Vinsastenen

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Drawing of the “Käymäjärvi Inscriptions” by Pierre Louis Maupertuis , 1737.

The Vinsastenen ( German  Vinsa stone , also Käymäjärvi stone ) is a stone block with two inscription- like rows of notches that take up an area of ​​about 52.5 cm by 105 cm. The notches are reminiscent of letters from runic alphabets . The landmark is located on the Vinsa ridge above Lake Käymäjärvi , about 26 km northwest of Pajala in northern Sweden . First reports on the inscriptions were published in 1689. In 2018, however, a study by archaeologists, geologists and historians came to the conclusion that the "inscriptions" have no human originator, but rather that they were created through natural processes.

Initial description

The inscriptions were first described by Olof Rudbeck the Elder (1630–1702) in the second volume of Atlantica (1689). The local population, especially the Sami , saw the stone as an important message from their ancestors.

Second investigation

Eric Brunnius (1706–1783) of Uppsala University was the second to deal with the stone in a treatise on the city of Tornio ( De urbe Torna ; 1731). Brunnius notes that the stone bears runic marks and the engraving of a triple crown, which is, however, weathered. The physicist Anders Celsius (1701–1744), who also worked as a runologist , however, concluded that the inscriptions were not runes.

Third investigation

Celsius and Pierre Louis Maupertuis (1698–1759) visited the stone around April 11, 1737 during their expedition to measure the earth's meridians. Celsius and Maupertuis both drew the notches in their travel diaries. The narrative of this trip and about the stone, considered particularly exotic in its time, was part of Maupertuis' application for the French Académie des Sciences and likely contributed to its inclusion.

2018

A group of archaeologists, geologists and historians published a report in the Cambridge Archaeological Journal in 2018 , according to which the "inscriptions" are not man-made, but the result of natural processes. The "characters" are notches that are created by weathering and the modeling of the natural flaking of the sedimentary rock .

literature

  • Erik Tobé: Maupertius' “Advice on everything to do till det inre av Lappland for finna ett gammalt minnesmärke.” Oknytt No. 1-4, 1999, vol. 20.
  • Vesa-Pekka et al .: Alternative Pasts and Colonial Engagements in the North: The Materiality and Meanings of the Pajala 'Runestone' (Vinsavaara Stone), Northern Sweden. In: Cambridge Archaeological Journal , 1–16, May 2, 2018. doi : 10.1017 / S0959774318000197

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Paul Murdin: Full meridian of glory: perilous adventures in the competition to measure the Earth , 1st. Edition, Copernicus Books / Springer, New York 2009, ISBN 0-387-75533-0 , p. 63.
  2. ^ The hidden knowledge of Lake Käymäjärvi . In: The degree measurements by de Maupertuis in the Tornionlaakso Valley 1736-1737 . Retrieved February 25, 2012.
  3. ^ Vesa-Pekka et al .: Alternative Pasts and Colonial Engagements in the North: The Materiality and Meanings of the Pajala 'Runestone' (Vinsavaara Stone), Northern Sweden. In: Cambridge Archaeological Journal , 1–16, May 2, 2018. doi : 10.1017 / S0959774318000197

Coordinates: 67 ° 23 ′ 12.9 ″  N , 22 ° 56 ′ 43.1 ″  E