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A BRIEF REJOINDER TO THE NOTION OF NORSE STONEHOLES IN MINNESOTA: Empirical Evidence Reveals a Pattern Emerging...

What I am proposing here are three examples of what I believe were purposefully "cracked-off" slabs of rock from authentic, handmade Norse stoneholes in this Minnesota region.  I am also proposing that these slabs of rock were purposely cracked-off at the same time of each stonehole's making.  But why would a Norseman do this?  I believe the answer is simply, "to grab a returning Norseman's attention."  In this case, they have grabbed my attention...and a pattern seems to have emerged.

One might say that this new knowledge is based on empirical evidence called "sense experience," which in these three cases involves simple visual observation.  What I have seen is that in each of these three cases, the same approximate aging exists in the area around the stoneholes as in the stoneholes themselves.

Below are photos I have taken of the three stonehole rocks in question.  I will present them to you in the same chronological order as I took notice of them over the past dozen or so years.  I'll tell you a bit about the background of each of the rocks, and why each one is noteworthy, besides likely having a slab of rock purposely cracked off.

(A)

 


The above large white stonehole rock has a typical Norse stonehole carved into it.  By this, I mean the stonehole is several inches deep, about the size of a quarter, and slightly triangular shaped because of being handmade.  The rock is located at the upper reach of the Whetstone River, just across the border from Minnesota, in Northeastern South Dakota.  I believe the rock is marking the perceived beginning of the river, which discharged into the beginning of the Minnesota River.  The cracked-off slab, roughly the size of the Kensington Runestone, is not to be found nearby.  The slab was cracked-off from a dark vein in the rock.  The top was likely flattened by Norsemen, too, perhaps to grab attention--or even to offer a spot to place something.  There is a nearby springwater pond and several Norse stoneholes within view of this special rock with a slab purposely cracked off.  The hole and the area around the hole are aged about the same.

(B)


This relatively small multiple-stonehole rock is featured in a line of small stonehole rocks on a lonely ridgeline across from where the Pomme de Terre River empties into Marsh Lake (beginnings of the Minnesota River), near Appleton, Minnesota.  The chunk of rock (likely purposely cracked-off) may be marking another spot on the ridge to show where something is buried.  This rock is one of six stonehole rocks placed by probable "Norse code" in a line along the ridge.  As can be seen up close on this special rock, the cracked-off hole has about the same approximate aging as the rock surface around it, showing that it was likely purposely cracked-off.  Remarkably, this stonehole rock is located on a spot of earth where dozens of large, late-1800s machine-made stoneholes can also be found.  Here, it is easy to see that the Norse stoneholes are very much aged, while the more recent machine-made stoneholes are relatively unaged.  This site offers a great lab for "stonehole age comparisons."  The problem for this site is that the Minnesota State Archaeologist will not allow for archaeology, based on sensitive prairie habitat.

(C)


This large stonehole rock is located on Runestone Hill at Runestone Park.  It wasn't always here on this spot on Runestone Hill.  It was moved here, along with another large stonehole rock, many years ago to show folks what a "mooring stone" looks like.  Finally, it is now well established that mooring stoneholes were not used in medieval Minnesota, like back in the Scandinavian Motherlands.  However, this only means that the many stoneholes at Runestone Park were for another purpose...perhaps used in a pattern to conceal something buried.

I didn't notice the extremely shallow depth of the hole (perhaps an inch deep) until only a few years ago while visiting the park.  That's when I realized that a slab was likely purposely cracked-off from this rock, too, just like the two others shown here.  Sure enough, the hole and the surrounding area all around it are equally aged--and very, very aged at that.

But there was also a very large piece of the rock that was cracked-off more recently, not from a stonehole, but likely from smashing into another boulder in the past.  Hjalmar Holand brought attention to this "fresh" cracking-off of the rock, when it was located at the bottom of Runestone Hill, back in the 1940s.  The good news is that we can now compare the aging of the freshly split surface of the rock with the much more aged surface of the rock around the stonehole, and see very plainly that the hole and the area around it are much more weathered than the fresh split that Holand took notice of.

This should help folks to see that the stoneholes around Runestone Park are very aged by comparison to the fresh fracturing on this stonehole rock pictured here, and that the stoneholes were likely made by Norsemen in medieval times, as was the Kensington Runestone.  (After all, the KRS was found in the very same area as a number of these aged, Norse-made stoneholes.)

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