Posted on 11/26/2004 12:01:26 PM PST by blam
Viking map may rewrite US history
Agençe France-Presse
Friday, 26 November 2004
Experts are testing the map to see if it is really evidence for Vikings landing in the New World first, not Columbus (Image: Climate Monitoring & Diagnostics Lab) Danish experts will travel to the U.S. to study evidence that the Vikings landed in the New World five centuries before Columbus.
A controversial parchment said to be the oldest map of America could, if authentic, support the theory that the Vikings arrived first.
The map is said to date from 1434 and was found in 1957. Some people believe it is evidence that Vikings, who departed from Greenland around the year 1000, were the first to land in the Americas.
The document is of Vinland, the part of North America believed to be what is today the Canadian province of Newfoundland, and was supposedly discovered by the Viking Leif Eriksen, the son of Erik the Red.
Three researchers from the Danish Royal Library and School of Conservation hope that modern techniques developed in Denmark will be able to "shed more light on this document whose authenticity is questioned worldwide", said Rene Larsen, head of the School of Conservation in Copenhagen and the leader of the project.
The trio will on Monday begin their work on the map, which is kept at Yale University's Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library in Connecticut.
The three have been "authorised to, for two to three days, photograph, analyse with microscope and undertake various studies of the document and its ink, but not alter it", Larsen said.
He said the results of the study would be presented early next year.
The Vinland map, possibly the first map showing the New World, at Yale University's Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library (Image: Brookhaven National Lab/Yale University Press)
"We hope that the new techniques that we have developed in Denmark ... will help to better [date] the document and ink with which the map was drawn in order to lift the veil on its authenticity or counterfeit," he said.
The map was considered a sensation when it was found. Experts largely agree that the parchment dates from the 1400s, but by the 1970s some experts had begun arguing that the ink used contained materials that were only developed in the 20th century.
U.K. chemist Professor Robin Clark, from University College London, has meanwhile said he believed the document was a fake.
He based his conclusion on the work of another researcher, Dr Walter McCrone, who in the 1970s found that the ink contained a derivative of titanium dioxide, which did not exist until the 1920s, according to the journal Analytical Chemistry.
Just how does this affect the Viking Kitties, I wonder?hehe! Who knows for sure?
Just for grins (NOT a ZOT) .....
Viking Kittens - Led Zeppelin - Immigrant Song
Please let me know if you want ON or OFF my Viking Kitty/ZOT ping list!. . .don't be shy.
There is also information that a son of the first Prince of Wales traveled to America around 980-1000 AD and settled in the Mississippi delta area. There is even information that as the settlers moved west they came upon tribes of blue eyed blonde haired indians.
What about Prince Madoc and his people in 560 AD? What about the Ainus who around 10,000 BC?
I heard that the so-called Viking map is a fake. It was drawn by some Yale professor.
SO9
The titanium dioxide was in a thinner line drawn over fainter organic ink lines. Thus there is a possibility that the lines were drawn over again much later because the original ones were fading away. Also, some other maps, thought authentic, do contain titanium dioxide. Finally, there is good evidence that Chinese junks visited North America circa 1421.
Look, Gore was a clod, but this whole "I invented the Internet thing" never really happened. He said he took initiative in the creation of the Internet -- characteristic overstatement, but at least a little true in the sense that he played a leading role in passing the supercomputing bill. I mean, sure, there are all sorts of things to criticize him on -- his policy positions above all else -- but I just find the distortions annoying.
AH! Experience talking!
I know, I know...but it is a lot of fun to poke fun at Algore.
All kidding aside (and at the risk of falling further afoul of the topic at hand), here is Gore's actual quote: "During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet."
Source: http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/stories/1999/03/09/president.2000/transcript.gore/
Her highness - and don't you forget it.
Document needs authenticating? Quick, ask Dan Rather!
Thanks, I thought I'd read that too but, wasn't sure enough to post it myself.
Wow! I would love to find a map from 1434 in my attic.
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