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The Kensington Rune Stone
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Definition: In 1898, a Swedish-American farmer named Ohman claimed to have discovered on his Minnesota farm a slab of sedimentary rock with an inscription in ancient runic language which, when translated, claimed that the rock had been inscribed by a group of Vikings in the year 1362 AD. There are several problems with the stone (for one thing, it includes a rune for a word which wasn't used in Scandinavian languages until centuries later than 1362) and it is widely believed to be a hoax.

Related Resources:

Weird Archaeology
Archaeology attracts the strangest of ideas; here is a selection of the weird and wayout fringe.

Prank at Spencer Lake Mound
Or, Eric the Red never visited Wisconsin.

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