Archaeologists remain puzzled by a surprising, seemingly historical finding deep in the Canadian desert. But after years of research, analysis and historical confirmation, an interdisciplinary team finally made its findings available to the public. A removable in the forest about 465 miles northwest of Ottawa, a massive slab from the base is distinguished by its hand -fastened transmission of the full prayer of the Lord. But the religious text is not inscribed in French or English – it is made up of over 250 symbols of the oldest known rune alphabet.
Damage to the discovery happened completely by accident, according to CBC. Hidden for centuries, the stone is exposed only after a tree fell near the town of Vawa, not far from Lake Superior. The more careful check showed that someone had entered 255 runes in about 4 to 5 feet from the plate. They also took time to add a detailed boat illustration, an additional 16 Runnin characters and 14 X Marks.
Photos of the site soon turned to Ryan Primrose, President of the Ontario Archaeological Education Center, who was immediately stunned by the images.
“This is certainly one of the less expected discoveries in my career. This is absolutely compelling,” he told CBC.
It took years of planning and cooperation to analyze the mysterious stone inscription. Ryan Primrose / Ocae
Futhark runes
However, Primrose did not want anyone to jump to conclusions about the inscription. Although it was true that the Vikings were exploring parts of today’s Canada thousands of years ago, he doubted that they were responsible for the mysterious message.
“We didn’t want to play anything public until we did the biggest analysis as possible,” Primrose said.
He soon contacted the University of Uppsala Emeritus Professor of Runology Henrik Williams and helped the famous expert visit the website next October.
“I was under the target for three hours with a flashlight, looking at the runes, and the rest were sitting outside,” Williams recalls.
An expert spent three hours shaking the cliff to decrypt it. Credit: Ryan Primrose / Ocae
The patience and endurance of the group paid off. In the end, Williams determined that the message was written with Futhark alphabet runes. First developed and used by the German peoples between I and 8th centuries BC, Futhark eventually became a simple version accepted by the Scandinavians. Both the Anglo-Saxons and the Frisians also expanded it in their own variants, but the knowledge of how to read its original iteration disappeared from the high Middle Ages (around 1000-1300 BC). It was not until 1865 that the Norwegian scientist Sophis Bridge finally managed to decipher the long-lost language.
However, people across Europe have been fascinated by the runes in the meantime. In the beginning of 1600, the Swedish polymam (and occultist) Johannes Bureus accepted the symbols in a system that grossly corresponds to the language of his homeland. This ended with the publication of the Swedish Lord Prayer, written with Futhark’s runes in 1611. But do not think that the history of Canadian strangeness ended there.
Researchers hope to turn the stone into a public heritage place. Credit: Ryan Primrose / Ocae
Recent inscription
“This must have been Swede,” Primrose said for the etching. “There were Swedes here at all?”
Not in the 17th century, according to his study. This said that historical documents confirm that Hudson’s Bay’s company has deployed Swedish workers in trade posts in Canada, starting in the 1800s. And it just happens that the prayer of the Runian Lord of Bureus was reissued in the 19th century.
Taken in full, Primrose and his colleagues now theoretize that Hudson’s Bay Company employee-or employees are responsible for the labor-intensive project, which may have taken days, if not weeks to finish.
Naturalists are now working with local owners of rent to turn their archaeological discovery into a public heritage place, which includes a protective structure that will protect it from the elements.
Primrose admitted that he was “a little disappointed” that the artifact was probably only a few centuries, but many questions still surround the find. Was the site a place for religious gatherings or the devoted efforts of one person? Before its exposure, the base also lay under multiple inch soil. Since no other artifacts were found nearby, was the prayer intentionally buried?
“The mystery does not fade just because it is younger than we hoped. Why was it carved here? Why this text? There are no answers,” he said. “And the mysteries always attract people.”