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Minnesota Man Claims to Have Found a Medieval Norse Skull One Day's Journey North of the Kensington Rune Stone

1/25/2017

66 Comments

 
​A Minnesota man is requesting $10,000 to prove that a skull found in an old farmhouse is the remains of the one of the Norse men whose deaths were reported on the hoax Kensington Rune Stone. According to the fictitious story told on the stone, ten members of an expedition made up of eight Geats and twenty-two Norse died in 1362 while the others were fishing one day’s journey north of where the Rune Stone was found in 1898. As I learned from David M. Krueger earlier today, Elroy Balgaard, who is apparently the Minnesota graphic designer of the same name, posted a video to YouTube outlining his plans for a documentary to explore his unusual claim.
​In the video, which is composed of some original footage spliced into excerpts from America Unearthed, Balgaard makes a series of increasingly improbably claims. When an old farmhouse about 30 miles north of Kensington, Minn. Was cleaned out so that it could be moved to a new site, a piece of a skull was found amidst the piles of old junk inside. Balgaard provides no evidence for when or how this skull came to be within the house, but it was not unusual for white people of the era to collect Native American bones as curiosities.
 
In conjunction with local authorities, the skull was given a carbon-14 test to date it. When the test showed that the skull dated to around 900 CE, Balgaard said that he was crushed that his fantasy of “Vikings” in Minnesota, which he attributes to America Unearthed and Scott Wolter, had not panned out. Therefore, he sought out potential ways to get around the facts by looking for reasons that the carbon-14 test could have been inaccurate.
 
To that end, Balgaard assumes that the skull is of Norse origin, even though it was found in Minnesota, and therefore believes that the individual’s diet was made up of seafood from the Atlantic Ocean. Because of what is called the “marine reservoir effect,” marine organisms, and even freshwater ones, can appear older in radiocarbon dating because the ocean and land have different radiocarbon concentrations. This effect can transfer to those who eat marine diets. Balgaard, citing only one study from 1999, says that this effect can produce an error of just about exactly 400 years, making the skull date to about 1362, though it is not clear to me that this is a universal correction. In the study, the authors limit their findings only to Greenland, and the correction is relative to the percentage of marine resources in the diet. Even in this study, the correction required a diet of around 75% marine resources. The correction does not hold at 400 years for lesser amounts of marine foods. For example, a study from 2013 found that the marine diets of Pompeiians who died in the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE only added between 30 and 60 years to their radiocarbon ages.
 
Balgaard wants $10,000 to pay for carbon-13 testing and DNA testing. The first test will help to determine how much fish the dead person ate, and the second will, he said, “hopefully” prove that the bones are those of a white European. Balgaard committed to reporting the results of the tests even if they do not support his hypothesis. He did, however, express his belief that the improbable train of logic—that the dead person had a marine diet, that the diet will correlate to a 400-year radiocarbon correction, that the bones will DNA test as Norse—will somehow come to pass and prove the Kensington Rune Stone true.
 
So why would Balgaard assume that bones found in a farmhouse are those of a Norseman from a fictional expedition? Well, part of it is the kookiness of Minnesota’s Scandinavian heritage, which for centuries has tried to remake the Midwest in the image of Europe’s icy north in keeping with the cultural traditions of the Norwegians, Swedes, Danish, and Finns who settled there in the nineteenth century. The direct reason is a 1931 newspaper article, which actually reflects the prejudices I just outlined above.
 
Balgaard does not provide the source of the article, but the text is visible on screen during his video. The article begins by saying that bones found two miles southeast of Ashby, Minn. “have been quite definitively identified as the remains of an Indian burial ground.” According to the article, 42 bodies were uncovered, and these were very similar to known Native American burials in the area. However, eight bodies—six in one set and two in another—seemed different, described as more “regular” in their arrangement and without shell necklaces found in other graves. This prompted the locals to speculate that the graves were those of “white men.”
 
“In advancing the theory that the remains were those of white men, a possible tie-up with the activities of the Vikings on the North American continent in [the] fourteenth century, was brought out.” That “tie-up”? None other than the Kensington Rune Stone, which the article said locals used as evidence for the presence of ancient whites.
 
To cut to the point: Balgaard read the article and decided that the 1930s-era speculation of local ignoramuses was in fact the truth, and he accepts the racist notion that graves that were dug well must by definition be those of white men. (The evidence the article provides offers no way to know how old those specific graves were, or who was buried in them, or when.) From this, he illogically concluded that the skull found in the nearby farmhouse was one of the eight potential “white” men and not one of the “many cranial shells” that the article said were unearthed from what it described as a large burial ground, presuming moreover that the skull was connected to this 1930s-era discovery. Presumably the reasoning for this will be offered in the full documentary.
 
In short, Balgaard has absorbed the myth of Minnesota Norsemen and is seeking out evidence to support a preexisting belief. 
66 Comments
orang
1/25/2017 11:14:44 am

this posting reminds me of the Shroud of Turin investigation teams of scientists who throw their scientific training out the window in order to come up with improbable ways the shroud could be real.

Reply
V
1/25/2017 12:05:51 pm

*snort* The "investigation" was pretty much a joke, anyway. Don't get me wrong, I don't believe the thing is real. It doesn't match up with things like actual burial practices at the purported time or the physics of the hypothetical creation. But that investigation was never a great one, no matter what their findings came out to be, nor how they're defended or defamed. I don't blame the team, but the Vatican heaped so many restrictions on what they could and couldn't do, how can anyone trust the end results to be unbiased? In ANY direction?

Reply
Titus pullo
1/25/2017 08:18:49 pm

I actually had a physics prof back in 84 who was on the original carbon dating team. I remember seeing him on the In search of episode on the shroud before I went to college. I asked old Harry Gove after class one day and he was sure it was from the late Middle Ages to early renaissance.

V
1/26/2017 08:00:12 pm

Titus, I'm not trying to cast aspersions on anyone's character. I was just saying that with the limitations they were put under, the data itself could be flawed, and without access to the Shroud, we have no way to even try to replicate the results in order to be sure--a basic part of scientific process.

Like, I am quite sure that the results--late Middle Ages to early Renaissance--are what the tests showed. What I'm not so sure of is that the sample was a good one in the first place, given that not only do we know repairs were made, but also that the piece was handled over and over and over again and was even in a fire. Everything I ever learned about carbon dating states that samples can be contaminated by outside sources of carbon that change the ratios, which is why samples need to be handled very carefully when they're taken. I'm sure the team handled the sample very carefully. I also know that the Vatican only let them take it from a CORNER, which we have the Vatican's own records were handled repeatedly throughout the ages since its discovery.

That's the kind of bias-introducing limitation I meant, and that's the kind of limitation that makes that investigation and pretty much all of the ones that have followed invalid. The results cannot be replicated, because the Vatican won't allow them to be.

Gwendolyn Taormina
1/29/2017 02:27:34 pm

Mr. Colavito;
Thanks again for trying to educate and inform those that will listen.

Reply
Only Me
1/25/2017 11:31:46 am

Wait. If the fragment dates to 900 CE, and if DNA results come back positive for "European", that means Balgaard could have his Vikings...just not in the 14th century. Is this really to be considered disappointing?!

Reply
V
1/25/2017 11:51:31 am

Considering that it's really kind of impossible to HAVE Vikings in the 14th century--3 centuries after the end of the Viking era--one would think that would make it MORE exciting rather than less.

Reply
Only Me
1/25/2017 12:05:24 pm

Exactly. A potentially Norse skull fragment pre-dating L'Anse-aux-Meadows by a century would be the much bigger and better discovery.

DaveR
1/25/2017 04:22:45 pm

That would be amazing, but I think it's more likely the skull fragment will turn out to be of native American origins.

V
1/26/2017 08:02:53 pm

Oh, Daver, pretty definitely. Just saying that if it DID come back as European--which it won't--I would think that being from 900 CE would be more exciting than being from 1300 CE if you're a Viking enthusiast.

I mean, hell, were it to prove to be European, that wouldn't even prove it was Viking, either, so the chances of proving "Viking" without cultural attributes to go on is kind of impossible, anyway.

Weatherwax
1/25/2017 11:36:40 am

"YouTube outlining his plans for a documentary to explore his unusual came."

I suspect should be unusual claim.

Reply
Jason Colavito link
1/25/2017 11:49:48 am

Damn autocorrect. I fixed it. Thanks.

Reply
Weatherwax
1/25/2017 12:19:39 pm

My Damn autocorrect very often won't even let me say "Damn autocorrect."

DaveR
1/25/2017 11:46:34 am

Nice of him to ask for other people to pay for his testing.

Reply
Tom
1/25/2017 11:50:56 am

Whether 900 CE or 1362 CE what does it matter it will still not substantially change known history.
The fact that the Grand Banks attracted fleets of cod fishers perhaps even before Columbus and certainly within a few years of his voyage (which actually may represent the final breaking of the monopoly held by Icelandic cod fleets)
The fishing fleets of many European nations are known to have ventured into the North Western Atlantic mostly without leaving a trace. Some MAY have landed in America and sailed up rivers but any bones found could represent just one such adventurer.
It would be ironic if the skull turned out to be that of a black deckhand from a Portugeuse fishing boat.

Reply
Patrick Shekleton
1/25/2017 12:10:26 pm

Yep, C-14 dating is science. The gold standard. Jason, this is a very narrow question...Do you dispute the result of the piece of wood C-14 dated to as early as 1405 found within the excavation of the Sod House at Spirit Pond? Narrow question. I am not going to springboard to anything else.

Reply
Tom
1/25/2017 12:29:35 pm

Sorry, C14 is not the "gold standard" it has to be sychronised with other dating methods including dendrochronology.
By itself C14 is rather a hit and miss method of accurate dating.

Reply
An Over-Educated Grunt
1/25/2017 12:42:56 pm

Without surrounding context, there's no reason to think an OOPA is ever more than just a piece of debris that got included in a later deposition. The gold standard (for now) is generally luminosity testing, but that's expensive. Even your radiocarbon number is flawed, though, because without giving the full range of dates there's no way to ascertain either the degree of certainty of the testing lab (smaller standard deviation) or the probability of the earlier date (if it falls at the bottom of the bell curve, it's got virtually no chance of being true). "As early as" is as meaningful as "save up to" advertisements.

Reply
Scott Hamilton
1/25/2017 01:15:15 pm

Moreover, I've never heard of any wooden artifact at Spirit Pond. I know there is a claim that rune covered stones were found there, but we only have the finder's word for that. Even if an old piece of wood was found there it would only mean that there was old wood there. If the piece of wood was worked by human hands, the most obvious assumption would be that it is an Amerindian artifact. Native Americans were quite proficient at working in wood, a fact that sometimes seems surprising to fringe types. And of course, as I already mentioned, there would be no way of knowing if any piece of wood was found in close relation to the stones because there is no record of the stones' excavation.

Reply
Ed wensell
1/30/2017 04:02:34 am

I used to really enjoy it when you finished with a back flip.

Patrick Shekleton
1/25/2017 02:27:17 pm

"The analytical report of the laboratory indicated a radiocarbon date of 1405 +/- 95 which is equivalent to a date of AD of 1405."

You can find this on page 10 of Ed Lenik's report:

https://www.facebook.com/114338978642314/photos/a.846732205402984.1073741855.114338978642314/846732635402941/?type=3&theater

Correct me if I am wrong or if I am not using the proper terminology, but the reference year for C-14 dating was 1950.

Thanks for pointing out that C-14 is the golden standard - poor choice of words on my part.

Lenik catalogued the one piece of wood with a 4/72-20, surmised to be the month/year and artifact number. His report was published in 1973 so it would follow that the C-14 dating was conducted in that time frame.

Is the +/- 95 margin consistent with C-14 testing capabilities in 1972/1973? Was this the most often used value for the standard deviation (may not be the correct term)? Were there C-14 tests at that time that could have achieved a greater degree of accuracy (meaning a tolerance less than +/- 95)? My high school chemistry classes are a long time in the past, but don't the test results indicate the best fidelity being the 1405 date, with the lower probability tails spanning from AD 1310 across the AD 1405 center point and then continuing to AD 1500. That was the result of the test, as Lenik related it in his published work.

Has the testing sensitivity for C-14 radiocarbon dating improved since 1972/1973? Is science now able to reduce the tolerance window to a value less than +/- 95?

C-14 dating, perhaps an improved process today compared to four decades ago, still appears to be an acceptable scientific dating methodology, otherwise, why would it still be used (lower cost?)?

Aside from blog comments, I have never come across any published work that states the result of the C-14 dating which returned an AD 1405 +/- 95 date on that one particular piece of wood was erroneous.

Is it erroneous to accept Ed Lenik's statement (based on the laboratory testing) that the C-14 analysis of the 04/72-20 artifact indicated its age at 545 years +/- 95?

Reply
Tom
1/25/2017 02:50:52 pm

C14 testing is still used but never alone.
Numerous and embarrassing claims were made in the past, all of which were due to uncalibrated C14 tests.
There is also the annoying bugbear of contamination of samples and the employment of sloppy laboratories.

David Bradbury
1/25/2017 03:28:27 pm

The trouble with a single, small piece of wood, particularly in a maritime setting, is that it can be the last remnant of something which has been chopped and changed over many generations, perhaps starting as a long plank inside a 15th-century ship, salvaged when the exterior planking was too rotten to save, and so on ... The fact that it was found in association with an iron nail which had not completely rusted away tends to support that theory, although Lenik does note other hints of earlier occupation than the main 18th-century phase, including a Native American plummet stone.

Patrick Shekleton
1/25/2017 07:09:25 pm

Tom et al,
Appreciated the conversation thread on C-14 dating. Good info.

SPG
1/26/2017 12:15:27 pm

As Tom has said, radiocarbon dating can be problematic without calibrating to a radiocarbon calibration curve. This technique wasn't available in 1972-3, but can still be applied today by using OxCal, which would give a more accurate date.

The preparation of samples has come a long way since the 70s, however, and it is impossible to know if there was any contamination which may have altered the radiocarbon test, which would make any calibration meaningless.

In any case, the date range of 1405 +/- 95 can only be thought of as a statistical probability that the actual date of the death of the tree took place sometime between 1310 and 1500, Any date within this range is valid. You cannot say that the median is any more likely than either of the extremes.

That would mean that even the most extreme marine reservoir effect of 400 years would still only put the date range between 910 and 1100 and any date within that range would be possible. The C-14 dating can do no more than that, at best.

The problem with dating wood is that the date range is determined by when the tree died, and old wood can be found on sites and in contexts dating to much later. This means that the wood dated may not date the site, but could date to an earlier tree felling. This is why archaeologists tend to use perennial carbonised remains such as seeds, and are rightly wary of dates provided by old wood. Especially if only a single date is offered.

SPG
1/26/2017 12:21:29 pm

Oops I wrote perennial, when I meant annual. Sorry!

An Over-Educated Grunt
1/27/2017 09:42:17 am

Most of what I had planned to say has been covered, but I wanted to call you out for one specific thing. Thanks for sticking to reasonable, civil discourse and, from what I can tell, approaching the conversation by being honest about what you know or don't know. Goes a long way toward not being howled down and it's a welcome change in discussions like this.

Cousin Eddie
1/25/2017 12:38:31 pm

Wait, Wolter says the story on the stone is Masonic allegory ... not to be taken literally, well except for the date of course. He refuses to accept that using any 1880s map of the USA, Kensington MN is EXACTLY 1362 miles from the furthestmost border points NW in Washington, NE in Maine, and South in Texas - placing Kensington in the center of the USA using these 3 points. These points define the lower 48 and were not established until 1847. The most plausible explanation is some Mason carved and place the stone there in the 1880s to memorialize the Masonic "Center of the USA" location. It's not authentic Norse or a hoax, but it is a Masonic artifact.

Reply
Americanegro
1/25/2017 07:15:34 pm

So what about Florida? Just a downward pointing triangle of NW, NE, and S. No N, no SE, no SW.

The Sacred Feminine, of course.

Reply
DaveR
1/26/2017 08:55:48 am

I would imagine Florida to be the Sacred Male, due to its clearly phallic appearance.

JLH
1/26/2017 04:02:14 pm

Gasp! Only the Feminine is Sacred. The male is a filthy, shameful personage, suitable only to sully the divine, and he shan't be invoked again!

Heathen.

Clete
1/25/2017 12:39:31 pm

Since eight of bones are supposed to me white men ( I am not sure how someone without specific training could determine that) it is possible they are victims of the Santee Sioux uprising of 1862. However a more logical explanation is that they are Native American. Like most of the fringe types they start from a conclusion and work backward at the evidence, ignoring what doesn't fit and using evidence, no matter how thin to support the conclusion they have already determined to be true.

Reply
mhe
1/25/2017 04:46:58 pm

We don't know what the newspaper article was really referring to but its not inconceivable, given the history of fur trading in the region, that you could find Europeans buried with Native Americans going back to the 17th and 18th centuries.

Reply
Kal
1/25/2017 01:58:31 pm

The Shroud of Turin is definitely a fake. Even according to scripture, he was wrapped in pieces of cloth, not a whole cloth. It would have been too expensive to make. Even so, the image is that of a 13th century King Arthur looking Jesus, which is odd considering he was Hebrew. It is a painting from the 13th century.

The KRS is a total hoax, not from the 13th century, but from the 1800s, and always has been, to drum up interest in Kensingon. So the whole quest to find Vikings did it is based on a hoax.

The skull or skulls found on that site are probably hapless trappers or traders from colonial times, or even natives. It is impossible to tell if they were red or white with all the skin gone. The 900 CE reading is probably fiction he made up. If he made up the other data, he made up that too.

This person asking for a lot of money hopefully will not get any, as he is just looking for money and attention, and to hook up with a show that is now cancelled. Great.



Reply
DaveR
1/26/2017 09:00:19 am

I doubt he made up the 900 CE finding because it's so clearly out of line with his argument. If he had made up the radio carbon date I imagine he would have made it much closer to alleged date of the Kensington Stone to help prove his contention regarding the skull fragment being from one of the Vikings killed as referenced in the stone narrative. With the 900 CE date he must now make some amazing mental leaps to keep this alive.

Reply
V
1/26/2017 08:44:14 pm

It's actually not 100% impossible to tell the "race" of old bones--forensics does it all the time--but from just a fragment of a skull, it's going to be exceptionally difficult. If they could get DNA from it, that might answer the question. A trace-mineral profile might also answer the question. Both are exceptionally difficult, time-consuming, and not likely to even be attempted on just a fragment of a skull with a compromised provenance to begin with.

As for the Shroud of Turin, a painting one thing we can be fairly certain it is NOT. A dyeing, a drawing, a rubbing, or even a burning it might be, but it does not have the characteristics of any other 13th century painting. (Oh, and by "burning," I do not mean "magic Resurrection Energy!" I mean a heated iron applied to the surface of the linen that darkens it, creating an image one stroke at a time. Think wood-burning, but on cloth. It's a thing.) I don't have a LOT of trust in the 1984 investigation of the Shroud, but I do know that the pigments used in the 13th century for paintings would have been extremely obvious on microscopic inspection, and for the team to have missed THAT would be all but impossible.

I personally am of the opinion that it's an anatomical study of an actual corpse, which would be why it has both front and back, and perhaps the cloth even was an actual shroud, used to perform the study on because it was already there and would be relatively easy to remove and make off with. Whether it was intended to be used as a reference for future artwork, or for future medical work, there's no way of even guessing. But it does bear some visual resemblance to sketches from anywhere in the Medieval and early Renaissance periods. I believe it would have been done with a home-made ink, of which recipes abounded at the time, and which would actually have been more of a dye or a stain, thereby leaving no pigment on the surface of the textile because dyes don't, they chemically bond to the fibers and alter them instead.

Reply
Only Me
1/26/2017 09:00:12 pm

Are you saying the image was a trace or was it done freehand? Your idea is one I haven't heard before, but it definitely has merit.

Bob Jase
1/25/2017 02:03:24 pm

How, pray tell, does Balgaard explain the presence of a Norse skull in someone's house rather than a skull from any other population? Had it been in a bag from King Arthur flour would he claim it was Arthur's skull?

Reply
DaveR
1/25/2017 04:26:12 pm

Of course it wouldn't be King Arthur's skull, it's obviously King Arthur's flour brought to America by Merlin.

Reply
At Risk
1/25/2017 06:09:05 pm

My first reaction to today's blog subject wasn't that great, as the blog host began with "... reported on the hoax Kensington Rune Stone. According to the fictitious story told on the stone...."

Anyway, quickly getting away from Jason's obvious bias over the cedibility of the KRS, I started to follow the waterways in this "skull" business, and I have come to the conclusion that the find is not related to the story on the KRS, though it could be related to another medieval Norse story, completely unknown.

Logic follows that a day's journey north from Runestone Hill would involve the same waterway that brought the men to Runestone Hill. This involves the Chippewa River, which I identified several years ago as being the water-route to Runestone Hill.

Not long ago, I also discovered that the most likely place of the ill-fated campsite is located on the west, slightly elevated bank of Davidson Lake, which is located off the Chippewa River about a day's journey north of Runestone Hill...an actual day's journey, after hiking four miles to or from Runestone Hill. This article in Norwegian American magazine explains how I came to identify the likely exact camping spot of the men, located next to a springwater pool:

https://www.norwegianamerican.com/opinion/hjalmar-holand-runestone-hero/

However, I'm not offering an opinion on the present skull debate. I will note, though, that a few miles southeast of Ashby, MN, means that any proposed Norse explorers/adventurers would have likely arrived in that area via Pelican Creek, which flows into the Pomme de Terre River, which flows into the beginnings of the MN River (Marsh Lake, near Appleton, MN), the location of the much-talked-about Norse Code-stone I've proposed.

Map study shows that the Chippewa River and the Pomme de Terre River both flow north/south, generally, but the Chippewa River veers off to the northeast before disappearing a few miles north of Brandon. Though the rivers come within a few miles of one another at times, it can be seen that any Norse visitors to the Ashby area probably came by way of the Pomme de Terre River, not the Chippewa River. Therefore, my conclusion is that the Ashby site and the Davidson Lake sites are unrelated, specific to a single time and excursion, but that Davidson Lake is the most likely place the men were camped.

Bottom Line: these areas were being explored by Scandinavians in medieval times.

By the way, fishing on Davidson Lake sucks, as it is mostly boney pike in shallow waters...and this helps explain why half of the party were away fishing...apparently far enough away that they didn't hear any distant commotion resembling a scene of REDRUM!

Reply
David Bradbury
1/25/2017 06:36:07 pm

" the Chippewa River veers off to the northeast before disappearing a few miles north of Brandon"
No. Water flows downhill. The Chippewa River flows into the Minnesota River at Montevideo from a source north-east of Brandon.

Reply
Americanegro
1/25/2017 07:22:17 pm

Northeast is not necessarily uphill, but more importantly you don't get the difference between "flows" and "veers".

KRS is stil a hoax, though.

David Bradbury
1/26/2017 08:25:16 am

Yes, I expressed myself badly- what I meant was that rivers only "disappear" from an explorer's perspective; in reality they always "appear" from the ground at one or more sources.

Mike Michlovic
1/25/2017 11:36:44 pm

I did archaeological work near Ashby on Pelican Lake about 10 years ago, and found a prehistoric Indian site, but no Norse. Also, worked along the Chippewa River in Swift County, MN in 2010 and recorded plenty of prehistoric Native sites and some historic period homesteads, but no Norse. Same with the Pomme de Terre River valley and the floodplain of the Minnesota River a few miles to the west. No Norse remains. I might note that about 35 years ago, I was part of a small team the dug into a prehistoric Indian burial ground on the shores of Lake Minnewauska in the city of Starbuck, about 15 miles south of Kensington. The burial was being disturbed by some heavy equipment and the Minnesota Inter-tribal council asked us to remove the human remains so they could be re-buried on the reservation. It was a typical prehistoric burial with Late Woodland pottery archaeologists in the area are well familiar with; I believe over 20 bodies were found. After the dig, a small article appeared in the local paper stating that the bodies we found were Norse. I guess this is just to say, I’ve heard this story before. It always ends the same—the Kensington Stone is genuine! “Alternative facts” are nothing new.

Reply
At Risk
1/26/2017 12:57:51 pm

Mike, do you have an opinion on what this sconce is? A professional familiar with American Indian sites told me she doesn't think it is Native American.

This stone structure is approximately the same distance from the Chippewa River as Runestone Hill is, and also similiarly situated east from the river.

Mike, this is located very close to one of the places you mentioned, Starbuck, near wonderful Lake Minnewaska. I was allowed to visit the site after I stumbled into the area (driving, I mean) "by accident" one fine day while looking for medieval Norse stoneholes in the area. The high knoll is covered with many rocks and a beautiful lake can be seen in the distance, westward towards the Chippewa River.

Mike, maybe this is a Knights Templar site, with a pyramid dedicated to a future Scott Wolter. What do you think?

http://hallmarkemporium.com/kensingtonrunestone/id37.html

At Risk
2/6/2017 09:41:48 pm

Hi Mike, I didn't realize until just now that you are a currently practicing archaeologist/consultant interested in undertaking contract archaeology in the State of MN. I was researching for a possible archaeologist to work with, who could be licensed by the State Archaeologist, and your name came up on the short list.

I just closed on my house in MN and I'm interested in chipping in $1,000 towards an exploratory dig at the Louisburg, MN site, where the proposed medieval Norse Code-stone can be seen. I'm hoping you use this cupful of water to prime a pump leading to a professional dig...straight down.

Forget the Kensington Runestone for now. Let's concentrate on finding out what a cunning Scandinavian left buried on that remote ridgeline several hundred years ago.

Sir, I will give you the first tour of this site if you wish. I will show you the stonehole encoding, plus the backup code-stone showing the same encoding, but in miniature. You will be able to see that a chunk of rock was cracked off from a stonehole and placed in the blank spot in the line of stonehole rocks. Then, I will show you how a ferrous metal detector gets a hit on the same spot indicated by the proposed code-stone.

Sir, from this point, you may want to immerse yourself in a cursory dig that will forever change your life...for you may likely unearth the first verifiable medieval Norse artifact found in America, with provenance intact. What will you find that represents an entity powerful enough to attempt a mid-America land claim?

Think about how you will feel if given this chance, not taking it, and then watching an amazing discovery unfold in someone else's name.

http://preservationdirectory.mnhs.org/main/

"This listing is comprised of individuals and firms who have expressed an interest in undertaking contract archaeology in the State of Minnesota. It is provided for informational purposes to those who may require the services of an archaeological consultant."

Let's do this with a professional flair, Mike, to help bring this fantasy to reality. Let's put my cup of water into the pump and begin to pump the handle together, until the flow of water is strong and clear. What next?

Or, might you be nervous about muddying your career if something of a medieval Norse nature is found where both the medieval encoding and modern technology agree that something is buried? Well, don't worry, your embarrassment would only be temporary...and then you would become the ultimate fringe hero!

Fawkes
1/25/2017 10:27:35 pm

The best part of another Norse item found in the Upper Midwest is that it corroborates all the other Norse items and stories from the Upper Midwest. It all makes sense now because of these things that are accurate and confirmed based on science. It all fits together so well. KRS, runestones, Viking, Norse, skull, axe, mound, mystery, hiding the truth, conspiracy, bias. It all makes sense now.

Reply
JLH
1/26/2017 04:09:05 pm

It's all so easy, isn't it! I'm gonna get out there and start doing my own field work. As an IT professional, I won't be burdened by all the mumbo jumbo taught at schools that apparently bogs down otherwise smart people. I'm imminently positioned to rewrite American history, and maybe even the history of the WORLD!

Reply
Americanegro
1/26/2017 06:38:16 am

"Minnesota man would like to be given $10,000"

Well, that makes two of us.

Reply
Pop Goes The Reason
1/26/2017 08:52:03 am

"the piece of wood C-14 dated to as early as 1405 found within the excavation of the Sod House at Spirit Pond"

So no wood grew in America before the Vikings brought it over?

As for the carbon dating, any deviation from 900AD for the skull or 14th century for the shroud is just special pleading. The only reason to doubt the date is if there is some overriding evidence that it is from a different era. A good example of that was the discovery a few years ago that bones in a neolithic (?) burial in Britain were hundreds of years older than other burials from the same site. It was tentatively suggested that the bones could have been from an ancestral mummy, buried when it finally fell apart.

Of course, in the case of the shroud, the scientists forgot that resurrections cause massive bursts of radiation that alter the carbon date by exactly 1267 years.

Reply
At Risk
1/26/2017 11:12:54 am

I think we might be able to dispense with a "400-year radiocarbon correction." A few others (Only Me) have already hit on the truth that AD 900 would, indeed, represent the Viking Age...the early Viking Age.

But I occasionally like to stir things up once in a while, so I'll suggest that since AD 900 is only a hundred years off from the birth of Vinland, one could speculate even more clearly that Norsemen may have come down from Hudson Bay and eventually up the Pomme de Terre River, next to the Chippewa River, in the same approximate timeframe as both the birth of Vinland the the carbon-dating results of the skull fragment found in the MN farmhouse.

This would suggest, of course, a much earlier first approach into the region by Norsemen of Old.

By the way, I've mentioned in the past here that I believe the proposed Norse Code-stone I found a few years ago may be from as early as the Viking Age...specifically, the end of that age, whereby a powerful Viking king may have left buried something signifying where the Pomme de Terre River disharges into the beginnings of the MN River. Yes, I am talking about a possible land claim.

Of course, this area is/was accessible from the Great Lakes, from the Gulf of Mexico, and from the Hudson Bay area. This is the very reason for the evidences in this region: because of the waterway convergences representing the completions of waterway circles. "Life is a circle." - Black Elk

Reply
V
1/26/2017 08:58:00 pm

And yet, you still don't explain why the Scandinavian peoples would have so radically altered their expansion patterns by NOT expanding up and down the coastal areas first and NOT throwing out their garbage all over the place.

You know, like they actually DID in Nova Scotia.

Reply
Elroy Balgaard
1/26/2017 03:12:45 pm

Thanks for posting this article. I don't go into detail in this 10 minute mini documentary on why we think the skull found in the abandoned farmhouse is one of the skulls found in a gravel pit nearby because it is a long involved very interesting story. I will explain that in the full documentary when I make it. First and foremost we need to do the DNA on the skull to find out if indeed it is European that is why I am doing the GoFundMe.

Reply
Bob Jase
1/26/2017 03:25:57 pm

"Balgaard provides no evidence for when or how this skull came to be within the house"

OOO, now we have a secret backstory about skulls in a gravel pit that for some reason wasn't mentioned in the original story.

And if we pay you enough money will you also tell us that there's another secret story that we have to pay you even more to hear?

Reply
Elroy Balgaard
1/26/2017 04:01:56 pm

Did you actually watch the video?

JLH
1/26/2017 04:13:46 pm

Give us the skinny, and I'll consider contributing to your doc.

Reply
Elroy Balgaard
1/26/2017 04:48:06 pm

Here is a link to the longer script.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BzM1QgrGOF1JanRDWHVWdlVWNkE

Here is a link to the complete grant County Herald Article from 1931.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JtKaiEiOH2PhL0HkibSanc0yW5nV0nEpEuNMjx2hj0lBNG8V_hxorTxF5djJ/view?usp=sharing

Elroy Balgaard
1/26/2017 04:51:58 pm

Here is a link to the carbon dating article.
https://journals.uair.arizona.edu/index.php/radiocarbon/article/view/3805/3230

Elroy Balgaard
1/26/2017 05:02:28 pm

Oops, wrong file.

Here is the link to the Grant County Herald Article from 1931.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BzM1QgrGOF1JWHpKdjVvZUY1ams

Crash55
1/27/2017 10:05:38 am

Wouldn't Native American and Europeans have different skull types? I thought Native Americans had mongloid skulls and Europeans had caucasoid?

Reply
Elroy Balgaard
1/27/2017 11:07:26 am

All we have is a skull fragment pretty hard to tell just by that, DNA is a better way to determine heritage.

Reply
Crash55
1/27/2017 06:16:21 pm

I was reading this at an airport with bad wifi so I didn't watch the video. I wonder if an actual anthropologist though could tell more about it

Elroy Balgaard
1/27/2017 10:59:00 am

Why Christians are buried facing East
https://www.reference.com/world-view/people-buried-facing-east-df088ee5963da6ff

Vikings used to bury their dead in mounds like Native Americans but by the 1300's Vikings were Christianised and buried their dead facing east.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vikings

And I know they technically weren't "Vikings" by 1362 but rather just Norwegian and Gothic explorers. Maybe we should change the name of our football team to the "Norwegian and Gothic Explorers". The word Viking didn't appear till the 18th century.

Reply
John
1/28/2017 07:46:04 am

A skull without context has no meaning. If this happens to be a medieval Scandinavian skull found in a cupboard in Minnesota, that is all it is. It may be that a 19th century Scandinavian immigrant thought he needed Ragnar Hairybritches' skull cap to feel at home in the new world and so he packed and brought it from Uppsala.

Without the context it's just a bone.

Reply
Elroy Balgaard
1/28/2017 08:47:43 am

I explain in more detail in the longer script posted above but in essence this man used to brag about how he found a skull in the gravel pit near his house.

Reply
Jens
6/25/2020 09:01:19 am

This documentary series is now out produced by viaplay.

Reply

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    • Television Reviews >
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    • Collection: Ancient Alien Fraud >
      • Chariots of the Gods at 50
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      • Profiles in Ancient Astronautics >
        • Erich von Däniken
        • Robert Temple
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      • Blunders in the Sky
      • The Case of the False Quotes
      • Alternative Authors' Quote Fraud
      • David Childress & the Aliens
      • Faking Ancient Art in Uzbekistan
      • Intimations of Persecution
      • Zecharia Sitchin's World
      • Jesus' Alien Ancestors?
      • Extraterrestrial Evolution?
    • Collection: Skeptic Magazine >
      • America Before Review
      • Native American Discovery of Europe
      • Interview: Scott Sigler
      • Golden Fleeced
      • Oh the Horror
      • Discovery of America
      • Supernatural Television
      • Review of Civilization One
      • Who Lost the Middle Ages
      • Charioteer of the Gods
    • Collection: Ancient History >
      • Prehistoric Nuclear War
      • The China Syndrome
      • Atlantis, Mu, and the Maya
      • Easter Island Exposed
      • Who Built the Sphinx?
      • Who Built the Great Pyramid?
      • Archaeological Cover Up?
    • Collection: The Lovecraft Legacy >
      • Pauwels, Bergier, and Lovecraft
      • Lovecraft in Bergier
      • Lovecraft and Scientology
    • Collection: UFOs >
      • Alien Abduction at the Outer Limits
      • Aliens and Anal Probes
      • Ultra-Terrestrials and UFOs
      • Rebels, Queers, and Aliens
    • Scholomance: The Devil's School
    • Prehistory of Chupacabra
    • The Templars, the Holy Grail, & Henry Sinclair
    • Magicians of the Gods Review
    • The Curse of the Pharaohs
    • The Antediluvian Pyramid Myth
    • Whitewashing American Prehistory
    • James Dean's Cursed Porsche
  • The Library
    • Ancient Mysteries >
      • Ancient Texts >
        • Mesopotamian Texts >
          • Atrahasis Epic
          • Epic of Gilgamesh
          • Kutha Creation Legend
          • Babylonian Creation Myth
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          • Berossus
          • Comparison of Antediluvian Histories
        • Egyptian Texts >
          • The Shipwrecked Sailor
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          • Classical Accounts of the Pyramids
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          • The Story of Setna
          • Leon of Pella
          • Diodorus on Egyptian History
          • On Isis and Osiris
          • Famine Stela
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          • Al-Maqrizi's King List
        • Teshub and the Dragon
        • Hermetica >
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          • The Secret of Creation
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          • Prologue to Ibn Umayl's Silvery Water
          • Book of the 24 Philosophers
          • Aurora of the Philosophers
        • Hesiod's Theogony
        • Periplus of Hanno
        • Ctesias' Indica
        • Sanchuniathon
        • Sima Qian
        • Syncellus's Enoch Fragments
        • The Book of Enoch
        • Slavonic Enoch
        • Sepher Yetzirah
        • Tacitus' Germania
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        • Aelian's Various Histories
        • Julius Africanus' Chronography
        • Eusebius' Chronicle
        • Chinese Accounts of Rome
        • Ancient Chinese Automaton
        • The Orphic Argonautica
        • Fragments of Panodorus
        • Annianus on the Watchers
        • The Watchers and Antediluvian Wisdom
      • Medieval Texts >
        • Medieval Legends of Ancient Egypt >
          • Medieval Pyramid Lore
          • John Malalas on Ancient Egypt
          • Fragments of Abenephius
          • Akhbar al-zaman
          • Ibrahim ibn Wasif Shah
          • Murtada ibn al-‘Afif
          • Al-Maqrizi on the Pyramids
          • Al-Suyuti on the Pyramids
        • The Hunt for Noah's Ark
        • Isidore of Seville
        • Book of Liang: Fusang
        • Agobard on Magonia
        • Book of Thousands
        • Voyage of Saint Brendan
        • Power of Art and of Nature
        • Travels of Sir John Mandeville
        • Yazidi Revelation and Black Book
        • Al-Biruni on the Great Flood
        • Voyage of the Zeno Brothers
        • The Kensington Runestone (Hoax)
        • Islamic Discovery of America
        • The Aztec Creation Myth
      • Lost Civilizations >
        • Atlantis >
          • Plato's Atlantis Dialogues >
            • Timaeus
            • Critias
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          • Panchaea: The Other Atlantis
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          • Sardinia and Atlantis
          • Santorini and Atlantis
          • The Mound Builders and Atlantis
          • Donnelly's Atlantis
          • Atlantis in Morocco
          • Atlantis and the Sea Peoples
          • W. Scott-Elliot >
            • The Story of Atlantis
            • The Lost Lemuria
          • The Lost Atlantis
          • Atlantis in Africa
          • How I Found Atlantis (Hoax)
          • Termier on Atlantis
          • The Critias and Minoan Crete
          • Rebuttal to Termier
          • Further Responses to Termier
          • Flinders Petrie on Atlantis
        • Lost Cities >
          • Miscellaneous Lost Cities
          • The Seven Cities
          • The Lost City of Paititi
          • Manuscript 512
          • The Idolatrous City of Iximaya (Hoax)
          • The 1885 Moberly Lost City Hoax
          • The Elephants of Paredon (Hoax)
        • OOPARTs
        • Oronteus Finaeus Antarctica Map
        • Caucasians in Panama
        • Jefferson's Excavation
        • Fictitious Discoveries in America
        • Against Diffusionism
        • Tunnels Under Peru
        • The Parahyba Inscription (Hoax)
        • Mound Builders
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        • The 1907 Ancient World Map Hoax
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        • The Interglacial Period
        • Solving Oak Island
      • Religious Conspiracies >
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        • Toledot Yeshu
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        • Testimony of Jean de Châlons
        • Rosslyn Chapel and the 'Prentice's Pillar
        • The Many Wives of Jesus
        • Templar Infiltration of Labor
        • Louis Martin & the Holy Bloodline
        • The Life of St. Issa (Hoax)
        • On the Person of Jesus Christ
      • Giants in the Earth >
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          • Fossil Teeth and Bones of Elephants
          • Fossil Elephants
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          • Fossils and the Supernatural
          • Fossils, Myth, and Pseudo-History
          • Man During the Stone Age
          • Fossil Bones and Giants
          • American Elephant Myths
          • The Mammoth and the Flood
          • Fossils and Myth
          • Fossil Origin of the Cyclops
          • Mastodon, Mammoth, and Man
        • Fragments on Giants
        • Manichaean Book of Giants
        • Geoffrey on British Giants
        • Alfonso X's Hermetic History of Giants
        • Boccaccio and the Fossil 'Giant'
        • Book of Howth
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        • The Giants of Sardinia
        • Giants and the Sons of God
        • The Magnetism of Evil
        • Tertiary Giants
        • Smithsonian Giant Reports
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        • The Giant of Coahuila
        • Jewish Encyclopedia on Giants
        • Index of Giants
        • Newspaper Accounts of Giants
        • Lanier's A Book of Giants
      • Science and History >
        • Halley on Noah's Comet
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        • Crown Prince Rudolf on the Pyramids
        • Old Mythology in New Apparel
        • Blavatsky on Dinosaurs
        • Teddy Roosevelt on Bigfoot
        • Devil Worship in France
        • Maspero's Review of Akhbar al-zaman
        • The Holy Grail as Lucifer's Crown Jewel
        • The Mutinous Sea
        • The Rock Wall of Rockwall
        • Fabulous Zoology
        • The Origins of Talos
        • Mexican Mythology
        • Chinese Pyramids
        • Maqrizi's Names of the Pharaohs
      • Extreme History >
        • Roman Empire Hoax
        • American Antiquities
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        • England, the Remnant of Judah
        • Historical Chronology of the Mexicans
        • Maspero on the Predynastic Sphinx
        • Vestiges of the Mayas
        • Ragnarok: The Age of Fire and Gravel
        • Origins of the Egyptian People
        • The Secret Doctrine >
          • Volume 1: Cosmogenesis
          • Volume 2: Anthropogenesis
        • Phoenicians in America
        • The Electric Ark
        • Traces of European Influence
        • Prince Henry Sinclair
        • Pyramid Prophecies
        • Templars of Ancient Mexico
        • Chronology and the "Riddle of the Sphinx"
        • The Faith of Ancient Egypt
        • Spirit of the Hour in Archaeology
        • Book of the Damned
        • Great Pyramid As Noah's Ark
        • Richard Shaver's Proofs
    • Alien Encounters >
      • US Government Ancient Astronaut Files >
        • Fortean Society and Columbus
        • Inquiry into Shaver and Palmer
        • The Skyfort Document
        • Whirling Wheels
        • Denver Ancient Astronaut Lecture
        • Soviet Search for Lemuria
        • Visitors from Outer Space
        • Unidentified Flying Objects (Abstract)
        • "Flying Saucers"? They're a Myth
        • UFO Hypothesis Survival Questions
        • Air Force Academy UFO Textbook
        • The Condon Report on Ancient Astronauts
        • Atlantis Discovery Telegrams
        • Ancient Astronaut Society Telegram
        • Noah's Ark Cables
        • The Von Daniken Letter
        • CIA Psychic Probe of Ancient Mars
        • Scott Wolter Lawsuit
        • UFOs in Ancient China
        • CIA Report on Noah's Ark
        • CIA Noah's Ark Memos
        • Congressional Ancient Aliens Testimony
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      • Ancient Extraterrestrials >
        • Premodern UFO Sightings
        • The Moon Hoax
        • Inhabitants of Other Planets
        • Blavatsky on Ancient Astronauts
        • The Stanzas of Dzyan (Hoax)
        • Aerolites and Religion
        • What Is Theosophy?
        • Plane of Ether
        • The Adepts from Venus
      • A Message from Mars
      • Saucer Mystery Solved?
      • Orville Wright on UFOs
      • Interdimensional Flying Saucers
      • Flying Saucers Are Real
      • Report on UFOs
    • The Supernatural >
      • The Devils of Loudun
      • Sublime and Beautiful
      • Voltaire on Vampires
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      • Religion and Evolution
      • Transylvanian Superstitions
      • Defining a Zombie
      • Dread of the Supernatural
      • Vampires
      • Werewolves and Vampires and Ghouls
      • Science and Fairy Stories
      • The Cursed Car
    • Classic Fiction >
      • Lucian's True History
      • Some Words with a Mummy
      • The Coming Race
      • King Solomon's Mines
      • An Inhabitant of Carcosa
      • The Xipéhuz
      • Lot No. 249
      • The Novel of the Black Seal
      • The Island of Doctor Moreau
      • Pharaoh's Curse
      • Edison's Conquest of Mars
      • The Lost Continent
      • Count Magnus
      • The Mysterious Stranger
      • The Wendigo
      • Sredni Vashtar
      • The Lost World
      • The Red One
      • H. P. Lovecraft >
        • Dagon
        • The Call of Cthulhu
        • History of the Necronomicon
        • At the Mountains of Madness
        • Lovecraft's Library in 1932
      • The Skeptical Poltergeist
      • The Corpse on the Grating
      • The Second Satellite
      • Queen of the Black Coast
      • A Martian Odyssey
    • Classic Genre Movies
    • Miscellaneous Documents >
      • The Balloon-Hoax
      • A Problem in Greek Ethics
      • The Migration of Symbols
      • The Gospel of Intensity
      • De Profundis
      • The Life and Death of Crown Prince Rudolf
      • The Bathtub Hoax
      • Crown Prince Rudolf's Letters
      • Position of Viking Women
      • Employment of Homosexuals
      • James Dean's Scrapbook
      • James Dean's Love Letters
      • The Amazing James Dean Hoax!
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