Vinland Blog 2025
Introduction
I have always been interested in the Vikings, especially their visits to North America and the encounters with the natives (Skraelings). As if to spur this on, I was commissioned to build a model of a Viking Longship for our Local Scandinavian Cultural Center. Near the same time I obtained a copy of the book Westviking by Farley Mowat (1965) and after reading it, decided to take a vacation to Newfoundland where L' Anse Aux Meadows, the only verified Norse site in North America is located. What I learned in Newfoundland and the subsequent results of my research is remarkable.
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Probability Factor
PF1. Not likely. Prove to me that it is.
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| Composite of the D'Arcy stone head. Pictures one, two and three are the faces, four is the hole on top and five is Vigfusson's original 1940 photograph. |
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| Stone disks in the Kindersley Museum |
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| Chalked Wyoming County Petroglyph. Credit: Gerald Ratliff |
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| A photo of Jim Cook, curator of the Wyoming County, KY, Historical Museum, standing in front of the Wyoming County Petroglyphs. Photo credit: wvtourism.com |
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January 15
Welcome to a new year and the fourteenth of this blog. To start with we are going to step back a bit and examine something close to home. This is certainly a mystery item or as they are increasingly becoming referred to as an 'out of place' artifact. That it turned up in the middle of Saskatchewan is even more perplexing.
D'Arcy, Saskatchewan
Stone Head sculpture 1935
This triple faced human sized stone head is made of pink sandstone with alternating bands of red and grey. It weighs eighteen pounds. The beginnings of a fourth face are also apparent. A large hole four inches deep is in the top.
It was found by Wesley St. John in 1935 at the edge of a gravel pit, five feet in from the original hillside and ten feet below the surface. It has been extensively examined by numerous experts but still remains a curio. Original examiners stated the carving was made by stone tools but this has been repudiated by others who claim steel tools were used. The stone is not indigent to the area.
Nearby are native sites that have turned up numerous artifacts and there are petroglyphs in the area but no plains peoples have ever been known to create stone works such as this.
Here is an excellent article on this item with many pictures. You should use Firefox as my Google browser would not work with this site.
Some claim this item was traded from the Mayans in the south while others claim it resembles artwork from Siberia and reinforces the Bering Strait theory. Can it have connections to the Megalithic Culture or is it simply a hoax?
The problem with research is more just keeps turning up. While reading the article on this mystery stone and viewing photographs of the other artifacts on display with it, two carved stone discs peaked my interest.One is a plain disk of apparently local material. The other is a carved black stone, probably granite, with a perfectly shaped ring that makes it look like an upside down plate. It is very reminiscent of artifacts from Egypt. But since none of this is Viking related we will go no further.
The stone and plates currently resides in the Kindersley and District Plains Museum.
Geographical location: 51.377,-108.46
PF 2-3
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Here is an updated article on the Horse Creek Petroglyphs covered previously:
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Wyoming County, West Virginia
Ogam Inscription 1964
This inscription, found in 1964 was further examined in 1970. A more detailed examination in 1982 by Pyle, Shields, Powell and Gallagher with transcription by Fell, determined it to be an early Christian calendar. It has also been found the inscription, beginning with the sun symbol, are highlighted by the rising sun on winter solstice.
The above link to the Boone County Petroglyphs also covers this site in detail. In addition I found this quite interesting article for anyone who wants to study this further. There is also a YouTube video here:
Americas First Christmas Cards
Geographical location: 37.732,-81.508
PF 3
....to be continued.