Hostname: page-component-74656f9884-npj9w Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-10T03:04:12.947Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Norse Bearing-Dial?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 January 2010

E. G. Taylor ,
W. E. May ,
R. B. Motzo  and
T. C. Lethbridge
E. G. Taylor
Affiliation:
(Emeritus Professor of Geography, University of London)
W. E. May
Affiliation:
(National Maritime Museum)
R. B. Motzo
Affiliation:
(Professor of Ancient History, University of Cagliari
T. C. Lethbridge
Affiliation:
(Keeper of Anglo-Saxon Antiquities, University of Cambridge)
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the 'Save PDF' action button.

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.

Information

Type
Forum
Information
The Journal of Navigation , Volume 7 , Issue 1 , January 1954 , pp. 78 - 84
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Navigation 1954

References

REFERENCES

1Sølver, C. V. (1953). The discovery of an early bearing-dial. This Journal, 6, 294.Google Scholar
2Reuter, O. S. (1935). Germanische Himmelskunde, Munich.Google Scholar
3Sølver, C. V. (1946). Leiðarsteinn: the compass of the Vikings. Old-Lore Miscellany, 10, 293.Google Scholar
4Chaucer, G.. Treatise on the Astrolabe (1391).Google Scholar
5Neckham, A.De Naturis Rerum, Chap. XCVIII (1187?).Google Scholar
6 Berachya (12th or 13th century). On Stones. Quoted by A. Schück (1911) in Die Vorgänger des Kompasses.Google Scholar
7SirNicolas, H. H. (1847). A History of the Royal Navy.Google Scholar
More, A. (1914). Accounts and inventories of John Starlyng. Manner's Mirror, 4, 22.Google Scholar
8Motzo, Bacchiso R. (1947). Il Compasso da Navigare, Cagliari-Universita.Google Scholar
Taylor, E. G. R. (1951). The oldest Mediterranean pilot. This Journal, 4, 81.Google Scholar
9Taylor, E. G. R. (1951). Early charts and the origin of the compass rose. This Journal, 4, 351.Google Scholar