In 1898, a controversial stone appeared in Kensington, Minnesota.

It was covered in Old Norse ruins and told a tale of a 14th century Viking journey of exploration

deep into the American Midwest.

Is it possible that the Kensington Roonstone is a genuine artifact?

Or is there a much richer story here having to do with

when the stone was carved, by whom, and most importantly, why?

That's coming up right now on Scuptoid.

You're listening to Skeptoid. I'm Brian Dunning from Skeptoid.com

Decoding the Kensington Runstone.

Welcome to the show that separates fact from fiction, science from pseudoscience,

real history from fake history, and helps us all make better life decisions by knowing what's real and what's not.

Today we have for you a story about context.

No historical event took place in a vacuum and a thorough understanding of any such event requires an understanding of its context.

What else was going on in the world at the time?

What was happening 10 meters away and 10 minutes before?

This is the story of the Kensington Roonstone,

an apparent Viking artifact artifact allegedly discovered in Minnesota in 1898.

The only problem was its location, 3,000 kilometers inland from where any Viking was ever known to have been.

Study of the ruins inscribed on the stone lead us to one interpretation of its authenticity.

The rest we get from its context,

archaeological context of the find itself,

and cultural context of the time in which it was produced.

...