A Norse Bearing-Dial?

• Published in: Journal of Navigation
• Main Authors: Taylor, E. G., May, W. E., Motzo, R. B., Lethbridge, T. C.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1954
• Subjects: Ocean Engineering; Oceanography; Greenland
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0373463300036225; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0373463300036225

In the July number of the Journal Captain C. V. Sølver described the discovery, by the Danish archaeologist Dr. C. L. Vebæk, in Greenland in the summer of 1951, of what was believed to have been part of an early bearing-dial. The object, which was dated by the archaeologists at about the year 1200, was one-half of an oak disk the outer rim of which was carved in such a way as to lead Captain Sølver to the conclusion that the complete disk was divided into thirty-two points or directions. Captain Sølver's paper was illustrated by a photograph of the fragment discovered and of his reconstruction of a similar bearing-dial. Professor Taylor comments below on Captain Sølver's paper, and on the more general question of a Norse bearing-dial which it raised. Comment on the problem invited from a number of members and others is also given.