Study Says Medieval New World Map Is Real

This is a copy of the 'Vinland Map' as seen at
Yale University in New Haven, Conn., in this Feb. 13, 1996 file
photo. Experts dispute its authenticity. Two new studies
add fresh fuel to a decades-old debate about whether the parchment
map of the Vikings' travels to the New World, purportedly drawn by
a 15th century scribe, is authentic or a clever 20th century forgery.
Both studies were published independently in scholarly journals,
the researchers announced Monday, Nov. 24, 2003.
(AP Photo/Ho)

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - The latest scientific analysis of a disputed map of the medieval New World supports the theory that it was made 50 years before Christopher Columbus set sail.

The study examined the ink used to draw the Vinland Map, which belongs to Yale University. The map is valued at $20 million — if it is real and not a clever, modern-day forgery.

A study last summer said the ink on the parchment map was made in the 20th century.

But chemist Jacqueline Olin, a retired researcher with the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, said Tuesday her analysis shows the ink was made in medieval times.

"There is no evidence this is a forged titanium dioxide ink," said Olin, whose paper appears in the December issue of the journal Analytical Chemistry.

The authenticity of the map has been debated since the 1960s, when philanthropist Paul Mellon gave it to Yale. The university has not taken a position on its authenticity.

The map depicts the world, including the north Atlantic coast of North America. It includes text in medieval Latin and a legend that describes how "Leif Eiriksson," a Norseman, found the new land called Vinland around the year 1000.

Scholars have dated the map to around 1440. Some scholars have speculated that Columbus could have used the map to find the New World in 1492.

Last summer, Olin and other researchers announced that carbon-14 dating of the parchment showed it was made around 1434 — exactly the right time for the map to be genuine.

However, researchers from University College in London examined the ink on the map and announced last summer that it cannot be more than 500 years old.

Tests in the 1970s by Walter McCrone — who also had disputed the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin — found the ink contained anatase, a form of titanium dioxide that is common in inks made after 1920. Anatase is found in nature, but the crystals of anatase were too regular-shaped to have been natural, McCrone said.

Olin's study looked at various minerals found in the ink, including aluminum, copper and zinc. All these minerals, she said, would have been byproducts of the medieval ink manufacturing process.

Also, she said anatase also could have ended up in the ink because of the manufacturing process, and its crystal size and shape could have changed over time.

I went through the analysis from UW-GB and it pretty much kills the most fantastic claim for the Piri Reis Map -- that it depicts the true Antarctic landmass without the ice. I guess that means there were no extra-terrestrials or seafaring civilizations between 4,000 and 9,000 BC.

Even so, the map is an amazing piece of work.

Thanks for the follow-up. The site that I had put up earlier gives the credit to the Turkish admiral, Piri. Reis means admiral in Turkish. It also, as you know, says it was made from many different maps. Truly amazing.

That was most likely the Map of Piri Riis. ...which is a forgery.

That is the claim of some... but others with as much or more expertise disagree.

As with the Vinland map, the finding of Anatase by microscopist Walter C. McCrone was the start of the claims of "FAKE!" but many older manuscripts have now been found to contain Anatase... so, unless we agree that all those other manuscripts of known provenance are also frauds, the question of the authenticity of both the Vinland Map and the Piri Re'is map are back up in the air.

I recall reading one report on the Vinland Map where the author claimed to have found the source of the parchment... by matching worm holes... in the end pages of another manuscript... which, if true, would put IT back in the realm of fake.

The most intriguing evidence I have seen for Europeans in the New World prior to Columbus is the Latin American myths of Quetzalcoatl. They described him as having fair hair, fair skin, and a beard. He left them by embarking in a boat towards the East. When Cortez showed up many years later, many natives thought he was Quetzalcoatl.

Anothing thing that I find interesting is the decline of major civilizations in the New World a few hundred years prior to the Conquest. Archaeologist attribute the depopulation of sites in the Southwest to climate change. This is credible for the Europeans have recorded a mini Ice Age around the same time. What puzzles me about that theory is that civilizations throughout the Americas all declined or disappeared at around the same time. Even the mound cultures of the Southeastern Indians disappeared. I find this puzzling for they did not live as precarious an existence as the larger civilizations. The Southeastern civilizations could survive a climte change and still thrive, yet they did not. I believe, Europeans arrived several hundred years before Columbus and introduced diseases which helped bring down those civilizations.

Yeah, I'm eating a little crow right now. I should be more careful on forums like these.

Ink tests don't seem to be as reliable when authenticating documents since there seems to be a lot of disagreement among researchers. The parchment material seems to be the best thing to hang your hat on.

After doing a little refresher reading I'm willing to concede that the map is probably authentic. But there are inaccuracies in the map that would correspond to the limited knowledge of the western hemisphere at the time the map was assembled. It's an amazing map, just not as amazing as some of the UFO-crowd would have you believe.

Yeah, I'm eating a little crow right now. I should be more careful on forums like these.

It's been my experience that crow goes down better with a little white sauce...

I've learned to take anything that Walter C. McCrone had to say with a lot of salt... say, about about 100LBS. McCrone's claim to fame has been his "debunking" of the Vinland Map, his declaration of the Shroud of Turin as a "beautiful painting," and the exposing of the HItler Diaries. I believe that only the last stands up to scrutiny.

McCrone did claim that the Piri Re'is Map is a fraud... but did not publish any papers on the subject. Anatase was again the reason for his claim... ignoring the fact that anatase was only started to be used in modern inks in the mid 1930s... but the map had a known provenance of 1929 when it was found in a chest in the Palace of Topkapi, Turkey.

Just updating the GGG information, not sending a general distribution.

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