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Essay On Cyber Runestone

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The Kensington Runestone was discovered almost 120 years ago, but it is believed to be over 650 years old. In 1898, a farmer from the outskirts of Alexandria, MN (Kensington) discovered the medieval artifact. Olof Öhman was originally from Sweden, and came to America in 1879 to own land and farm it, since owning land in Sweden was not an option for him. The Kensington Runestone was unearthed when Olaf Öhman was clearing his land for farming. He came across the stone entangled in the roots of an Aspen tree. It was a 202 pound stone, so it was no easy task getting it out from under that tree. There was more than one eye witness when the runestone was being uncovered. When the stone was discovered, and inscription of it was sent to the University of Minnesota to be translated. It took over one hundred more years for the copy on the stone to be correctly translated. The copy on the stone says “Eight Got- landers and …show more content…

Many researchers came from all around the world to study the stone, and many tried to say that the stone was a hoax. Öhman and his family had to deal with being in the spotlight and all of the attention they received was mostly negative. One source claimed that Olaf swore to the truth even on his death bed. Some researchers were linguists, and they tried to prove the stone a hoax by saying that some of the inscriptions on the stone didn’t exist in the Norse language at the time the stone was supposedly carved (1362), implying that Olaf Öhman carved the stone himself. This accusation has since been proven wrong, as there were artifacts found in Europe that are similar. In the beginning of the twenty first century, it was scientifically proven that Olaf did not carve the stone himself. A geologist determined this by performing a test on the deterioration of the stone. Olaf and his family got ridiculed and mocked by the public, and by researchers who wanted the glory of proving it a

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