strong supporter of the "Vinland Theory", which sustains the
idea that the Vikings arrived to North America more than 200 years before Christopher Columbus,
and established a permanent colony in "Vinland", a settlement, from which, until now, it has never
being determined his true location.

For the Vinland theory see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinland

One of the weak points of the "Vinland Theory" is to explain how the Vikings navigated across the
Atlantic Ocean without the help of Magnetic Compasses, which it is proved that were unknown in
the Viking Era. (See: Kulturalhistorisk Leksikon for Nordisk Middelader 1956-1978, 2nd ed. 1982,
vols 1-21, Copenhagen. Vol 12, page 260)

Sølver, in 1946, wrote an article in which he asseverated that the Vikings used of a stone of
Iceland spar as an instrument of navigation.
(See: Sølver, C. V. (1946). Leiðarsteinn: the compass of the Vikings. Old-Lore Miscellany, 10, 293).

As a matter of fact, the only navigational instrument documented in the Norse Sagas from the
Viking Era was the Sunstone, which seems to have been used by the Vikings to navigate in cloudy
times.

Many authors believe that the "Sunstone" was Iceland Spar, (a transparent variety of calcite),
which due to its double refraction, can polarise the Sunlight, becoming this way a help for
navigation.

This opinion has been argued in many occasions, because it implies that the Vikings mastered
complicated calculations to navigate with the help of the polarisation of the Sunlight, something
which has been demonstrated as uncertain because for the Vikings, even the Plane Trigonometry
was unknown for them.

So, applying the Occam Razor as a Scientific Method, it is more likely that the Sunstone, more
than a crystal of Iceland Spar, could had been a crystal of Cryolite, (Na3AlF6) , (sodium
hexafluor_aluminate), an uncommon mineral found mainly in the once-large deposit at Ivittuut on
the west coast of Greenland, that was mined commercially until 1987, year in which its mining
was forbidden.

This aluminate stone which at the time of the Vikings was abundant in Greenland, was probably
discovered by the Vikings when they may have arrived there pushed by a storm. Once in
Greenland the cryolite crystals attracted their attention, due to the fact that this crystals have the
propriety of becoming fluorescent when illuminated with ultraviolet light, which it is one of the
components of the Sunlight received in the Earth surface, even when the sunlight is filtered
through the clouds.

By using a crystal of cryolite the Vikings may have discovered a way to find the position of the
Sun in a cloudy sky. As this property of becoming fluorescent with the Sun_rays was impossible
to explain with the knowledge at their reach, the Vikings attributed a sacred power to the stone,
which appeared cited many times in the Viking Sagas.

I am not going to open here a discussion about the Sunstone being Iceland Spar or Cryolite. I am
only going to centre my attention in the Uunatoq Disc.

Is the Uunatoq Disc an artefact which was used by the Vikings to navigate across the Northern
Atlantic Ocean?.

When Vebæk published in 1952 his article in The Illustrated London News, Captain Carl V. Sølver
suggested that the disk was the remains of a sun-compass. (See Sølver. ‘The discovery of an
ancient bearing dial’, Journal of the Institute of Navigation, 6, 294-6. 1953).

In his article Sølver say: "It was a remarkable fragment of carved oak which evidently once formed
part of a bearing dial. This was a damaged oaken disk which, according to the archaeologists,
(Vebæk ), dates back to about the year 1200".

Almost immediately after Sølver published his article, some dissident opinions were expressed by
those reputed scholars: (See: A Norse Bearing-Dial ?). The Journal of Navigation , Volume 7 ,
Issue 1 , January 1954 , pp. 78 - 84. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0373463300036225 )
E. G. R. Taylor. (Emeritus Professor of Geography, University of London)
Commander W. E. May. (National Maritime Museum).
R. B. Motzo (Professor of Ancient History, University of Cagliari)
In spite of such reputed opinions, why Sølver embraced the idea that something similar to a
mould for shortbread was a Viking artefact to navigate, using it as a Sun Compass, when nobody
else had seen in the fragment of the small wooden artefact what Sølver had seen?

The reason was clear: If the Uunatoq Disc was the remaining of a Sun Compass. and as it was
found in Greenland, it appeared to be a solution for the problem on how the Vikings navigated
across the Northern Atlantic Ocean without a Magnetic Compass or other navigation instruments,
and this could be the "missing link" to support the "Vinland Theory".

As we have seen, some very reputed scholars, contemporaneous of Sølver, dissented about the
attribution of the Uunatoq Disc as a Sun Compass, but in spite of the opinions of those reputed
scholars, the attribution of Sølver gained in popularity, specially among the followers of the
"Vinland Theory", angry of evidences which could validate this undocumented theory, and the
dissident opinions about the Uunatoq Disc, as being a Sun Compass, were ignored or silenced.

This way, the Uunatoq Disc, defined as a Sun Compass was presented as a true artefact for
navigation in several prestigious works (KLNM 12, 261; Graham-Campbell et al. 1994, 80-81), as
well as it was also presented even on posters in an exhibition of the Viking Ships Museum in Oslo.

Recently, the use of the Uunatoq Disc disk as a Sun Compass has been questioned again and it
had been expressed dissident opinions about. (Seaver 2000, 274).

By reviewing the attribution of Sølver, about the Uunatoq Disc as being a Sun Compass used
by the Vikngs to cross the North Atlantic Ocean, I had the idea of comparing it with other
contemporaneous extant instruments used by other gents, to be oriented by the Sun or by the
Fixed Stars and I have found some instruments almost contemporaneous of the Uunatoq Disc.

One of this instruments almost contemporaneous of the Uunatoq Disc and which is dated even
133 years before the Uunartoq Disk, is the Astrolabe of Al-Sahlî, made in Toledo and dated in the
year 1067 A.D.

Please compare the Astrolabe made in Toledo by the Muslim astrolabist Al-Sahlî in the year 1067
A.D., with the Viking Uunartoq Disk dated in the year 1200 A.D.

By comparing the Astrolabe of Al-Sahlî,, to his wooden contemporary artefact, the Uunatoq Disc,
attributed by Captain C. V. Sølver, to be a navigational instrument of the Vikings, it makes me to
ask to myself some questions:
 The The Astrolabe from Al-Sahlî, made in Toledo, dated in the year 1067 A.D.
Diameter: 24.2 cm. Max. thickness: 5 cm. Max. height: 33.5 cm. Plates: diameter: 22 cm.
Museo Arqueologico Nacional. Madrid. Spain.
https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Astrolabio_(16787706916).jpg
Background of photograph removed by Alfonso Pastor-Moreno.
Questions:

a). Was the attribution of Captain C. V. Sølver, about the Uunatoq's Disk, as being a navigation
instrument a mockery?.

b). If the article of Vebæk, instead of being read by Captain C. V. Sølver, a compass manufacturer
and strong supporter of the "Vinland Theory", which attributed the artefact to be the part of a Sun
Compass used by the Vikings, would had been read by a cook awarded with three Stars Michelin,
the artefact could had it ben attributed instead of a Sun Compass, as being a part of a butter
mould or of a shortbread mould, or of a "pinta_pane"?

c). Were really the Vikings so in retard with respect to their contemporaneous Arabs, that they
navigated with something more similar to a shortbread mould, instead of navigating with
something more sophisticated instruments, like those constructed by their contemporaneous, the
Arabs ?

d). Was the technique of the Vikings so in retard that they were unable to construct more accurate
instruments, like the ones that his contemporaries Arabs were capable to design and construct
since several centuries before the Uunatoq's Disk?

e). If the Uunatoq's Disk is truly a navigation instrument, and comparing it with the coetaneous
sophisticated instruments made by the Arabs, why is the reason of the proudness that provoke in
the Norse people, something so rudimentary for navigation as the Uunatoq's Disk

f). Instead of provoking proudness, shouldn't it provoke shame?

Conclusion:

It is really astonishing to compare the sophisticated instruments that the Arabs were able to
design and construct, with the artefact called the "Uunartoq Disk"dated in the year 1200 A.D.

How can this artefact be claimed by Captain C. V. Sølver to be a navigational instrument used by
the Vikings?

The Vikings, mastered the metalworking, as it can be evidenced by the artefacts found in the
Sutton Hoo burials.

Astrolabes were made since the beginning of the Viking Era, and knowing the capabilities of the
Vikings in working metals, why they navigated with the help of an wooden artefact similar to a
shortbread mould or a pinta_pane, instead of some more sophisticated instrument.

It is well known that the Vikings had contacts with the muslims since the very beginning of the
Viking Era.

The oldest dated Astrolabe known until today, is the one constructed by Nastulus in the year 927
or 928 A.D. Since then, to the time in which the Uunatoq Disk is dated, (1200 A.D.) they were
elapsed around 350 years.

In this 350 years many other extant Astrolabes were constructed, as the Astrolabe of Al-Sahlî,
dated in the year 1067 A.D. (made in Toledo 140 years after the one of Nastulus).

Comparing the Uunatoq Disc of the Vikings with the instruments described in an almost
contemporaneous Spanish manuscript, written between the years 1276 and 1279 A.D. by the
commandment of the Spanish King Alfonso X the Wise, called "Los Libros del Saber de
Astrologia" (The Books of the Wisdom of Astrology) , the Uunatoq Disk is clearly the antithesis of
the level of sophistication of the instruments described in the the referred manuscript
As a final remark I can only say, or the Uunartoq Disc is NOT an instrument for navigation, or the
Viking were really in retard with respect the science flourishing among their neighbours.
See:
The Uunatoq Disc. Dated 1200 A.D. A Viking "Navigational artifact" ? , (sic).
http://samlinger.natmus.dk/DO/10775

The Uunatoq Disk in the Danish National Museum,

http://samlinger.natmus.dk/DO/10775,
"Traedisk_Grønland", background of photograph removed and annotations added by Markus
Nielbock,

Both images have a creativecommons.org license.

The Astrolabe from Al-Sahlî, made in Toledo, dated in the year 1067 A.D. in Museo Arqueologico
Nacional. Madrid. Spain.
https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Astrolabio_(16787706916).jpg

Notes:

The "Pinta Pane" are wooden moulds for stamping the bread with various decorative motifs.

At the time of the publication of the conclusions of Captain C. V. Sølver, they were some dissident
opinions, as the one of E. G. R. Taylor., which say: (The object) "It is very small, less than three
inches overall, and may have been an ornamental boss. The stile and turning pointer with which
Captain Solver fits it are purely imaginary"

This can be read in:

Taylor, E., May, W., Motzo, R., & Lethbridge, T. (1954). A Norse Bearing-Dial?
Journal of Navigation, Volume 7(Issue 1), January 1954 pp. 78-84
doi:10.1017/S0373463300036225

See: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0373463300036225
https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/
7641D3D53FDDA8C87AAC26807E81733B/S0373463300036225a.pdf/a-norse-bearing-dial.pdf

(For the Astrolabe of Nastulus and for Nastulus himself, See King in Academia:
027 - KING 1978 - Notes on the astrolabist Nastulus / Bastulus
063 - KING &KUNITSCH 1983 - Nastulus the astrolabist once again.
247 - KING 2008 - Instrument of mass calculation made by Nastulus in Baghdad ca. 900)

(For the Sutton Hoo artefacts see : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sutton_Hoo)

For the Astrolabe dated 1067 A.D. see:

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrolabio
For the Uunatoq Disc dated 1200 A.D. see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uunartoq_Disc
 A "Viking Navigational Instrument"?
Diameter 18 cm.
Mould for shortbread of the brand Maw Broon. © Thomson & Co. Ltd. 2019.
Property of Alfonso Pastor-Moreno, the author of the present article.