Vinland Map of America no forgery, expert says
Jul 18th, 2009
From Reuters: Vinland Map of America no forgery, expert says.
The 15th century Vinland Map, the first known map to show part of America before explorer Christopher Columbus landed on the continent, is almost certainly genuine, a Danish expert said Friday.
Controversy has swirled around the map since it came to light in the 1950s, many scholars suspecting it was a hoax meant to prove that Vikings were the first Europeans to land in North America — a claim confirmed by a 1960 archaeological find. [continue]
But if it is genuine, it shows that the New World was known not only to Norsemen but also to other Europeans at least half a century before Columbus’s voyage.
Can’t say this would surprise me. I don’t really understand Columbus’ game plan, but it’s always struck me that Cabot, in making a bee line for Newfoundland five years later, rather than heading in the same direction as Columbus, probably knew exactly where he was going. I read somewhere that the Basques had been fishing code on the Grand Banks since the 1440s. What are the odds that nobody had made landfall in all that time?
“Fishing cod”, even.