[MR] Fwd: [LSCo] Yahoo! News - Study Says Medieval New World Map Is Real

[Robyn Becker]

Greetings all!  I've been following this for years - wonder if we'll ever 
get a true answer to it?

Reyne


>From: Terese Scott <thyri at pressroom.com>
>To: Vinland_Vikings at yahoogroups.com,  Longship-Company at yahoogroups.com
>Subject: [LSCo] Yahoo! News - Study Says Medieval New World Map Is Real
>Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2003 21:43:16 -0500
>
>
>http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=1894&u=/ap/20031125/ap_on_sc/vinland_map&printer=1 
><http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=1894&u=/ap/20031125/ap_on_sc/vinland_map&printer=1>
>
>
>    Study Says Medieval New World Map Is Real
>
>Tue Nov 25, 3:13 PM ET
>
>
>/By DIANE SCARPONI, Associated Press Writer/
>
>NEW HAVEN, Conn. - The latest scientific analysis of a disputed map of the 
>medieval New World supports the theory that it was made 50 years before 
>Christopher Columbus set sail.
>
><http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/031125/480/wxs1o111251911>
>AP Photo 
><http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/031125/480/wxs1o111251911>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>The study examined the ink used to draw the Vinland Map, which belongs to 
>Yale University. The map is valued at $20 million -- if it is real and not 
>a clever, modern-day forgery.
>
>A study last summer said the ink on the parchment map was made in the 20th 
>century.
>
>But chemist Jacqueline Olin, a retired researcher with the Smithsonian 
>Institution (news 
><http://us.rd.yahoo.com/DailyNews/manual/*http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news?p=%22Smithsonian%20Institution%22&c=&n=20&yn=c&c=news&cs=nw> 
>- web sites 
><http://us.rd.yahoo.com/DailyNews/manual/*http://search.yahoo.com/bin/search?cs=nw&p=Smithsonian%20Institution>) 
>in Washington, said Tuesday her analysis shows the ink was made in medieval 
>times.
>
>"There is no evidence this is a forged titanium dioxide ink," said Olin, 
>whose paper appears in the December issue of the journal Analytical 
>Chemistry.
>
>The authenticity of the map has been debated since the 1960s, when 
>philanthropist Paul Mellon gave it to Yale. The university has not taken a 
>position on its authenticity.
>
>The map depicts the world, including the north Atlantic coast of North 
>America. It includes text in medieval Latin and a legend that describes how 
>"Leif Eiriksson," a Norseman, found the new land called Vinland around the 
>year 1000.
>
>Scholars have dated the map to around 1440. Some scholars have speculated 
>that Columbus could have used the map to find the New World in 1492.
>
>Last summer, Olin and other researchers announced that carbon-14 dating of 
>the parchment showed it was made around 1434 -- exactly the right time for 
>the map to be genuine.
>
>However, researchers from University College in London examined the ink on 
>the map and announced last summer that it cannot be more than 500 years 
>old.
>
>Tests in the 1970s by Walter McCrone -- who also had disputed the 
>authenticity of the Shroud of Turin -- found the ink contained anatase, a 
>form of titanium dioxide that is common in inks made after 1920. Anatase is 
>found in nature, but the crystals of anatase were too regular-shaped to 
>have been natural, McCrone said.
>
>Olin's study looked at various minerals found in the ink, including 
>aluminum, copper and zinc. All these minerals, she said, would have been 
>byproducts of the medieval ink manufacturing process.
>
>Also, she said anatase also could have ended up in the ink because of the 
>manufacturing process, and its crystal size and shape could have changed 
>over time.
>
>Research is continuing into the Latin writing on the map.
>
>


Never trust a neat Artisan...
In memory of Kevin Tod Smith, 'Ares', 1963-2002
Gone, but never forgotten.

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