Robert: Another piece of evidence, though not technically archaeological, that has been the subject of great debate in the 20th century is the Yale Vinland Map. This one also has a great many facts backed up by science pointing towards a hoax.  

The Yale Vinland Map

Yale announced its acquisition in 1965.

Claimed it to be a pre – Columbian map of the known world showing Viking adventures to North America.

3 renowned experts in medieval documents had assessed the map for Yale taking over 7 years to prepare their final work The Vinland Map and the Tartar Relation

This work argued that the Vinland Map was once bound with the Tartar Relation and the Speculum Historiale which are both authentic medieval texts; circa 1437 for use at a conference of the Roman Catholic Church.

However, Yale’s 3 scholars worked alone and did not consult outside experts.

As soon as the map was unveiled many questioned it authenticity.

Since then Yale has spearheaded intensive scientific study of the map which has put its authenticity in question.

Analyzing the Map

The Maps Caption

The caption on the map is probably the most discussed portion of the map and claims that the Viking adventurers reached American shores 100 years before Columbus. This claim is aligned with the history of the sagas.

The Latin text on the map notes that Leif Eriksson had a companion for the voyage by the name of Bjarni when he discovered Vinland, which is noted as running counter of the sagas by Norse scholar Kristen Seaver, and originated with a history of Greenland written in 1765.

Also, the Latin translation of Eriksson(“erissonius”) is pointed out as a red flag. A medieval scribe would like have used the separate word “filius” for “-sson.” The use of “-sonius” became common only after 1600.

Vinland

A large island with 2 deep bays.

To the right of the island a Latin label reads “Island of Vinland discovered by Bjarni and Leif in company.”

The Norse sagas tell of Vinland and its landscape but gives only a vague geographic description. The map is very detailed.

Also, it is puzzling why a medieval scribe would have singled out Vinland and not included the other areas noted in the sagas such as Helluland and Markland.

Greenland

The appearance of Greenland as an island troubled even the experts who helped “authenticate” the map for Yale in the 1960s.

Medieval Scandinavian accounts suggested that Greenland was not an island but the end of a peninsula stretching towards the artic north, as depicted in a map from 1427.

Arctic ice made sailing conditions along the northern coast impossible and the first circumnavigation of Greenland was completed around the turn of the 20^th century.

Also, the outline of Greenland on the map is curiously similar to modern map depictions of Greenland.

Handwriting

The Yale scholars in the 1960s that declared the maps authenticity claimed it was in the same handwriting as the tomes they were bound to. But others do not agree.

The Keeper of Manuscripts at the British Museum was shown the map in 1957 and rejected it in part because he thought the handwriting had a 19^th century look.

Several paleographers(experts in ancient writing) including the woman who catalogued the map and the other two texts for Yale in the 1980s point to differences in the handwriting of the map and its supposed companions.

Kristen Seaver noted similarities including a horizontally looped “d”  and a wavering tendency in both the maps writing and the hand of Father Josef Fischer(1858 – 1944) a Jesuit expert on medieval geography whom she considers to be the maps true author.

Atomic – Era Substance

Before the map could be dated a carbon – based coating either on the maps surface or embedded in its fabric had to be cleaned off.

The nature of the coating is unknown but clearly contains carbon dating to the mid – 20^th century.

It seems to have been deliberately applied to the parchment around the time of its surfacing in the 1950s.

This may have been just an attempt to conserve an authentic medieval map or it could be a sign of forgery.

If the forger used a 15^th century parchment then they would have scrubbed it clean of markings and prepared a smooth surface on which to draw, perhaps with this substance.

Yellow Brown Lines

In the 1970s, researchers at Walter McCrone and Associates, a firm specializing in chemical analysis, examined ultramicroscopic samples from yellowish lines found on the maps surface.

They identified crystals of the mineral anatase, specifically a form that was only manufactured around 1920.

In the 1980s physicist Thomas Cahill of the University of California  challenged the McCrone findings suggesting that the McCrone team mistakenly sampled paint that had fallen onto the inked lines of the map from a modern ceiling.

More recently, work using Raman probe spectroscopy has corroborated the McCrone discovery of the suspicious mineral crystals.

Off-Register Lines

The lines on the map appear yellow and worn and have flakes of black pigment on top.

This could be because the map was drawn with a single application of black ink, most of which flaked off leaving behind the stain of a binding agent.

It could also be a forger attempting to mimic the effect of aging.

Smithsonian scientist Kenneth Towe believes that this effect, specifically on the west coast of Great Britain on the map, points to evidence of the yellow – brown line drawn separately.

Those at the University of California, Davis who defend the maps authenticity counter that this is the only place on the map where the lines don’t match up and that it could be the mark of a medieval scribe retracing a sketchy line with fresh ink.

Even some skeptics of the map reject the idea of a “double – inking.”

Scandinavia

It seems odd that a map providing such intricate detail of Viking exploration depicts the Viking homeland so inaccurately.

The map depicts Norway as an immense peninsula stretching over the Baltic Sea and wrongly locates Sweden south of the Baltic.

Defenders of the map never claimed that the maps author was Scandinavian, but it has been suggested that the medieval scribe used Scandinavian and Venetian maps as references.

Page Fold

Whoever drew this map did everything they could to avoid drawing on the fold.

Geographic names are written on either side of the fold rather than crossing it, the Adriatic Sea is widened so that Greece and Italy lie to the sides of the fold and some European rivers appear re-routed as if to avoid it.

Knowing that the map would be folded, did a medieval scribe avoid marking this area? Or is this evidence that a modern map was drawn on old, used parchment long after the fold was made and the crease developed?

Black Ink

The black ink used on this map was different in composition then medieval black ink and even the black ink used to write the two tomes witch which this map is claimed to have been bound.

Iron-gall ink, such as was used in the medieval period, appear dark under UV light but this ink appears to glow.

The pigment is proven by Raman probe Spectroscopy to be carbon – based and unlike iron – based inks historians expect to see on medieval documents and maps.

Wormhole

Rare book collector Laurence Witten, who bought the map from an Italian dealer in 1957 was thrilled to find holes that lined up with holes in the front pages of the Speculum Historiale. A hole in the later pages of the Speculum, had a match in the front pages of the Tartar Relation. This evidence linked the map with the two documents.

The nine holes in the map do not appear to have been made by a drill and some go directly through lines of ink.

But skeptics point out that they are more near the center then the edges where a worm is more likely to have eaten.

River Tatartata

This name, like many geographic labels on the map, appears to have been copied from the first few pages of the Tartar Relation.

On the first page of this text two words, “tatar” and “tata” are next to one another and the punctuation that is supposed to separate them is missing.

The Vinland Map author may have mistook the two separate words as one and joined them together on the map.

Parchment Date

The parchment the map is drawn on is animal hide. Animal hide can be carbon dated.

Universtiy of Arizona researchers dated a sliver of parchment with no ink to within 11 years of 1434 in the time frame noted by the map’s defenders.

The test only proved that the parchment is medieval and not the ink.

A forger would have used old parchment to give the air of authenticity.

They may have even used parchment from the Speculum Historiale itself, which appears to have a section missing.