Rock art and cracked pots (or is that crackpots?)
In one of my meanders around Alaska I picked up a stone. Its not a big stone–only 3 ½” x 1 ½” x ¼”. I was mainly interested in the patterns the white seams in the stone made.Imagine my surprise when I turned it over and found a bas-relief bust of a Norseman! Proof positive that Vikings were the first to navigate the Northwest Passage! Its obviously a valuable artifact and I’m thinking of calling the Smithsonian–or maybe Ebay. Anybody got a bid?
To the right is another carving of a Viking, this one an 11th-century carving in elk horn found in an excavation in Sigtuna, Sweden. It is now in the National Historical Museum in Stockholm. Obviously the stone figure is a bit worn from rolling around for hundreds of years, but isn’t the resemblance uncanny?
