Vinland Map: Fake or Real?

The Vinland map

The Vinland Map is a map showing Africa, Asia, Europe, Iceland, Greenland and, significantly, land labeled as Vinland, located to the southwest of Greenland.  If it is a real map, it not only supports the fact that the Vikings first sailed to North America, but it shows that the New World was known to other Europeans before Christopher Columbus sailed there.

The Vinland Map first appeared in 1957, three years before the Viking settlement of L’Anse aux Meadows was discovered in Newfoundland.  It was claimed to be a 15th Century map showing substantial Viking exploration of the world.  It was found bound along with a medieval text called the “Hystoria Tartarorum” or “Tartar Relation,” which has been proved to be an authentic work dating to 1440.  The Tartar Relation describes the history and manners of the Mongols and was prepared by a Franciscan scholar, Giovanni De Pian Del Carpini.

The parchment on which the Vinland Map was drawn has also been carbon dated to near the same age as the Tartar Relation.  However, controversy exists to this day as to whether the map itself is genuine.  It has no provenance.  It is not attributable to Carpini and no one knows who drew it.  Secondly, scientists have discovered trace amounts of anatase titanium dioxide in the ink on the map, and some claim that this is solely a 20th Century substance.  In addition, researchers question the actual content of the map, which they say they say tends to show that the map is dated significantly later than 1440, to at least the 17th Century.  Furthermore, the map, like the Tartar Relation, contains wormholes, but they do not match the wormholes found in the Tartar Relation, proving perhaps that the map had been inserted later.  Finally, the map appears to be comprised of two separate pieces of parchment glued together, which some scientists assert was the work of a forger.

In 2009, Dr. Rene Larsen, rector of the School of Conservation under the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, refuted all the findings that questioned the authenticity of the map.  At a July 2009 International Conference on the History of Cartography, he said that “[a]ll  the tests that we have done over the past five years – on the materials and other aspects – do not show any signs of forgery.”  At a minimum, Dr. Larsen, among other researchers, appears to have put the hypotheses relating to the ink and wormholes into serious question.  However, the controversy continues since Dr. Larsen’s report apparently failed to address many scientific claims that contradicted Larsen’s team’s analysis.

The map has been in Yale University’s possession since the early 1960s.  Yale authorities have not weighed in on the genuineness of the map, stating simply that they regard themselves “as the custodians of an extremely interesting and controversial document . . . and we watch the scholarly work on it with great interest.”

While no answer appears to be on the horizon, perhaps the most telling opinion as to the Vinland Map’s genuineness is its insurance value.  It has been set at $25,000,000.

Sources:
John Archer, “Vinland Map of America No Forgery, Expert Says”, http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE56G58320090717, July 17, 2009
Jessica Karpilo, “TheVinland Map:  15th Century Map Claims Early Scandinavian Exploration of North America”, http://geography.about.com/od/historicmaps/a/vinlandmap.htm, January 13, 2010
“Vinland Map”, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinland_map, last modified January 24, 2011

Didi is an attorney, specializing in litigation. She lives is in Connecticut but was born and raised in Iceland. She, like most Icelanders, traces her lineage to 9th century Iceland and is forever fascinated by the history of her people.

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