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Researchers believe they may have in their possession a fabled Viking “sunstone” — an fabled device which let the ancient mariners navigate the ocean.

The honed crystal was found in a wreck in the English Channel 30 years ago, but was only recently tested by a team of scientists at the University of Rennes in France. This came after earlier research that suggested sunstones were in fact Icelandic Spars, a unique form of transparent calcite which can double refract light.

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It was with that discovery that the team realized the small spar found in the wreck could have been the mythic navigation tool.

The scientists tested the cigarette-pack-sized crystal to show that it can be rotated to pinpoint where the two beams of light moving through it diverge, which in turn can be used to locate the sun even on cloudy days.

“A precision of a few degrees could be reached” even when the sun was below the horizon, Dr. Guy Ropars, one of the scientists working on the project, told The Daily Telegraph.