Posted on 11/26/2003 6:19:59 PM PST by nwrep
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 (news - web sites) 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.
Research is continuing into the Latin writing on the map.
Another fav of mine --- where Ann Taylor was discovered :-)
Someone should notify the Viking Kittens...
"We come from the land of ice and snow..."
Columbus just had better PR.
LEIF ERIKSON DISCOVERED AMERICA!!!! ALAS, IT'S FINALLY PROVEN TRUE!!!
kAcknor Sez:
Aw crap!! Does this mean I'll have to change my business cards to read "Leif, Ohio"????
"bISovbejbe'DI' tImer" (When in doubt, surprise them.)
Please add me...
What modern city/town is this? What state, even? It's not entirely clear.
Have an old Vincent Price movie where he goes and lives with the monks, gets into their inks and papers, inserts a document, makes a second copy for himself, leaves the monks and goes to America with this huge land claim and seeks out a girl to play the role of the Baroness claiming the land.
He eventually gets caught but it was a great scenario.
This stuff is always interesting but I think they do not put enough effort into mapping "techniques", identifying the author.
The town is Fall River Massachusetts. Curiously, if you read the account of Torvald's journies, there is a description of a battle that took place with indians (c1000?) inside a bay, where a river flowed to the west from east. This is a fair description of the Quequechan River that flows from the Watuppa Pond to Mount Hope Bay in Fall River. My memory is a bit shakey on the story.
The local legend is that this skeleton was the crewman, (or was it Torvold himself who was killed?) who was killed by the indians.
The folks at the historical society poopoo this notion, and assert that it was a local indian.
But there's the descriptions that repeatedly describe the remnant of red hair.
I have some information in my library...maybe a photo...and a couple old histories that mention the skeleton. I'll look around.
I suppose the key is identifying the "armor" to something similar.
I grew up in the area, and the Saga descriptions of Torvold really seem to have been describing this particular area....from Newport RI north to Mount Hope Bay from Narragansett Bay. Sure are a lot of wild grapes! Gorged on them as a kid!
There's a nifty site for NEARA that's worth looking at.
ANCIENT PEMAQUID AND THE SKELETON IN ARMOR
(Reprinted from the NEARA Journal Volume XXXII, No. 1 Summer 1998) W. MEAD STAPLER
But the most exciting discovery had been made the very day I arrived.
Indian brave wearing copper and brass sheet and tube as described by Gosnold in 1602 and Pring in 1603 as living near Cape Cod Bay and Buzzard’s Bay.
Just southwest of the foundation wall of the tavern, and at a level below the sill stones, were discovered two burials. The level indicated that they had been interred before the tavern was built. The first was the typical Indian flex burial with the body in the fetal position, with the head to the north and facing east. The remains were so decomposed that the surrounding earth had later to be solidified with a resin and removed as a block. The adjacent burial was in a much better state of preservation. It was at about the same level but lying straight out on its back with the head to the north in a Christian type burial. The head, face up, was resting on a sheet of copper which in turn appeared to be resting on a pillow of decomposed fur. Another copper sheet, which had originally been approximately 12 inches wide by 18 inches long and apparently lined with fur, extended from the shoulder to the groin. Just beneath the chin were five rolled copper tubes, neatly stacked, and strung on a continuous strip of braided leather. Each tube was approximately 10 inches long and 3/8 inch in diameter. This was apparently worn as one long continuous necklace of copper tubes, end to end. A small piece of leather, about 5 by 8 inches, was found on the left side of the body, partially beneath the breast sheet of copper, beneath which in turn were many small disintegrated bones.
I'm trying to remember where I read that Columbus knew from old sailors that the earth was round and that he could reach land by sailing west. It also said that most educated people at the time believed it also.
Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on, off, or alter the "Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list --
Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
The GGG Digest -- Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)
Nah....not Hudson Bay. Everybody knows they came up Narragansett Bay, Mt Hope Bay, and landed in Fall River....which is why they left and never came back.
They got the map from the Chinese who sailed around the world ca 1421
mark
In order to verify the authenticity of this map, we need to ask the most trusted man in America, Dan Rather. He can spot a forgery right away, and if this map is a forgery, he'll break the story!!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.