One of the myths that was born in the second half of the last century and passed into the present century is the so-called Vinland map. This geographic map shows the outline of North America, taken half a century before the voyage of Christopher Columbus's caravels. A certain part of the scientific community stubbornly refuses to recognize its authenticity. Actually, what's the difference? After all, his merits cannot be taken away!
The map, which is a piece of yellowed parchment measuring 28 × 41 centimeters, depicts the coast of North America, two straits that look like the Hudson and St. Lawrence bays. Near Africa, Asia and Europe in the North Atlantic are the three islands Isolanda Ibernica (Iceland), Grouelanda (Greenland) and Vinland (Vinland) and the Latin inscription Vinilanda Insula a Byarno reperta et leipho sociis (“Vinland Island, discovered by the satellites Bjarni and Leife”).
The Latin text in the upper left corner says that by the will of the Lord and after a long journey, making his way through the ice to the south from the island of Greenland to other dangerous regions of the western ocean, companions Bjarni and Leif Ericsson discovered a new and very fertile, namely, rich in grapes the land they named Vinland. Henryk (Henricus or Eric), Bishop of the Holy See of Greenland and neighboring countries, went to this spacious and very rich country, humbly fulfilling the higher will of Paschalia, who became our holy father last year, and remained there in the name of the Almighty Lord for a long time like summer. so in the winter, and then returned back to Greenland.
In accordance with this text, the two Scandinavian navigators Bjarni and Leif made their discovery in 999, that is, 493 years before the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus, who, setting off on his journey, could well use this map. The content of the map text is remarkably consistent with the Icelandic sagas and other sources. So, in many Icelandic chronicles it is reported that in 1121 the Bishop of Greenland, Eric went to Vinland. Noteworthy is also the reference to the Pope. The pontificate of Paschalia II fell on the period from August 13, 1099 to January 21, 1118.
In 1957, a bookseller from Barcelona put up for sale along with this map a late medieval copy of the Historia Tartaorum, A History of the Tatars, written by Franciscan missionary monk Johann de Plano Carpini, who visited Mongolia in 1245-1247. Connecticut-based American antique dealer Lawrence Witten purchased the map and book for $ 3,500.
Perhaps thanks to a fund of 250 thousand dollars, in 1959 an anonymous philanthropist acquired the Winland map. Subsequently, it turned out that he was a Yale University graduate, American businessman, philanthropist and patron of art Paul Mellon. Born June 11, 1907, the entrepreneur was not only the deputy editor-in-chief of the oldest student newspaper in the United States, the Yale Daily News, but also a member of the famous secret society Scroll and Key.
He recruited specialists from the British Museum to study the map, but until 1965 the existence of the map was not advertised. However, later, over the next decades, when the general public learned about the card, the debate about its authenticity did not subside. In 1995, she was insured for US $ 25 million.
Vinland's map has been extensively analyzed. Particles of one of the forms of titanium dioxide, a rare mineral anatase, were found in the ink of the map. Some experts felt that anatase should not be present in carbon based inks. Researcher Jacqueline Olin has shown that anatase could have formed from the titanium-containing mineral ilmenite. This iron-titanium mineral was used in the Middle Ages to obtain ferrous sulfate, a raw material for the production of paints.
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Speaking at the XXIII International Conference on the History of Cartography in Copenhagen, the rector of the School of Conservation at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Dr. René Larsen, stated that anatase may have been present in the sand that was sprinkled with handwritten text in the old days so that it dries faster.
Larsen said that in five years of his research work, he and his colleagues have found no trace of a forgery of the Vinland map. Having carefully studied the Vinland map and the book "History of the Tatars" by Plano Carpini, with which it was sold, he discovered that the smallest holes in the parchment made by tree beetles are identical to the holes in the pages of the book. Consequently, both documents were kept together for a very long time. In this case, the Vinland map is not a forgery made at the beginning of the last century.
Suppose scientists will someday be able to prove the authenticity of the Vinland map, but they still cannot take away the laurels of America's discoverer from Columbus. Despite the authenticity of the presence of the Vikings, led by Leif Erickson, in North America in the 10th century, their discovery did not play any decisive role either in the life of Europeans or the indigenous population of the New World.
Igor Bukker