MAP IS BACK: A Danish researcher suggests that the Vinland Map, possibly the first depiction of North America, is authentic after all, but experts are still not convinced -- YALE UNIVERSITY
Posted on 07/23/2009 4:35:39 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
A Danish art conservator claims that the controversial Vinland Map of America, published prior to Christopher Columbus's landfall, may not be a forgery after all.
"We have so far found no reason to believe that the Vinland Map is the result of a modern forgery," says Renè Larsen of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. Reuters first publicized his results last week but provided none of the skepticism being voiced by veterans in the field.
The map mysteriously emerged in a Geneva bookshop in 1957 depicting a "new" and "fertile" land to the west that Viking explorer Leif Eriksson had christened Vinland. Eriksson's 11th-century voyages to Newfoundland are well-known today, but they were thought to be unknown to 15th-century Europeans. The Vinland map could represent the earliest cartographic record of North America and prove that Europeans were aware of the continent prior to Columbus's voyage.
But scientific experts have bickered over the map's authenticity since the 1970s, as described in a 2004 Scientific American article. The map's parchment dates to circa 1434, but scientists say that the underlying yellow-brown ink has a chemical component, anatase, that indicates a 20th-century origin.
(Excerpt) Read more at scientificamerican.com ...
MAP IS BACK: A Danish researcher suggests that the Vinland Map, possibly the first depiction of North America, is authentic after all, but experts are still not convinced -- YALE UNIVERSITY
|
|
|||
Gods |
To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. |
||
|
· Discover · Nat Geographic · Texas AM Anthro News · Yahoo Anthro & Archaeo · Google · · The Archaeology Channel · Excerpt, or Link only? · cgk's list of ping lists · |
|||
Anatase didn’t exist in the 15th century??
I doubt this will ever be settled.
I recall a nineties book about humanity’s use of salt.
It mentioned that Europe was eating salted cod for about century after European waters had run out.
There was also a mention of merchants writing an angry letter to Columbus decrying his claim to have discovered the New World when it had been under-the-radar knowledge among fishermen and whalers for decades.
I’ve seen other maps from earlier periods, and were amazed how they were able to draw them without overhead views (satellites), but this looks too accurate for that time period.
I thought it was proven to be a “forgery” made by a priest from some vellum he cut out of an old book and given to a friend as a gift who knew what it was. I think the priest was an antiquarian or historian and his friend a collector. I think the priest just wanted to “try his hand” and, considering the ongoing controversy, he exceeded his ambitions.
It'll go on and on like the Turin thing, the Ark..... I swear these guys go in the back room and decide who is going to be the antagonist.
Maps have secrets. It takes a massive amount of information to draw what appears to be...A Simple Map".
So somebody traced over it. Eriksson made it this far. Don't know why a map would be farfetched.
I’m inclined to think it’s bogus, but this Dane is keeping the controversy alive.
When it was initially publicly known, it was widely believed to be the real deal. There are however those who refuse to accept things (largely as a matter of personal whim) and will saddle on anything that seems to tear down their bugbears. :’) The RCC in Rome recognized a Bishop of Vinland (as some of the navigationists have pointed out over the decades), so a surviving map shouldn’t be that big a surprise. (’:
No one has proven anything about it, any more than anyone has proven that Schliemann faked the so-called Mask of Agamemnon, or that Evans faked that cool ivory statuette. One allegation is that part of the drawn image is older than the “map” images.
To me, it doesn’t look particularly more accurate than other medieval maps.
Can't argue with that headline.
:’)
The anatase question was raised by a lone researcher and map skeptic (iow, a true believer), I think he’s now deceased. Even at that time, in his specialty, he was nearly alone in his belief that anatase had never been made before recent times, which is not the same thing as thinking that it never been *purposefully* made, or *discovered*, or made with a modern knowledge of chemistry. :’)
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.
