Hyperborea won't be buried again!

Dear followers of Hyperborea Exists. Apologies for the delay in sharing my version of events with you. I’ve been trying to write for the past two days, but the words won’t flow. My fingers won’t obey my commands. Today, two days after the meeting in Oslo, I finally have the strength to tell you what happened. Our request for a grant was denied. We won’t be able to take the final step in our research. We won’t be able to prove that Hyperborea really existed.

To be frank, we never expected to be dealt such a heavy blow. We were so sure of ourselves and the conclusiveness of our evidence. I swear my presentation was both passionate and thorough. Every loose end was tied up. I started by describing our research over the past ten years. We presented the physical evidence, the studies we had carried out, everything. Despite this, the Science and Research Commission remained sceptical throughout.

The highlight of the presentation was revealing how the Draupnir Disc worked. It is actually a type of compass, a navigation system. You enter coordinates into the disc and it guides you to your destination. Once we had understood its function, we had tried out numerous combinations that led to various locations across the Northern Hemisphere. We believe one of them is the location of the lost civilization of Hyperborea.

I had been convinced that the commission members would be left speechless before spontaneously breaking out into applause. Nothing could be further from the truth. They listened to the presentation stony-faced and then accused the Draupnir Disc and remains of Odin’s Keel of being fakes. They refused to believe that the results of the carbon dating tests could be real.

The official reason for rejecting our request was that the proposal failed to meet the minimum requirements necessary for a grant. But if you run through each of the requirements, we definitely meet each and every one. From the very beginning, there was a great sense of hostility from the audience, as if we were touching on a delicate subject that made them all uncomfortable. I have always respected and admired many of my colleagues who sit on the commission, which made their attitude and lack of objectivity even more painful. The more I think about it, the more certain I am that for some strange reason, they don’t want us digging any further into the truth about Hyperborea. That someone would prefer for it to remain a myth, a legend, a children’s story, rather than a historical reality. The more I think about it, the more worrying these conclusions are.

Cover for the printed edition of Afterpolen, a Norwegian newspaper. Bellow, in the center, you can see the highlight of the news with the headline: "New civilization discovered?".

And if being rejected by the commission weren’t enough, Olve, Geir and I now have to fight a defamation campaign. The saddest part is that people we believed to be colleagues, or even friends, have eagerly turned against us. Even the media has been tipped off; our rejected proposal was covered in yesterday’s news. I won’t repeat all the stories that were published about us in the press; it’s too painful. But here is one that appeared in Aftenposten. It gives you a general idea, although it was actually one of the kinder reports. Below is an English translation of the article.

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   New civilization discovered?

   Professor Jørgen Hågensen, renowned scientist and archaeologist at the University of Science and Technology in Trondheim has revealed that his request for a 120 million krona research grant has been formally rejected. He planned to use the grant to prove that the mythical civilization of Hyperborea really existed, and hoped to obtain the funds from a special account created by parliament via Norwegian Research. However, the controversial scientist met with firm opposition from scientific circles. Some anonymous sources have even gone so far as to call him an ‘obsessed lunatic’.

   Professor Hågensen claims to have gathered sufficient evidence from Hyperborea to prove its existence, even asserting that he knows its exact location. “If I’d received the grant, everyone would have benefited from the greatest archaeological discovery of modern times. I’m obviously very disappointed,” he told Aftenposten.

    Lars Meloni, special consultant for the parliamentary Research Commission, was reticent to describe the precise contents of the request, but supports the Commission’s decision, stating that it would never have been possible to award Professor Hågensen the funds. “The basis of the request is regrettably vague, to put it kindly. We have very strict criteria when assessing who may opt for these funds and Professor Hågensen was nowhere near meeting them.”

   Is the myth of Hyperborea real? Or does it only exist in the mind of a madman? Professor Hågensen has stated that he and his colleagues do not intend to give up and will not let this set-back stop them. However, it appears that the scientific community no longer takes them, or their research, seriously.

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These are hard times, as you can imagine. This is the worst moment  in my career. But I won’t be beaten. I won’t give up. As a scientist, I know that the evidence can’t lie. Hyperborea exists. I know it for a fact. We decided not to reveal the coordinates of its location and have kept them a secret. Our next step is to try to obtain private capital and we are going to look into every available option. There are still people out there with open minds who are ready to invest in projects that could revolutionise humanity. Yes, despite opposition from certain sectors who are determined to bury Hyperborea once and for all. They won’t get away with it.

Once again, I’d like to thank you for all your gestures of support, both those made in public and the private messages I’ve received over the past two days. Last Thursday there was a brief moment when I considered throwing in the towel. Forgetting all about it. But your support helped me cast that idea from my mind. You will always be the hands that help push me onwards. We’ll do it together, we’ll make sure that the truth about Hyperborea is revealed. Many thanks.

Affectionately,

Professor Jorgen Hågensen

The time for the Truth has come!

Dear followers of Hyperborea Exists. After years of hard work, the moment has finally arrived. Three years have passed since I started this window onto the world about my research, and now the end is in sight. This Thursday I’m going to present my work to the Norwegian government’s Science and Research Commission in Oslo. During the presentation, I’ll set out the irrefutable evidence that we’ve gathered over more than ten years of research.

Graphic representation of the Gar rune. This symbol has been a constant in my research on the Hyperborean civilization.

You have only joined me for three years of the journey, but for Olve, Geir and me practically our whole adult lives have been dedicated to this project. I passionately and objectively believe in the authenticity of our evidence and the conclusions we have drawn. I just hope I can make the Norwegian government understand so that we are granted the funds we need to take the final step. Right now, we are convinced not only that the mythical civilization of Hyperborea existed, but that we know its exact location. We will use the funds to travel to this location and launch an ambitious programme of underwater prospecting that will unveil one of humanity’s greatest mysteries.

There are many unknown factors, but one thing is certain: the truth is out there, waiting for us, in the ruins of Hyperborea beneath the waters of the Atlantic Ocean. I appreciate that the scientific community and society will struggle to understand the impact of this discovery. I know that plenty of people will reject our ideas, call us crazy, perhaps. We’re used to that by now. But our theories are supported by hard evidence and scientific facts. Quantifiable data that cannot be faked. I swear that we won’t give up, I won’t give up. Humanity needs to know what happened to its first advanced society. Why did it disappear? Was it responsible for the disappearance of the Neanderthals? Are modern humans the descendants of a union between Homo sapiens and Hyperboreans? What type of cataclysm or calamity could have destroyed this lost civilization? If I receive the funds I will be requesting in the meeting, I hope to be able to answer these questions and many more.

Before I take this bold step forwards, I’d like to thank you all for your support. All of you. From those who have been following Hyperborea Exists from the beginning to those who have just joined. The other day I was talking to a Spanish friend who works in online communications, saying that it is amazing what you can do with the internet these days. Bringing together millions of strangers from around the world, just by writing. I’m proud to say that this Thursday I won’t just be appearing alone before the Norwegian parliament. You will all be there with me, in every word, every sentence. I won’t let you down. One way or another, the world will learn that Hyperborea really existed.

Best wishes to you all.

Professor Jorgen Hågensen

Every story has a beginning X

Hi, followers of Hyperborea Exists. I’m back to bring you the final chapter in ‘Every story has a beginning’. In my last post I left off just when we had retrieved Barracuda 1 and the Draupnir Disc.

Draupnir Ring representation from Nordic Mythology.

I have to admit, the journey home was something of a nightmare due to the bad weather. As soon as the Draupnir Disc was in our hands we put it in an aqueous solution to replicate the conditions inside the Niflheim Cave. The boat lurched from side to side as it was struck by powerful waves. We were all extremely tense. On more than one occasion we thought that our expedition might end in tragedy.

After several days at sea we finally reached port in one piece. And even more importantly, our archaeological treasure was in good condition. What we certainly couldn’t have imagined was that our return would be stormier than the return journey aboard the Ice Dawn.

We were two days behind schedule due to the time we had spent retrieving the Draupnir Disc. Our superiors at the NTNU were furious because they had promised that we would be available for another project but we hadn’t returned on time. I wish I could say that once we had described our finding they softened and turned their full attention on our project, offering us all their resources.

But it wasn’t like that. Olve, Geir and I received a formal warning and were threatened with being expelled by the institution if we committed any further infractions. Our superiors and colleagues were now highly suspicious of us and did everything they could to exclude us for not having followed their instructions to the letter. You can guess what the best way of attacking us was... Ignoring and scorning our research into the Draupnir Disc and Odin’s Keel.

You must be wondering what happened to the Draupnir Disc. From the moment we received our warning, we were weighed down with endless bureaucracy and paperwork, ensuring that we didn’t have a second free for our research. Even so, we managed to study it whenever we could, even if it meant losing sleep. It was a long and tedious process but we could still call on a few friends to help us. What we now call the Draupnir Disc was then just a rocky surface in very poor condition. It required several chemical and restoration processes to clear away all the sediment that had built up over the years and reveal the artefact that lay beneath.

I can’t put into words what we felt the day we finally saw what our great treasure truly looked like, two years after we had retrieved it from the Niflheim Cave. I imagine it was the same as the first archaeologists felt when they discovered the Egyptian pyramids and their hieroglyphics. What we had before us had once been a beautiful, refined disc made from a bluish metal and decorated with symbols, ancient runes that we couldn’t decipher. Most surprising of all, it wasn’t one solid piece but consisted of several concentric circles that looked as though they once moved to form new symbols.

The craftsmanship was indescribable, even for our times. Some of the runes were microscopic in size. Each inner circle was smaller and more refined than the last. Restoring it would be a Herculean task, if not impossible. It was, without a shadow of a doubt, one of the greatest archaeological discoveries ever made. You can already guess what the carbon dating test results revealed... They were identical to the results of Odin’s Keel: out of range.

CGI (Computer Generated Image) enlarged from the inner circles of the Draupnir Disk. This was one of the first captures we made of the disk. Already in this stage of the initial restauration you could glimpse a part of the symbols. 

In normal circumstances, we would have shared our discovery with the scientific community, requested research funds and revealed what we had found to the world. But we were in a highly precarious position. We were worried about being rejected again and taken off the research project. So we decided to take the long way round and chose to be patient. It would take longer, but would ultimately provide us with concrete, irrefutable results.

We knew that the artefact was unique but still had no idea where it came from or its function. We couldn’t understand the symbols or how they worked. Nor did we have any data on Odin’s Keel or the shipwreck. Who could have made it? So we decided to hide what we had discovered and pretend that we were carrying on with our everyday work, while actually carrying out unofficial research in our free time. That way we hoped to win back the trust of our colleagues and superiors. And of course, to discover what lay behind our mysterious findings.

Over the next few years we set aside time every summer to perform new dives in the area. And that was how we finally approached the area around the island of Jan Mayen. We had run simulations that recreated ocean currents from 60,000 years ago and they all led to this area of the Atlantic Ocean. But it wasn’t enough. We needed to find more pieces of the puzzle. I can’t begin to count the hours I spent studying the symbols decorating the Draupnir Disc. Everything indicated that it used a runic system far more ancient that anything that had been seen before.

It was a compositional system: you moved the various inner discs to form different signs. But I had no idea what the real combination was. After several months trying different combinations there was just one that created a familiar-looking symbol. An X with a rhombus on either side.  It was too much of a coincidence. There was already an identical composite rune known as ‘ gar’. The gar rune meant ‘spear’ and was known by some experts in runic writings as the rune of the god Odin. I must admit that I’ve been obsessed with it ever since, feverish to discover the potential implications of the artefact. But it’s still too soon to make any pronouncements.

Gar Rune. It is a composite rune and means "Spear". For many researchers is considered as the symbol that represents the Nordic God, Odin, The Great Father.

This discovery spurred me on and encouraged me not to give up. But it was just an oasis in a desert of uncertainty because I still didn’t know what the rune meant or the purpose of the Draupnir Disc. I only began to guess at its function three years ago. I had been working until the early hours and had lain down on my bed, exhausted. The television was on and was showing a documentary about the first Spanish and Portuguese navigators. And that was what set off a spark in my head. What if the disc was something more than an alphabetic rune, as I had thought up until now? What if it were a type of navigation map, like a system that showed the position of the stars? As the days went by, the idea grew, making more and more sense. Olve and Geir agreed with me. What was more, they even suggested that perhaps it showed position coordinates, like a type of archaic GPS. But that went beyond even our wildest expectations.

However, we still didn’t know what the composite runes meant, except for Odin’s rune. We were missing something... A guide that would help us understand the runic language. Like the Rosetta stone had been for Egyptian hieroglyphics. And that was exactly what we found this summer on the ocean floor along the coastline of Jan Mayen. The missing piece that could be used to understand and decipher the Draupnir Disc. Thanks to this new find, we have spent the past few months carefully studying its symbols and establishing coordinates. The location of the place where we believe that Odin’s Keel may have been based. Built by a civilization that precedes anything known to humanity so far. A civilization with unimaginable knowledge and technology for its age, technology that we still don’t understand...

Roseta Stone. It contains a decree from year 196 B.C. by Egiptian priests written in Greek and Egyptian hieroglyphs.

Dear friends, followers of Hyperborea Exists, in a few weeks’ time the truth will be revealed. We have gathered all the information possible, all the evidence that backs up our research, and are going to present it before the Norwegian government’s Scientific Commission. Once it learns about our work, we hope to achieve the funding we need. We will spend the grant on an expedition to the coordinates we’ve unveiled, a point in the Atlantic Ocean. Once there, we hope to discover archaeological remains that provide the existence of what was once known as Hyperborea.

And that brings this series to a close. The next blog posts will cover our presentation and, I hope, its success. We are going to need all the support we can get. Ahead lies the glory of making the greatest archaeological discovery in the history of humanity. Pay attention because soon, very soon, I hope to be able to reveal the secrets of the Hyperborean civilization.

Every story has a beginning IX

Followers of Hyperborea Exists, two weeks later here I am, back and ready to continue my tale of ‘Every story has a beginning’. It has been an intense fortnight and there isn’t long to go before the final step. So much depends on it that we are taking every precaution possible. We can’t leave anything to chance. We hope to convince the government to grant us the funds we need to continue our research.

When I last wrote, I was describing a discovery that would change everything. A circular disc that we’d found in the Niflheim Cave. Once Barracuda 1 was back on board the ship, we stayed up all night studying the images it had taken and analysing the best way to retrieve the disc. We had to invent a completely secure way of using Barracuda 1 to raise it up.  After batting ideas back and forth and running hours of tests, we came up with the safest solution.

Robotic arms with a similar termination to those we used in Barracuda 1.

Both of Barracuda 1’s arms were fitted with pincers and we built a nylon rope harness around them. With a little skill, the disc would fit inside and then the pincers could close around it to hold the disc tight. According to our initial tests, it was lighter than we had first thought so we expected Barracuda 1 to be able to lift it up without difficulty. Of course, that was assuming things weren’t complicated by strong currents. The truth was that we were all increasingly anxious. The weather forecast said that storms were on their way.

We spent the entire morning preparing Barracuda 1 and planning the dive so then had to wait until the following day. We had also received a call from our superior at the NTNU asking if we were already on our way back. There was no choice but to lie. I’m sure you can imagine the state Olve, Geir and I were in.

Finally the perfect moment for the dive arrived. There was a short window for our operation. In seven hours’ time we would be hit by a weather front. Barracuda 1 gracefully sank down through the water, heading towards the depths in search of the disc. Would it be the key to backing up our theories about Odin’s Keel and the shipwreck?

Image from the main camera of Barracuda 1, just before reaching the mound where the Draupnir Disk was hiding. It used a laser locking system to fix its target.

The descent felt as though it would take forever, the seconds lasting minutes, the minutes lasting hours. The robot’s underwater path to the Niflheim Cave seemed eternal but finally it arrived. Everything was just as we had left it. We guided the robot straight towards the disc. It was still there, crowning the strange rocky mound and covered in flora and fossilized crustaceans. Olve skilfully handled the two remote controls.

He would be responsible for the most difficult part of the procedure. He had to lift the disc up with one pincer while the other pincer fitted part of the harness around it. Then he had to repeat the manoeuvre the other way round with the other robotic arm. It was very risky, what if the disc slipped out of its grasp and fell down the mound? That would be disastrous. We were all on edge. You could cut the atmosphere in that small compartment on board the Ice Dawn with a knife.

After several attempts, Olve managed to place the disc inside the safety harness. He closed the fastenings with the pincers and withdrew them to pull the disc towards Barracuda 1. For a moment it felt as though time had stopped, but we quickly saw that it was moving, lazily edging away from the mound like someone who doesn’t want to leave the comfort of their home.

If the descent had felt eternal, you can’t begin to imagine what the ascent was like. A total nightmare; the storm was now practically on top of us. Our great fear was that the cable could work itself loose and we would lose both Barracuda 1 and the disc.

Fate, the old gods, destiny or perhaps all three saw to it that we retrieved Barracuda 1 and its precious cargo just in time. Moments after hoisting the robot out of the water and storing it in the Ice Dawn’s hold, ten to thirteen foot waves started to surge up around us. It was time to head back to base. The journey home might have been rough but we certainly didn’t notice: we were walking on air. The three of us were fascinated by our discovery, what we would later be called the Draupnir Disc.

That’s all I have time for now but I promise to return with further details of our discovery shortly. Unfortunately I also have bad news from the NTNU to report. There’s not long to go, my friends. The truth about Hyperborea will soon be revealed, I promise. Thanks for all your support. Writing these posts feels almost therapeutic and gives me the strength to take the final few steps. Until next time!

Every story has a beginning VIII

Dear followers of Hyperborea Exists, here is the next post in ‘Every story has a beginning’. As I mentioned in my last entry, after the dressing-down we received from the NTNU’s Expert Commission we had no other choice but to spend the rest of the summer of 2000 working on other projects while we anxiously waited for September to arrive.

When it was finally time to set off on our new expedition to the Niflheim Cave, we were faced with several challenges. First, the limited budget granted by the NTNU meant that we wouldn’t have much room for manoeuvre. However, we called in a few personal favours and used our contacts, finally setting sail on a medium-sized ship, the ‘Ice Dawn’. Once a fishing boat, it had since been remodelled and was now used for research projects.

Sonar image of the fracture zone of Jan Mayen showing the location of the opening of the Niflheim cave.

Although we had only been authorised and granted the funds to mark out a perimeter around the shipwreck, we had actually succeeded in obtaining the means to do a little more. We had one of the Barracuda submarine robots belonging to Nordic Communications on board. Now it had been meticulously adapted for gathering samples and exploring the terrain. Our plan was to try to spend as much time at the site as possible, although this was weather-dependent.

After several days’ journey, Olve, Geir and I, plus the Ice Dawn crew, reached the coordinates of the Niflheim Cave. The weather wasn’t ideal so we got straight to work. First we marked out a perimeter around the cave by sonar. The region is part of the famous Jan Mayen Ridge and the island of Jan Mayen is 250 miles to the north. As I explained in previous posts, the area around the island would later be one of the main focus points for our research field work. As the image shows, the entrance to the Niflheim Cave was a long opening, like a crack, on the side of an underwater mound that had once been volcanic chimney many years ago.

Once we had taken images of the perimeter, the Barracuda was fitted with the sonar and we launched the first dive back to the cave. At first sight, everything appeared to be just as we had left it on our previous visit.

Down, left. Sonar image of the strange disk we found in the Niflheim Cave.

We started to take different images of quadrants covering the cave floor and the areas where what we called Odin’s Keel had been found. That was how we spent the first day of work. In the evening, we checked through all the sonar images. Our initial analysis showed that Odin’s Keel was just the tip of the iceberg. Most of the shipwreck lay beneath the surface, protected by layers of mud, earth and rock. This knocked the wind out of our sails. If the project conditions already involved highly complex archaeological prospecting on the surface, at that depth the cost of recovering the wreck would be astronomic. Way out of our budget.

We had almost finished when Olve spotted something in an image taken in the farthest area of the cave from Odin’s Keel. It was a type of mound, an odd protuberance that somehow looked out of place while also appearing to belong to the shipwreck. The sonar image was blurry, but it looked like a circular surface measuring three feet in diameter. Was it part of the shipwreck or a strange artefact from its cargo?

Although we had originally planned to use the Barracuda to gather a fragment of Odin’s Keel, we now decided to prioritise our new discovery. The next day, we got the Barracuda ready and looked on anxiously as it slowly descended through the watery depths down to the Niflheim Cave. The robot was fitted with two arms and a large spade. One of the arms had a pincer and the other held a saw for cutting through rock. When the Barracuda approached the new finding we finally had a better view. It was a circular surface that stood out from the ocean floor. As the robot drew closer it stirred up lots of dust and we saw that it was encrusted with rocks, flora and crustaceans.

The robot stretched out its pincer and the upper part of the object shuddered at its touch. It wasn’t a cube, but a type of loose disc. It appeared to be lighter than we had first thought because it moved slightly every time the pincer touched it. Finally, we groped around its perimeter and started to cut into the rock to try to separate it from the ocean floor. This was just what we had been looking for: an object that could be used to prove the importance of our research. And that we weren’t on a wild goose chase. Unfortunately, the Barracuda wasn’t designed for carrying a load like the disc. We were worried that its pincer wasn’t secure enough for a safe ascent. We would have to come up with another way of bringing it up to the surface...

That’s where I’ll leave things for today, dear followers of Hyperborea Exists. I hope to continue my tale very soon. There are fewer and fewer pieces of the puzzle missing and soon we’ll be able to solve the mystery of the myth of Hyperborea. I truly believe that we’ll discover the truth behind the myth any moment now and be able to reveal to the world that Hyperborea really existed. Thank you for your continuing support.

Every story has a beginning VII

Followers of Hyperborea Exists, I’m back to continue ‘Every story has a beginning’. In my last entry I revealed the results of the carbon dating test that we ran on the samples from Odin’s Keel in the Niflheim Cave.

The tests were repeated three times and the results were conclusive. The samples were close to sixty thousand years old or more. We were faced with an unprecedented dilemma: were these the oldest archaeological remains ever found? Or had the samples been affected by some type of undetected pollution, leading to these virtually impossible results?

Photo that I took to the several NTNU experts during the investigation commission for the samples recovered from the Niflheim Cave.

It was clear that the answers were beyond us. So with all our documents ready, we requested an urgent meeting with the NTNU Commission of Experts. At the meeting we passionately defended our work, the procedures we had followed and the authenticity of the samples. Suspicious voices suggested that we had invented the whole story for media attention. Luckily for us, we also had the testimonies of Nordic Communications staff who had been on board the Blue Sea with us when we discovered the Niflheim Cave.

I wish I could say that the meeting was a success, that we convinced our colleagues and that a project to raise the shipwreck was instantly approved. But instead we met with hostility and total rejection. No one believed the results of the carbon dating test. After all, if they were true, it would change everything we thought we knew about history to date. No one wanted to be labelled a fantasist by the media. Even so, we did manage to convince them that the findings were important, whether they were sixty thousand years old or only a thousand. Therefore, after tense negotiations, the NTNU granted us a small fraction of its budget to return to the Niflheim Cave.

Unfortunately, the NTNU would only allow us to gather a few more samples and create a perimeter around the site to determine its full size. However, we were granted a submarine sonar that could be used to establish the structure of the supposed shipwreck beneath the ocean floor. Olve, Geir and I left the meeting exhausted and with a bitter-sweet taste in our mouths. Despite everything, we were encouraged by having a new opportunity to return to the site. We were firmly convinced that we would find even more concrete evidence that would back up our theory.

We wanted to set off immediately but weren’t authorised to begin our crazy expedition until September 2000 because we all had various commitments that couldn’t be broken. During the wait, which lasted just over a month, I made the most of any free time to continue my research. I wanted to discover where a shipwreck like that might have come from. That was how I rediscovered the stories about Hyperborea I had been told when I was small.

One of the many old maps in which Hyperborea appears. In this it was believed that it was located in present-day Russia. The most widespread versión among ancient civilizations it that it was located on an island north or north-west Europe.

The more I read about the myths and legends surrounding the civilization, using wide ranging sources from Greek to Chinese, the more convinced I became that perhaps there was some truth to the legend. Everything seemed to fit: the time period, the approximate location... I knew my colleagues would call me crazy so I kept my theories to myself, but I was increasingly certain that Odin’s Keel might be none other than the remains of a Hyperborean boat.

But until we returned to the Niflheim Cave I couldn’t be sure. I just had to be patient and try to control my excitement even though I thought we might be looking at the greatest archaeological find in the history of humanity. That’s all for today, dear followers of Hyperborea Exists. I hope to resume my tale shortly as I’d like to finish it before submitting my research. As always, thank you for your on-going support.

Every story has a beginning VI

It’s been a while since my last update. It’s no excuse for keeping you hanging for so long, but things have picked up pace in the last few weeks. It looks like May will be the big month, when we will present our research to the commission and can request a grant to complete it. The final date is yet to be confirmed, but I’ll let you know as soon as I can. Once we’ve presented our work, along with the evidence that we’ve gathered over the years, I’ll finally be able to share everything with you. I can’t wait for you to join me on our journey of discovery. But before that, I’d like to continue the story of how all this began.

Main building of the NTNU complex

As I described in the last post of Hyperborea Exists, our expedition for Nordic Communications returned on 12 July 2000. We flew back from Iceland, leaving the Blue Sea behind where it would be moored for maintenance. We went to the NTNU in Trondheim, bringing the remains we had discovered with us in carefully sealed containers to prevent environmental contamination. As I explained earlier, there had only been a small microscope on board the Blue Sea. We hoped that our specialist colleagues at the NTNU would be able to unearth some clues about the type of wreck we had found and its age.

There were two particular samples that interested us: one was a strange metal and the other a type of reinforced wood that we had never seen before. Both contained rock and fossilized materials. We hoped to find some type of organic fossilized matter that could be used to run carbon dating tests and discover the precise age of the remains.

In case you aren’t aware, there are two main methods for discovering the age of a sample. The first is carbon-14 dating, which can only be used on organic compounds or the ones containing carbon. The second is potassium-argon dating, but unfortunately this is only useful in areas close to a volcanic eruption.

The NTNU laboratory set to work on the wood fragment we brought back from our expedition. First, it had to be treated. This is a highly complex and laborious process; great care must be taken to ensure the sample isn’t contaminated. The slightest error can change the results of a carbon dating test, invalidating it. We therefore took the utmost care to follow every protocol; the sample was in one piece and untampered when the carbon dating test was run.

If you would like to read more about carbon dating tests, here is a brief description from Wikipedia:

   “Radiocarbon dating is the most reliable isotope-based technique for determining the age of organic samples that are less than 60,000 years old. It is based on the law of exponential decay of radioactive isotopes. Carbon-14 isotope (14C) is continuously produced in the atmosphere as a result of nitrogen atoms being bombarded by cosmic neutrons. The isotope created is unstable and therefore spontaneously transmutes into nitrogen-14 (14N). The processes of generation and decay of 14C are practically balanced so that the isotope is homogeneously mixed with non-radioactive atoms among the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Photosynthesis incorporates the radioactive atoms into plants so that the proportion of 14C-12C in these plants is similar to that of the atmosphere. Animals ingest carbon from plants. When a living organism dies, no new 14C atoms are incorporated into the tissue and the isotope concentration starts to decrease as it converts into 14N by radioactive decay.

   The mass of isotope 14C in any species decays exponentially: 5,730 years after the death of a living being, the amount of 14C in its remains halves. Therefore, when the amount of radioactivity in an organic sample is measured, the amount of 14C still remaining in the material can be calculated. This information is used to determine the moment when the organism died. This is known as its ‘radiocarbon age’ or ‘14C’ age’ and is expressed in years BP (Before Present). This scale matches the number of years since the death of the sample up to 1950 in our calendar. This date was chosen as the reference year partly by agreement and also because in the second half of the 20th century, nuclear testing led to severe anomalies in relative concentration curves of radioactive isotopes in the atmosphere.

Infographic that explains the dating process by Carbon-14

 When the theoretical concentration of 14C was compared with wood samples with known ages via dendrochronology, the results were different from those expected. These differences were due to the fact that the concentration of radiocarbon in the atmosphere has also changed over time. Today it is possible to work out precisely (margin of error: 1-10 years) the evolution of 14C concentration over the past 15,000 years. Age estimates can therefore be corrected by comparing them with curves obtained by interpolating known data. The resulting age is known as the ‘calibrated age’ and is expressed in years Cal BP.”

While we waited for the results, we focused on the metal sample we had managed to extract from the remains. We were definitely dealing with an alloy that had never been found in any shipwreck or archaeological site before. We called various metal experts and they all agreed: it was entirely unknown. Further tests would be needed with a spectrometer to determine its exact composition. All we knew for sure was that it was a hard, resistant metal. The truth was that the more we tried to study the sample in depth, the more confused we became.

On one hand we were convinced that it must be truly ancient, between a thousand and two thousand years old. On the other, the metal was too complex. It couldn’t have been made using the technology available two thousand years ago. Not even with the techniques that existed a few centuries ago. We didn’t know what to think. Had we found the remains of an ancient Viking Drakkar, or something far more modern that had us barking up the wrong tree?

Carousel of samples for Carbon-14 dating.

Our hopes rested on the results of the carbon dating test. When the results came through, they left us reeling. As I explained above, carbon-14 dating is used to determine the age of organic substances that are up to 60,000 years old. It includes a specific error margin and a way of compensating for this error. Well, the problem with the results was that our sample appeared to be approximately 60,000 years old. It was at the limit of the analysable range. We asked them to repeat the test but laboratory confirmed that they it had already been run three times. There were no mistakes.

Was this one of the most important archaeological finds in history? The implications were mind-blowing. Or was it just a mistake? Or some kind of joke? One thing was certain. Our superiors at the NTNU were going to be highly sceptical of our findings. But I’ll share that part of the story with you in my next update. I’ll write again very soon.

Thanks again for your on-going support. We’re getting closer and closer to revealing the truth. All I ask is that you have a little more patience. I can’t wait to share all my material with you and I promise I will as soon as the time comes. Followers of Hyperborea Exists, I’ll be back soon.

Every story has a beginning V

Almost a month later, I’m back with the latest update in my series ‘Every story has a beginning’. As you can imagine, I’ve been working night and day gathering data for the project. Not long to go now! I’m also waiting for an appointment to visit the Norwegian government’s Science and Research Commission. That’s where we want to submit the results of our work. Hopefully we’ll win a grant and the institutional backing we need to take the final step. The step we’ve dreamed of taking for many years...

Marine sponge in the Cave of Niflheim, close to Odin's Keel.

But before we get onto that, I need to finish the story of how this adventure began. After our initial discovery, we managed to stop the Nordic Communications project while we documented the site where we found the remains.

We would have liked to stay there for longer, but the company put pressure on us to continue along the planned route. We marked the Niflheim Cave to ensure it was avoided when the underwater cable was laid. All our attempts to convince the NTNU that the discovery was of great importance fell on deaf ears. We were strictly ordered to finish the Nordic Communications project. However, they did say that the samples and data we had collected would be studied on our return. A decision would be made then about whether or not an expedition would be launched to study the remains.

On board we only had a basic microscope to examine the samples recovered from the Niflheim Cave.

Before leaving the zone we managed to recover small fragments of what we began to call Odin’s Keel. We didn’t have suitable equipment on board to study it in depth, only a small microscope. Even so, initial observations of these fragments fired our imaginations. Although we weren’t exactly sure how old they were, they appeared to be very, very old. What was more, we couldn’t determine their chemical composition. Odin’s Keel seemed to be made from a combination of an unknown metal and reinforced wood, the like of which we’d never seen before.

It’s hard to describe how frustrated Olve, Geir and I felt when we had to leave our discovery behind. By starting to work on it, we had exposed it to the changing conditions of the ocean and even if we could come back, there was no guarantee that the remains might not have deteriorated in the meantime. But we had no choice. We had to be patient, continue with the cabling tests and wait until we returned to the NTNU where the samples could be examined using better quality equipment. The carbon dating test was particularly important as it would determine the age of the remains.

We didn’t return until 12 July 2000, over a month after we had left. We returned filled with excitement at finally being able to research our great discovery properly. No one could have anticipated what the carbon dating test would reveal...

That’s all for today, I’ll continue soon but I’m afraid I have much to do. Thank you for your support and loyalty, as always.

Every story has a beginning IV

Yes, I’m still alive... Apologies for letting this blog lapse over the past few months but I promise I’ve had good reason. The summer campaign of 2011 exceeded all our expectations. Our dives near Jan Mayen revealed data and samples that have lent greater weight to our hypotheses. We’ve had to hide ourselves away for months while we gather together all the data, information and remains we’ll use in our report. We hope to submit it to the Scientific and Technological Commission of the Norwegian government in a few months’ time. If we succeed in convincing them and obtaining the funds we need, after many, many years we’ll finally be able to prove a long-held dream: that the Hyperborean civilization existed. But we mustn’t get ahead of ourselves. We have to tie up every loose end and submit the most persuasive argument possible. So please be patient. I’m afraid I can’t reveal anything specific here until we’ve submitted our work. Instead, what I’d like to do is continue my tale of how this adventure began, taking up the story from where I left off in May 2011. Volcanic fumarole located near the entrance to the Niflheim Cave. To recap, I was taking part in an expedition with my colleagues Geir Grønvoll and Olve Raaen that involved laying a submarine cable for Nordic Communications. During a dive by one of our submarine drones, Barracuda 1, we found something unusual in a mysterious underwater cave...

Barracuda 1 stirred up the sand on the cave floor, offering us a glimpse of something unbelievable. Olve, Geir and I were astounded. We thought we must be hallucinating. Sure enough, we could see something sticking out of the ocean floor. A long structure that was definitely not formed by nature. Obviously, we sounded the alarm and immediately contacted Nordic Communications and the NTNU. The images we sent were concrete evidence that we had discovered a submarine archaeological find that not only meant the cable should be rerouted but that here was something that deserved its own research project. Viking Drakkar render. We didn’t expect an immediate reply but managed to stop the project for a week to gather as much information as we could and gather samples using the Barracudas, whenever possible. Our aquatic robots weren’t really designed for this type of work, but Olve managed to adapt their pincers so that they could grab objects. He also made their structure lighter so that they could carry samples back up to the surface. Viking Drakkar illustration

During the first few days we created a work perimeter and began to clear the ocean floor of sand around the structure. This gave us a better idea of its size and scope. On the fourth day it was clear that the find was something similar to the keel of a ship. If we used our imaginations, it reminded us of a Viking Drakkar. But it had significant differences and, most surprisingly, it appeared to be older. But until we ran carbon dating tests it was impossible to know its actual age. At that point, we would never have dreamed what we were about to discover...

I’m afraid that’s all I have time for today. I hope I can share the next part of ‘Every story has a beginning’ with you shortly. Things are rushing forwards now but the hardest part of the work is already behind us. I’m exhausted but hugely excited. I get butterflies in my stomach every time I remember that any day now I’ll finally be submitting the results of my greatest research project. Remember, I’ve been working on this for almost twelve years now. Will it be accepted? Will it shake the very foundations of archaeology? Will they call me crazy? 

All I can do is wait to discover the answer to these questions... Until then, followers of Hyperborea Exists, thank you again for your constant support. There are now over six hundred of you following me on Facebook. Best wishes to you all.