Tom H. C. Anderson - More Than Market Research

First day back in the office stateside today. I noticed in this morning’s mail I had been elected to the Stamford Historical Societies Board of Directors where I have been serving the past few months on the board unofficially. It should be fun to learn more about Stamford’s history and help the society with their marketing efforts.

As interesting as US and Stamford’s history is, it’s hard to compare with what Europe has to offer. I mentioned a few of them recently here on the blog, like Glimmingehus in Sweden and Roskilde Viking Ship Museum in Denmark.

On this last trip to Sweden, my wife and I also visited a few megalithic monuments, one which is about 5000 years old, another from the bronze age (about 3000 years old), and the other more recent, from the end of the Iron Age (500 AD). The latter, known as Ale’s Stenar (Ale’s Stones) looks a lot like Stonehenge but is shaped like a Viking Ship and placed high atop a hill with the sea on three sides.

It’s very impressive when viewed as a grave and when you consider all the work it must have taken to move these stones into place. But even more interesting is when you consider it from an archeoastronomical perspective. Apparently, the placements of the stones also seem to function as a very accurate calendar not just for 365 day year but also for the autumnal and vernal equinox, the winter and summer solstice etc.

It occurred to me that considering the time and effort it must have taken to set this up, perhaps the ancient Vikings, Babylonians, and Egyptians valued analytics more than we do today?

-Tom

A few more shots:

Stern & keel alignment

View from stern forward

At a distance

Coastline