A new study published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society A has suggested that voyaging Vikings used Icelandic spars to find the sun in the sky. Icelandic spars, which are formed from crystallised calcium carbonate, polarise light, and may have been used as a navigational aid when cloud cover hid the sun. Norse legends tell of sunstones that were used to guide seafarers to North America, and the team behind the research believes that Icelandic spars could have provided the raw material of these mythical sunstones.
A pair of Queen Victoria’s silk bloomers have sold for £9,735 at auction in Edinburgh. The rather large undergarments, which sold for three times their estimated price, were auctioned alongside other royal artefacts, including a pair of Queen Victoria’s silk stockings, which sold for more than £5,000.
Archaeologists have unearthed what they believe was once a prehistoric ceremonial site at Cave Hil in Belfast. An earlier community excavation at the site of the Ballyaghagan cashel – a stone ring fort – uncovered objects dating back to 3,500 BC. The team first believed the site to be a standard cashel, but further excavation confirmed that it was not an early Christian enclosure after all. One of the unusual features discovered at the site was a piece of sandstone inscribed with an oval shape with segments.
A letter written by Admiral Lord Nelson and addressed to the Honourable William Frederick Wyndham, British minister for Florence at the time, has sold for £20,200 at auction in Derby. The document, which is dated 1799, was written two years after Nelson lost his right arm at the battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife and tells of Nelson’s frustration at the lack of government funds to send news: “I am anxious to hear of any movements of the armies. They are most interesting but I could not pay sixpence for the news of the greatest victory from the public purse… I am forced to confess that our Government keep us seamen from putting our hand in the public chest.”
