15. The map, believed to be from the 19th century and showing the Vikings’ explorations in North America, turned out to be fake. The aforementioned situation was discovered by researchers at Yale University in the USA.
The map, showing the portion of the continent’s coastline called the “Vinlanda Insula”, had a great impact when it was revealed because it added weight to the idea that the Vikings came to North America before Christopher Columbus.
The map was scanned with high-tech tools:
Although Yale University, one of the respected educational institutions of the USA, took this map and made it public in 1965, suspicions that the map was fake still existed. In a recent study, researchers from Yale University scanned the map from top to bottom with high-tech tools called X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF) and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE).
Radiocarbon dating analysis of the parchment showed that it dates from 1400 to 1460 AD. This analysis was consistent with the findings of previous studies on the map. However, according to the new research, the ink used on the map was definitely not ancient.
The ink on the map is different from the ink found on the maps of the period.
Writers and cartographers of the Middle Ages; He used an ink made from ferrous sulfate and powdered oak nut. The ink found in the lines and text on the Vinland Map contained a lot of titanium rather than almost iron or sulfur.
Analyzing dozens of 15th-century manuscripts, the researchers found that they contained much lower levels of titanium and much higher levels of lead than those detected on the Vinland Map.
In addition, the titanium compound, which dominates the entire map, was first used in inks produced in the 1920s. Further analysis also revealed that the ink on the map was produced in Norway in 1923. “The Vinland Map is fake. There is no reasonable doubt about it. This new analysis should put an end to the debate,” said Raymond Clemens, curator of the Kniecke Rare Books Library at Yale University.
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