[RightWhale]

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.

[KellyAdmirer]

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.

[crystalk]

Very interesting Irish inscriptions about Christianity are atop mountains in central West Virginia.