The sunstone is a type of mineral attested in several 13th–14th century
written sources in Iceland, one of which describes its use to locate the
sun in a completely overcast sky. A theory exists that the sunstone had
polarizing attributes and was used as a navigation instrument by
seafarers in the Viking Age.
Though none of these
sunstones
have ever been found at Viking archaeological sites, a crystal
uncovered in a British shipwreck could help prove they did indeed exist.
The crystal was found amongst the wreckage of the Alderney, an
Elizabethan warship that sank near the Channel Islands in 1592.
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