If the famous Vinland Map (pictured below) is an actual Viking map, and that’s a big if, it proves that Vikings discovered North America no later than the mid-1950s.
Acquired from an Italian dealer who went to prison for stealing rare manuscripts, and donated to Yale University by a wealthy philanthropist, the map depicts Greenland and a small portion of North American coastline drawn on 15th century parchment in black ink containing 20th-century pigments and nuclear testing fallout.
Norsemen definitely discovered North America a thousand years ago, and had a settlement on Newfoundland, but they didn’t use this map to get there. The parchment it’s drawn on didn’t exist until several centuries later.
It’s not known for sure who drew the map, although it’s possible to guess. Its provenance goes no further back than the thief, and a 15th century book he had access to is missing some parchment pages. The map material matches.
So, this map isn’t about how 15th-century Viking visualized the world’s seas and land masses. It’s about 20th-century money changing hands. It is, more than anything, a scholarly detective story. Read it here.
