Kensington Runestone

Record summary

The Kensington Runestone is a slab bearing runic text that Olof Öhman said he found near Kensington in 1898. Its inscription purports to record a fourteenth-century Scandinavian expedition into North America. Linguistic features, carving style, geological context and the circumstances of discovery have led most specialists to regard it as a nineteenth-century forgery, although defenders have proposed alternative interpretations. It remains relevant to European medieval history because it shows how genuine Norse expansion can become entangled with later local identity, antiquarian enthusiasm and claims of pre-Columbian contact.