- KENSINGTON, Minn. - Two people
say they are the ones who carved inscriptions on a 2,200-pound rock --
not a band of Vikings who supposedly explored the state in 1363.
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- When the rock was found six months ago near Kensington,
it revived a 103-year-old controversy about claims that Norsemen traveled
in Minnesota.
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- Discoverers touted the stone as "new evidence"
of the authenticity of the original Kensington Runestone, uncovered in
1898 by a Sweden-born farmer who said he found it wrapped in the roots
of a tree. Many investigators think the farmer carved the inscriptions
in Norse runes on that rock himself.
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- Now Kari Ellen Gade and Jana Schulman have come forward
admitting the new rock was their work.
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- "One of the reasons we came forward was we saw that
people were being asked to make financial contributions to have the rock
tested," Gade said. "We didn't feel it would be right to carry
this further."
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- In 1985, Gade and Schulman, along with three other University
of Minnesota graduate students in a seminar on runic inscriptions, carved
the rock "for fun" and to cast doubt on the validity of the original
Kensington Runestone, they said.
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- They said they thought believers in the Kensington Runestone
were naive.
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- Gade and Schulman called it a scientific study rather
than a hoax. Gade is now chairwoman of the Department of Germanic Studies
at Indiana University, and Schulman is associate professor of English at
Southeastern Louisiana University.
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- They sent a letter to the Minnesota Historical Society
at the end of October outlining their role. The other three members of
the group refused to let their names be used.
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- Geologist Scott Wolter, part of the team that announced
the discovery of the new stone, still believes the older Kensington Runestone
is valid.
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- Wolter said Monday he accepts that the recently found
stone was carved by the graduate students. Though disappointed, he said
he and other members of the Kensington Runestone Scientific Testing Team
are not embarrassed by their earlier enchantment with the stone.
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- "When I was in college I did some stupid things
too," Wolter said. "But I give them credit for coming forward
and admitting it."
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- http://www.canoe.ca/CNEWSWeirdNews0111/06_viking-ap.html
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