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let me just tell you a little bit about
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what happened so far you know I went out
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to see Roger and and he's an interesting
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guy he took me to these really
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incredible native mounds and he had a
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friend of his a guy by the name of
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Leonard who came out with divining rods
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and located what they say is a giant in
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the ground after that we went out into
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his property and we identified a couple
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of other interesting locations that they
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think there's something in the ground
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and I'd like to look at I have a great
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interest in pre-columbian culture
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contact you know the one pre-columbian
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culture contact that we know happened
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for sure was the contact with Vikings
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the one known pre-colombian Viking site
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Lancel Meadows in Newfoundland that's a
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that's an incredible distance in terms
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of them being here in Minnesota I'm a
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little skeptical and uh we'll see if
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there's a giant on Rogers property you
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know I don't expect you to drink all the
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pre-columbian Kool-Aid you know take the
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sips that you want but you're in Norse
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country and there are a lot of
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Scandinavian immigrants here in
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Minnesota and the Legends in the stories
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about the ancient Norse coming to
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Minnesota are everywhere here you know
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Giants may seem like a stretch but there
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could be some related artifacts there's
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got to be more here and that's why I
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felt it was important to look at Roger's
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site and I've learned one thing in
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archeology in the last 15 years is that
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pretty much nothing is impossible
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[Music]
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hey Roger how you doing good to see you
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again nice to see you it's my friend
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Mike hi Roger nice to meet you in my
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carvathan glad to meet you this is the
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archaeologist I was telling you about
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well I think you're going to be pretty
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interested in this site and I'm glad to
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have you aboard come on please show me
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all right let's do it
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thank you
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[Music]
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well Mike this is uh one of the sites
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that were marked out yesterday by one of
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Roger's friends Leonard who used a
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technique called water witching is what
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he called it but the copper rods where
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they they walk and then they cross to
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Mark a location
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sure yeah dowsing is a little bit of an
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unconventional archaeological method but
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uh nowadays archaeologists have a whole
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arsenal of remote sensing tools that
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they can use out here if we're looking
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for Viking or Scandinavian occupation
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and I would think that a metal detector
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would work best here because that's
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what's going to set the Vikings apart
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from the Native Americans they're going
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to have iron they're going to have the
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will have left slag possibly bronze so
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we're looking for Metals what would
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happen if we found human remains I gotta
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call the medical examiner depending on
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how old they are I might have to bring
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the state archaeologist out here we
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might have to bring a Native American
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representative it's like a can of worms
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that we want to avoid as as much as
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possible what do we do next yeah let me
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um get my tools the metal detector the
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screen and the pin flags and we'll set
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up a grid and start a survey
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this is a good spot right here if I was
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a viking this is where I'd want to camp
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out so what I'd like to do is run the
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metal detector survey or we'll set up a
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grid we'll label our transect lines A B
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C D and so on and I will sweep the metal
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detector back and forth and if we get a
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hit we'll put a pin flag in the ground
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and then that's where we'll dig
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let's do it
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got one right here
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Scott can you flag that about here yeah
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okay
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got one right there
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[Music]
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Roger
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thank you
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here we go right there
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[Music]
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we got a bunch of sites located here we
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looked at it with Leonard and now can
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you show us what we might want to do
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here these are all magnetic targets so
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we don't know what's in the ground yet
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and that's what we're gonna find out
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thank you
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[Music]
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foreign
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Mike we got bone here
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pretty sure that's bone
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yep it sure is
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oh wow man it looks like it's actually
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potentially been cut right there yeah
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yeah there's some some marks do you know
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where that came out of the wall on this
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side here
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I have a hand lens should I grab that uh
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yeah okay I'm gonna go for it all right
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we're only 29 centimeters deep
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so I think we're stolen in the Disturbed
00:05:16
plow Zone but it definitely has cut
00:05:18
marks on it I think you're right about
00:05:19
that yeah I think it's
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it's butchered bone yeah I think it's a
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rib that's what somebody's dinner maybe
00:05:26
50 to 100 years ago or maybe longer
00:05:28
possible or possibly it could be Native
00:05:30
American you could probably figure it
00:05:32
out by looking really carefully at these
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cut marks and determining whether it was
00:05:35
made by a metal tool or stone tool sure
00:05:38
well Scott uh we got a lot more evidence
00:05:41
up around this area than just here this
00:05:43
lady gave me pictures that her family
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phoned this is a sword exactly where did
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this come from 12 miles south of here
00:05:50
it's found up here found up here on 1900
00:05:54
a little later 1900 not around around
00:05:56
that area kidding me I'm gonna let Mike
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keep digging but I've got to check this
00:06:01
out first thing in the morning
00:06:04
foreign
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I'm in the area here looking into the
00:06:13
possibility of a Norse presence here
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back several centuries ago and spent
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some time out at Roger saker's Farm
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later in the day he pulled me aside and
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showed me some very interesting pictures
00:06:24
of an artifact that I understand you
00:06:27
know a little something about
00:06:29
correct can you tell me something about
00:06:31
this sword it was found while they were
00:06:33
flowing yes I have it here okay good
00:06:42
three miles west of Eula Minnesota when
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he was plowing in 1911.
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it was the first one to plow that land
00:06:50
because he came from Norway okay so he
00:06:52
Homestead the land right when he plowed
00:06:54
a little deeper and and he heard a noise
00:06:57
how deep you think we're talking is this
00:06:59
a foot two feet in the ground I would
00:07:02
probably say six to eight inches at the
00:07:03
homes okay so really okay
00:07:07
we've got a symbol here I don't know
00:07:09
what the heck that is but it does look
00:07:11
very interesting this is a very unique
00:07:13
sword the style obviously will tell us
00:07:15
something about its age have you heard
00:07:17
anything about that anybody's weighed in
00:07:19
on on the possible age I'm going to
00:07:21
handle resemblance to swords of the 14th
00:07:24
century
00:07:25
copies an inscription was found on
00:07:28
uppsala Cathedral Sweden the whole sword
00:07:31
very similar to Van style wise style
00:07:33
wise okay one of the reasons that I'm
00:07:36
very interested in this sword I'm
00:07:37
curious about the association or
00:07:39
possible association with the Kensington
00:07:40
runestone which is a 14th century
00:07:43
artifact and this could be related
00:07:45
evidence possibly from that Norse party
00:07:47
I do know some people that could help us
00:07:49
and you know just doing a general
00:07:52
examination sometimes you find things
00:07:54
you never expected so I think we can
00:07:56
learn some more about this sword hey
00:07:59
Craig I'm investigating the possibility
00:08:02
of ancient Norse vikings and even Giants
00:08:06
being in Minnesota in the distant past
00:08:08
and Minnesota being my home state I get
00:08:12
calls all the time from people who think
00:08:14
they found artifacts or maybe
00:08:16
inscriptions I have another one here I
00:08:18
was recently in northern Minnesota and
00:08:21
you've got the pictures that I sent of
00:08:23
this sword that was found near eulin
00:08:25
Minnesota by a farmer so I'm anxious to
00:08:28
hear your thoughts
00:08:31
um I'm sad to say it's not a Viking
00:08:33
sword
00:08:34
this particular type of Sword was
00:08:37
produced by a wkn company in Germany in
00:08:40
the midday late 1800s they would have
00:08:42
produced thousands of these
00:08:44
they also would have sold them to the
00:08:46
Ames company in the United States who
00:08:48
was the largest sword company in the U.S
00:08:51
at that period of time sold to the
00:08:53
military to individuals to organizations
00:08:55
and I actually have pages from the
00:08:58
catalogs of both those companies
00:09:00
when I look at both of these pictures
00:09:02
that you show yeah I mean that's that's
00:09:05
a spot on Match right there that's that
00:09:07
sword yeah can you show me what a
00:09:10
medieval or North sword should look like
00:09:12
certainly okay you want to hold that for
00:09:14
a second sure
00:09:16
that's what a Viking sword would appear
00:09:18
to be in most cases boy that's light for
00:09:21
how big it is biking combat is very much
00:09:24
a combat of agility it's speed it is not
00:09:28
two guys standing there pounding each
00:09:30
other on their Shields so Craig are you
00:09:33
surprised that it's modern and not old
00:09:35
no I was not surprised in the course of
00:09:39
our studies here in Minnesota we've seen
00:09:41
several instances where people have
00:09:43
brought in artifacts fence finials axes
00:09:46
uh the Kensington runestone all
00:09:49
convinced that it's proof of ancient
00:09:51
people prior to them being there
