Expert Confirms Authenticity Of Vinland Map
Posted on: Saturday, 18 July 2009, 07:15 CDT
A Danish expert said on Friday that a 15th century Vinland Map, the first known map depicting part of America prior to Christopher Columbus’ arrival on the continent, is almost certainly authentic.
The map has been surrounded by controversy since its discovery in 1950, with many scholars suspecting it was merely part of a hoax intended to prove that Vikings were the first Europeans to land in North America (a claim confirmed by an archaeological find in 1960).
Doubts about the map remained even after carbon dating was established as a credible way of determining the age of an object.
"All the tests that we have done over the past five years -- on the materials and other aspects -- do not show any signs of forgery," said Rene Larsen, rector of the School of Conservation under the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, during an interview with Reuters.
The map shows both Greenland and a western Atlantic island "Vinilanda Insula," the Vinland of the Icelandic sagas, now linked by scholars to Newfoundland, Canada, where Norsemen under Leif Eriksson settled around AD 1000.
Larsen said his team studied the ink, writing, wormholes and parchment of the map, which is kept at Yale University. They found that wormholes caused by wood beetles were consistent with those in the books in which the map was bound, he said.
Allegations that the ink was too recent because it contained a substance known as anatase titanium dioxide could be disproved because other medieval maps have been found with the same substance, which is likely derived from sand used to dry wet ink.
American scholars have carbon dated the map to about 1440, about 50 years prior to Columbus’ discovery of the New World in 1492. Experts believe the map was created for a 1440 church council at Basel, Switzerland.
The Vinland Map is not a "Viking map", and does not change the historical understanding of who first sailed to North America. However, if authentic, it confirms the New World was known not only to Norseman but also to other Europeans at least 50 years prior to Columbus's arrival.
An American purchased the map from a Swiss dealer after the British Museum turned it down in 1957. Paul Mellon, a wealthy Yale alumni, later bought the map for the University, who published it in 1965 amid much fanfare.
The lack of proof of the map’s origin has inspired a great deal of controversy and intrigue. Indeed, details of the map’s whereabouts and how it came into the possession of the Swiss dealer after WWII remain a mystery.
Larsen presented his team's findings at an international cartographers' conference in Copenhagen, Denmark on Friday.
Image Courtesy Yale University
Source: redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports
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User Comments (9)
| 9. |
Posted by Frank on 07/24/2009, 00:57 With all the science I took. I didn't know that wormhole technology was inherent in beetles. |
| 8. |
Posted by Fail on 07/21/2009, 20:23 okay, first of all, it is spelt AnTarctica, and second of all, the Nordic people colonized Iceland, so Leif Ericson was actually of Nordic origin. It doesn't matter who discovered America first, whether it was Leif, Columbus or Africans, there were already people there when they arrived. The Indigenous Americans were the true "Discoverers" of the whole American landmass. |
| 7. |
Posted by Tickles on 07/21/2009, 17:53 Correction: Alumnus = the singular noun. Alumni is masculine plural. So no "a wealthy Yale alumni." |
| 6. |
Posted by bobyo on 07/21/2009, 17:49 that is very interesting |
| 5. |
Posted by Clara on 07/21/2009, 12:51 Tara, can you cite this? Eurocentric or not, I suspect modern historians no longer have any stake over the nationality of who were the first to reach the American continents over the Atlantic. |
| 4. |
Posted by Pzuzu on 07/21/2009, 12:13 Piri Reis maps was a fake... And maybe the vikings discovered the "new world"... but if you don´t use what you have discovered... And another thing, there are strong possibilities that africans could cross the Atlantic ocean and colonize south America... not only the asians trought the Bering Sea. |
| 3. |
Posted by Tara on 07/21/2009, 11:12 There is evidence that Africans sailed to America way before Europeans, and had even had friendly contact with the people living there. Oops, that messes with the Eurocentric view of the world... |
| 2. |
Posted by nitpicker on 07/21/2009, 10:23 If Leifur Eiriksson was born in Iceland, and as such was as Icelandic as anyone could be at that time. Why people keep saying he is Norse is beyond me, or they don't admit that Iceland existed at the time. |
| 1. |
Posted by nonsensai on 07/21/2009, 09:58 Also check out the Piri Rece maps of 1512 which are of arabic origin. If Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492 then how in 1512 does a complete and correct map of the world show up? Not only does this map include Anartica it also shows the land mass without miles of glacier above it. Nasa confirmed in the 90's while surveying the land mass with satellite that the map accurately shows mountain ranges hidden beneath. Both the Americas are correctly depicted. Columbus being the first to discover America is just silly. Mesoamericans were here the whole time. Apparently though that does not count? |
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