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"Vinland Map" Parchment Predates Columbus's Arrival In North America
ScienceDaily ^ | 7/30/2002 | Smithsonian Institution

Posted on 07/30/2002 11:11:50 AM PDT by sourcery

Scientists from the University of Arizona, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory, and the Smithsonian Institution have used carbon-dating technology to determine the age of a controversial parchment that might be the first-ever map of North America. In a paper to be published in the July 2002 issue of the journal Radiocarbon, the scientists conclude that the so-called “Vinland Map” parchment dates to approximately 1434 A.D., or nearly 60 years before Christopher Columbus set foot in the West Indies. “Many scholars have agreed that if the Vinland Map is authentic, it is the first known cartographic representation of North America, and its date would be key in establishing the history of European knowledge of the lands bordering the western Atlantic Ocean,” said chemist Garman Harbottle, the lead Brookhaven researcher on the project. “If it is, in fact, a forgery, then the forger was surely one of the most skillful criminals ever to pursue that line of work.”

Housed in Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, the map shows Europe (including Scandinavia), Northern Africa, Asia and the Far East, all of which were known by 15th-century travelers. In the northwest Atlantic Ocean, however, it also shows the “Island of Vinland,” which has been taken to represent an unknown part of present-day Labrador, Newfoundland, or Baffin Island. Text on the map reads, in part, “By God's will, after a long voyage from the island of Greenland to the south toward the most distant remaining parts of the western ocean sea, sailing southward amidst the ice, the companions Bjarni and Leif Eiriksson discovered a new land, extremely fertile and even having vines, ... which island they named Vinland.”

The map, drawn in ink and measuring 27.8 x 41.0 centimeters, surfaced in Europe in the mid-1950s, but had no distinct record of prior ownership or provenance in any famous library. The map and the accompanying “Tartar Relation,” a manuscript of undoubted authenticity that was at some point bound with the Vinland Map in book form, were purchased in 1958 for $1 million by Paul A. Mellon, known for his many important gifts to Yale, and, at Mellon's request, subjected to an exhaustive six-year investigation.

In 1965 the Yale University Press published “The Vinland Map and the Tartar Relation,” a detailed study by R.A. Skelton, T. E. Marston and G. D. Painter that firmly argued for the map’s authenticity, connecting it with the Catholic Church’s Council of Basel (A.D. 1431-1449), which was convened a half-century before Columbus’s voyage. Two scientific conferences, in 1966 and 1996, featured strong debates over the map’s authenticity, but no final determination could be made based on the available facts.

Beginning in 1995, Harbottle, along with Douglas J. Donahue, University of Arizona, and Jacqueline S. Olin, Smithsonian Center for Materials Research and Education, undertook a detailed scientific study of the parchment. The scientists traveled to Yale, where they were allowed to trim a 3-inch-long sliver off the bottom edge of the parchment for analysis. Using the National Science Foundation-University of Arizona’s Accelerator Mass Spectrometer, the scientists determined a precision date of 1434 A.D. plus or minus 11 years. The unusually high precision of the date was possible because the parchment’s date fell in a very favorable region of the carbon-14 dating calibration curve. This new analysis of the map parchment reaffirms the association with the Council of Basel since it dates exactly to that time period, and makes a strong case for the map’s authenticity.

Several previous studies challenging the map’s authenticity have focused on the chemical composition of the ink used to draw it. Some initial work found anatase, a particular form of titanium dioxide, in the ink. Since anatase only went into commercial production in the 20th century, some concluded that the ink was also a 20th-century product, making the map a forgery. Recent testing, however, only revealed trace quantities of titanium, whose presence may be a result of contamination, the chemical deterioration of the ink over the centuries, or may even have been present naturally in the ink used in medieval times. Another recent study detected carbon, which has also has been presented as evidence of a forgery. However, carbon can also be found in medieval ink. Current carbon-dating technology does not permit the dating of samples as small as the actual ink lines on the map.

“While the date result itself cannot prove that the map is authentic, it is an important piece of new evidence that must be considered by those who argue that the map is a forgery and without cartographic merit,” said Harbottle.

Editor's Note: The original news release can be found at http://www.bnl.gov/bnlweb/pubaf/pr/2002/bnlpr072902a.htm


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: baffinisland; godsgravesglyphs; thevikings; vikings
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1 posted on 07/30/2002 11:11:50 AM PDT by sourcery
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To: sourcery
I thought I just read an article the other day proclaiming, at long last, the vinland map a clever fake.
2 posted on 07/30/2002 11:21:25 AM PDT by Texas_Jarhead
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To: Texas_Jarhead
I remember watching an "In Search Of..." episode where they said it was forged by a 20th Century priest who had an affinity for ancient maps. I forget his name now, though.
3 posted on 07/30/2002 11:26:04 AM PDT by Notforprophet
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To: Texas_Jarhead
Yes, you did. The main reason I posted this was because I had also seen the same article, and thought it would therefore be relevant to post a contrary opinion. Given the facts presented, and the reputations of the sources, I tend to favor the 'map is authentic' theory.
4 posted on 07/30/2002 11:26:49 AM PDT by sourcery
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To: crystalk
Another interesting article I thought you'd like to see.
5 posted on 07/30/2002 11:30:58 AM PDT by Free Trapper
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To: sourcery
Couldn't the parchment be old, but the map a forgery?
6 posted on 07/30/2002 11:43:07 AM PDT by billybudd
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To: sourcery
Now they need to officially admit that the so-called Newport Tower in Rhode Island is the cylindrical inner portion of an octagonal Norse church modeled after the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, an almost exact copy of a church in Cambridge, England, built about 1076.

These Norsemen were very devout Catholics, like Columbus. This was long before Garrison's Lutheran church suppers, with all that gooey Campbell's Mushroom soup holding everything together.

Sic transit gloria.

7 posted on 07/30/2002 11:48:48 AM PDT by crystalk
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Comment #8 Removed by Moderator

To: sourcery
Maybe so, Irish monks did a fair amount of scouting around long before that.

An interesting map-related factoid is that an early map, taken to be Ptolomaic, shows Cuba, and seems to be a redrawing of a much older map but done with no knowledge of map projections. The older map would have been a polar projection centered on Egypt, and would have possibly been before Phoenicians. Lot of maybes, but something is going on.

9 posted on 07/30/2002 11:56:57 AM PDT by RightWhale
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To: sourcery
So...Sven and Ole discovered America ?
10 posted on 07/30/2002 11:57:22 AM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks
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To: vannrox; blam
fyi
11 posted on 07/30/2002 12:00:51 PM PDT by Free the USA
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To: RightWhale
This map sounds pretty primitive. Now, if you want a real mystery, look up the Piri Reiss map from the middle ages that shows mountain ranges, ocean troughs and other features not discovered until the 1950s.

One odd fact about this Vinland map, though, if it is genuine, is that it would be the only clear connection between America and the Roman Empire, which gave its last gasp at the Council of Basel.

12 posted on 07/30/2002 12:12:40 PM PDT by KellyAdmirer
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To: billybudd
That's the usual method to fake an old document. Ink is harder because ink oxidizes over the years. Old ink isn't enough.
13 posted on 07/30/2002 12:14:37 PM PDT by Doctor Stochastic
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To: KellyAdmirer
The Piri Re'is map shows what appear to be land features in Antarctica. Pretty good for a Turkish Admiral 500 years ago.
14 posted on 07/30/2002 12:14:37 PM PDT by RightWhale
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To: crystalk
Newport Tower

They know it is Viking, but was there originally more to it? It might be nothing more than a tower, a lookout.

15 posted on 07/30/2002 12:17:47 PM PDT by RightWhale
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To: sourcery
The Vinland map shows Greenland as an island.
A fact not known until comparatively modern times.
16 posted on 07/30/2002 12:19:10 PM PDT by curmudgeonII
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To: sourcery
It's high time that we rename this country "The United States of Vinland" ("USV") and celebrate "Eiriksson Day" with a National Holiday dedicated to the drinking of mass quantities of domestic sparkling wine.
17 posted on 07/30/2002 12:26:10 PM PDT by ravinson
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To: sourcery
“Island of Vinland,” which has been taken to represent an unknown part of present-day Labrador, Newfoundland, or Baffin Island. Text on the map reads, in part, “By God's will, after a long voyage from the island of Greenland to the south toward the most distant remaining parts of the western ocean sea, sailing southward amidst the ice, the companions Bjarni and Leif Eiriksson discovered a new land, extremely fertile and even having vines, ... which island they named Vinland.

Seems that things around the world were were a bit warmer, must have been the CO2 emissions from all those Viking Long Boats.

18 posted on 07/30/2002 1:02:15 PM PDT by Mike Darancette
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To: sourcery
Study: New World Map A Forgery See post #28, lol.
19 posted on 07/30/2002 1:03:46 PM PDT by blam
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To: Notforprophet
It was the man who was always looking for the map and finally found it. Their argument was that the writing was like his and that the spacing of the lines was exactly what he used in putting lined paper behind his writing paper (apparently not done in earlier ages).

The map may be a fake. I don't know how reliable carbon dating or any "tests" are. Dow scientists made me very sceptical about tests. However, the enduring mystery is ancient maps that require accurate time pieces not yet invented...or were they? Ancient technology fascinates me. I believe unexplained technology is from the pre-Flood age, some of it existing into modern times but collapsing as man returned to barbarism.

Anyway, it's a better explanation than men from Mars.
20 posted on 07/30/2002 1:16:46 PM PDT by Chemnitz
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