Artfuldodger
Senior Member
They had a talent for acquiring and working with metals, minerals, and gemstones. They were master iron workers, accomplished silversmiths, and creative jewelry makers who worked with silver, gold, bronze, carnelian, rock crystal, garnet, and colorful glass beads. The Vikings also made optical lenses from rock crystal, and may even have devised an ingenious navigational use for the Iceland spar variety of calcite and other transparent, birefringent crystals.
https://www.rockngem.com/minerals-of-the-vikings/
https://www.rockngem.com/minerals-of-the-vikings/