I defended my dissertation prospectus on Tuesday and advanced to candidacy. Now I look forward to sleeping for an entire week, after I finish grading a stack of midterms!

Some good history from bad! The Kensington Runestone is an infamous hoax. Found in Kensington, Minnesota by the Swedish-American Olof Ohman (Öhman before he emigrated) in 1898, the inscription claims to have been made by a mixed bunch of Scandinavian explorers in the 14th century, who'd set out from Vinland on an 'exploration journey'.

The stone was an immediate sensation in the Scandinavian-emigrant communities of Minnesota and local amateur historians were (and still are) enthusiastic, the experts weren't convinced. Just for starters the circumstances were improbably serendipitous ; Scandinavian-Americans finding a runestone right where they lived, verifying the claim to Norse discovery of the New World made in the Vinland Sagas. In an era prior to the finds at L'Anse-aux-Meadows when those Sagas were quite doubted. Even as this was thousands of kilometers away and far inland from where Vinland might've been, and the supposed journey undertaken centuries after the original Vinland expedition.. Even before seeing the thing there was every reason to be skeptical.

The stone did not survive scrutiny by experts; not only did it use some idiosyncratic unknown version of runes, once deciphered the inscription conveniently turned out to be written in easily understood modern Scandinavian and not a medieval form of the languages. It didn't just use modern vocabulary but also modern grammar! In fact, since it doesn't use plural verb forms ("we were" on the stone is "vi var", not the medieval "varom") it is actually more modern than written language at the time it was found! (people said "vi var" in 1898 but would write using the plural form "vi voro")

Now, one might think such a blatant hoax would be of no interest to professional runologist. Certainly state runologist Magnus Källström thought so himself - until a few years ago when he discovered an alphabet written in Kensington runes (together with a pigpen cipher) on a 19th century board!

It's (relatively) well known that the popular runic tradition was continued in Dalarna in Scandinavia (Dalecarelian Runes) until the early 20th century. Less known, and less researched, is the fact that they were also in use in the 19th century in the areas of Hälsingland and Medelpad, northeast of Dalarna. Part of the reason is because runologists were historically disinterested in runes past the Viking Age, but also because these inscriptions were not monumental but ephemeral, marking wooden objects and such which were not saved as much and certainly not catalogued the way runestones were.

So some runes scrawled on a ceiling at the 18th century farm Ersk-Matsgården in Hälsingland had not been studied and were not widely known, because people had not been able to read them, until earlier this month. The visiting school teacher Anna Björk and her fourth grade class decided to try to figure out the mystery text; and succeeded in doing so (it said djävulen - "the devil"). They were able to find and decode several others, two of which were dated to 1870 and 1877. Having emailed Källström about it, he immediately recognized the find (particularly the unique 'a' rune) as being Kensington runes. Although similar 19th century runes have been found from Dalarna and Jämtland, among other places, and an exact match with the undated 19th century board; this find is really significant because now we have the exact runes, dated to well before the Kensington find, and unlike the previous board, from an area suspiciously close (~40 km, 25 miles) to Forsa from whence Olof Ohman originally hailed.

It's certainly another nail in the coffin for the authenticity of the Kensington Stone as a medieval artifact, yet at the same time resurrecting its historical value as a rare example of the runes used in 19th century Hälsingland, Sweden!

(Source: Källström's blog (Swedish))

​ ​​ Recently I've been reading about the Relaciones geográficas - maps sent from Spanish America to Spain in reply to a a survey ordered by King Philip II. in the late 16th c. Local administrators had to send back maps and written local information. Since many of the maps were drawn by indigenous artists this led to some fascinating mixing of pre-Hispanic and European styles.

So it was a nice surprise to come across a short article in Atlas Obscura that talks about some special maps of the Relaciones geográficas that I hadn't heard of before (with cool pictures in there):

Drawing from ways of mapmaking old and new, influences from Europe and from Central America, these maps adopted and imitated techniques specific to printed maps—but were all hand-drawn. It’s as if a magazine designer in the 1990s tried to imitate the style of a early website. [...] Only, these maps had other unique characteristics, too, drawn from the place they were made. They mixed the conventions of the time’s European cartography with indigenous influences and earlier European map and illustration tropes.

These maps—seven in all, made in 1579 and 1580—“present a peculiar style,” says Morato-Moreno, with a “dose of ingenuity” unparalleled in the whole, extensive corpus of maps made of Spanish America in the 16th century.

(edit:) Just in case anyone feels like digging deeper, on the maps and especially their indigenous artists there's a great book, The Mapping of New Spain: Indigenous Cartography and the Maps of the Relaciones Geograficas by Barbara E. Mundy.

For the Spanish side of how these surveys were carried out, there's Arndt Brendecke's in-depth The Empirical Empire. Spanish Colonial Rule and the Politics of Knowledge.

Hey everyone! I’ve recently got into a class that demands a decent degree of knowledge on American history. Unfortunately I’m a bit lacking on that front as I haven’t lived in the US all my life and am a bit shaky on general American history, so I’m looking to expand my knowledge of American history, preferably 20th century but earlier is fine as well. I was wondering if you guys might have possible sources (websites, books, etc) that are beginner-friendly in terms of content but still credible for my referencing in lesson. It would help a lot :)

Your Weekly /r/askhistorians Recap

Friday, May 24 - Thursday, May 30

Please let me know if you have suggestions to make this roundup better for /r/askhistorians. I can search for posts based off keywords in the title, URL and flair.

If you would like this roundup sent to your inbox every day send me a message with the subject 'askhistorians'. Or if you only want a weekly roundup, use the subject 'askhistorians weekly'

However, I can do more.. you can have me search for any keywords you want on any subreddit you want. Send a message with the subject ['set askhistorians'](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=subredditsummarybot&subject=set%20askhistorians&message=200%0A25%2C%20keyword 1%2C%20another keyphrase%2C%20last example) and in the message: specify a number of upvotes that must be reached, and then an optional list of keywords you want to search for, separated by commas. You can have as many lines as you'd like, as long as they follow this format:

200  
50, keyword 1, another keyphrase, last example

You can also do ['set askhistorians weekly'](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=subredditsummarybot&subject=set%20askhistorians%20weekly&message=200%0A25%2C%20keyword 1%2C%20another keyphrase%2C%20last example) And you can replace askhistorians with any subreddit.

See my wiki to learn more: click here

For the past week as many have noticed, we have been test-running a post at the top of threads with a Rules Reminder, and a pre-filled link to the Remind Me Bot. We don't quite have a sense yet of its overall impact, but definitely would like to get some feedback, so if you have any thoughts on this experiment so far, please let us know in this thread. Thanks!

NOT LOOKING TO SELL OR TRADE

I have an old German dagger that originated from WW2, made by Klitterman and Moog. It’s very scratched and damaged, but can easily be polished up and restored. The scabbard is filled with rust, and some of the plating on the handle has worn away. I was wondering if the value of the dagger would depreciate if I were to restore it, as I’m evaluating all the items in my home gallery for insurance purposes. Would it be required to have it appraised in its newly restored condition if I were to repair it? I’d appreciate any answers. I’m not planning on selling it, I collect antique memorabilia as a hobby and for my own personal fascination of historical events.