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The Kensington Runestone is a 200-pound (90 kg) slab of greywacke covered in runes on its face and side. A Swedish immigrant, Olof Ohman, claimed to have discovered it in 1898 in the largely rural township of Solem, Douglas County, Minnesota, and named it after the nearest settlement, Kensington. The inscription purports to be a record left behind by Scandinavian explorers in the 14th century (internally dated to the year 1362). There has been a drawn-out debate on the stone's authenticity, but the scholarly consensus has classified it as a 19th-century hoax since it was first examined in 1910, with some critics directly charging the purported discoverer Ohman to have fabricated the inscription,〔 "() every Scandinavian runologist and expert in Scandinavian historical linguistics has declared the Kensington stone a hoax ()"; ; ; ; 〕 although there remains a local community who remain convinced of the stone's authenticity.〔 "Det finnes en liten klikk med amerikanere som sverger til at steinen er ekte. De er stort sett skandinaviskættede realister uten peiling på språk, og de har store skarer med tilhengere." Translation: "There is a small clique of Americans who swear to the stone's authenticity. They are mainly natural scientists of Scandinavian descent with no knowledge of linguistics, and they have large numbers of adherents."〕 == Provenance == Swedish immigrant〔http://kahsoc.org/ohman.htm farmer〕 Olof Ohman asserted that he found the stone late in 1898 while clearing his land of trees and stumps before plowing, having recently taken over an parcel of public domain land that had for years been left unallocated as "Internal Improvement Land".〔Stephen Minicucci, (Internal Improvements and the Union, 1790–1860 ), Studies in American Political Development (2004), 18: p.160-185, (2004), Cambridge University Press, . "Federal appropriations for internal improvements amounted to $119.8 million between 1790 and 1860. The bulk of this amount, $77.2 million, was distributed to the states through indirect methods, such as land grants or distributions of land sale revenues, which would today be labeled "off-budget.""〕 The stone was said to be near the crest of a small knoll rising above the wetlands, lying face down and tangled in the root system of a stunted poplar tree, estimated to be from less than 10 to about 40 years old.〔 〕 The artifact is about 30 × 16 × 6 inches (76 × 41 × 15 cm) in size and weighs about . Ohman's ten-year-old son, Edward Ohman, noticed some markings,〔Hall Jr., Robert A.: ''The Kensington Rune-Stone Authentic and Important'', page 3. Jupiter Press, 1994.〕 and the farmer later said he thought they had found an "Indian almanac." It can be claimed that at the period when Ohman discovered the stone, the journey of Leif Ericson to Vinland (North America) was being widely discussed and there was renewed interest in the Vikings throughout Scandinavia, stirred by the National Romanticism movement. Five years earlier Norway had participated in the World's Columbian Exposition by sending the ''Viking'', a replica of the ''Gokstad ship'' to Chicago. There was also friction between Sweden and Norway (which ultimately led to Norway's independence from Sweden in 1905). Some Norwegians claimed the stone was a Swedish hoax and there were similar Swedish accusations because the stone references a joint expedition of Norwegians and Swedes at a time when they were ruled by the same king, after the Union of Kalmar. It is thought to be more than coincidental that the stone was found among Scandinavian newcomers in Minnesota, still struggling for acceptance and quite proud of their Nordic heritage.〔Michael G. Michlovic, "Folk Archaeology in Anthropological Perspective" ''Current Anthropology'' 31.1 (February 1990:103–107) p. 105ff.〕 A copy of the inscription made its way to the University of Minnesota. Olaus J. Breda (1853–1916), professor of Scandinavian Languages and Literature in the Scandinavian Department made a translation, declared the stone to be a forgery and published a discrediting article which appeared in ''Symra'' during 1910. Breda also forwarded copies of his translation to fellow linguists in Scandinavia. The Norwegian archeologist Oluf Rygh concluded the stone was a fraud, as did several other noted linguists.〔Olaus J. Breda. ''Rundt Kensington-stenen'', (Symra. 1910, pp. 65–80)〕 The stone was then sent to Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. Scholars either dismissed it as a prank or felt unable to identify a sustainable historical context. The stone was returned to Ohman, who is said to have placed it face down near the door of his granary as a "stepping stone" which he also used for straightening out nails. Years later, his son said this was an "untruth" and that they had it set up in an adjacent shed, but he appears to have been referring only to the way the stone was treated before it started to attract interest at the end of 1898. In 1907 the stone was purchased, reportedly for ten dollars, by Hjalmar Holand, a former graduate student at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Holand renewed public interest with an article〔Holand, "First authoritative investigation of oldest document in America", ''Journal of American History'' 3 (1910:165–84); Michlovic noted Holand's contrast of the Scandinavians as undaunted, brave, daring, faithful and intrepid contrasted with the Indians as savages, wild heathens, pillagers, vengeful, like wild beasts: an interpretation that "placed it squarely within the framework of Indian-white relations in Minnesota at the time of its discovery." (Michlovic 1990:106).〕 enthusiastically summarizing studies that were made by geologist Newton Horace Winchell (Minnesota Historical Society) and linguist George T. Flom (Philological Society of the University of Illinois), who both published opinions in 1910.〔 〕 According to Winchell, the tree under which the stone was allegedly found had been destroyed before 1910. Several nearby poplars that witnesses estimated as being about the same size were cut down and, by counting their rings, it was determined they were around 30–40 years old. One member of the team who had excavated at the find site in 1899, county schools superintendent Cleve Van Dyke, later recalled the trees being only ten or twelve years old.〔Milo M. Quaife, "The myth of the Kensington runestone: The Norse discovery of Minnesota 1362" in ''The New England Quarterly'' December 1934〕 The surrounding county had not been settled until 1858, and settlement was severely restricted for a time by the Dakota War of 1862 (although it was reported that the best land in the township adjacent to Solem, Holmes City, was already taken by 1867, by a mixture of Swedish, Norwegian and "Yankee" settlers.) Winchell concluded that the weathering of the stone indicated the inscription was roughly 500 years old. Meanwhile, Flom found a strong apparent divergence between the runes used in the Kensington inscription and those in use during the 14th century. Similarly, the language of the inscription was modern compared to the Nordic languages of the 14th century.〔 The Kensington Runestone is on display at the Runestone Museum in Alexandria, Minnesota. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Kensington Runestone」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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