Archaeological evidence exists to show that the Vikings established settlements on the Atlantic seaboard as early as the year 1000 CE. But in 1957, a document known as the Vinland Map of North America excited academics because at that time there was not yet conclusive proof of Norse or Viking settlement. The Vinland Map was verified in 1965 by Yale University and British Museum experts to be a map of North America dating to circa 1440 (note that is fifty years before Columbus discovered America). Almost immediately the authentication begat critics who decried the map as a forgery. Earlier this summer a Scottish amateur researcher claimed that by tracing the provenance of associated documents, he had proven the map was indeed forged. He believes that whomever created the Vinland Map copied bits of it from a 15th century mappa mundi known as the Atlante Nautico of 1436, attributed to Venetian sailor and cartographer Andrea Bianco. The latter map portrays the world more realistically than any medieval predecessors but still doesnt include Iceland, Greenland, or major landmasses west of the British Isles. The Vinland Map, however, shows these in suspiciously modern detail... Experts remain divided as to the Vinlands Map authenticity. dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2334633/Vinland-Map-Amateur-historian-proves-15th-century-map-showed-Vikings-discovered-America-Columbus-fake.html
Posted on: Mon, 09 Dec 2013 16:39:19 +0000
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