{"id":1635,"date":"2017-02-10T22:53:12","date_gmt":"2017-02-11T03:53:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/livesofmaps\/?p=1635"},"modified":"2017-02-10T22:53:12","modified_gmt":"2017-02-11T03:53:12","slug":"an-alternative-map-the-vinland-map","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/livesofmaps\/2017\/02\/10\/an-alternative-map-the-vinland-map\/","title":{"rendered":"An “Alternative Map”: The Vinland Map"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"vinland_map\"<\/a><\/p>\n

On the eve of Columbus Day, 1965, Yale University issued a statement that they possessed a map that disputed the agreed upon fact that Columbus discovered the New World. After this announcement, Yale received visits from many esteemed historians attempting to study the famous Vinland Map. Historians were enthusiastic about the new development of an authentic Viking map; the public\u2019s reaction, far less accepting. The Vinland Map challenged the core knowledge of many Americans\u2019 cultural heritage. Protests occurred and more attention was drawn to the map. As it turned out, more eyes didn\u2019t help. Instead, historians were torn between authenticating the map and decrying it as a fake. All the evidence pointed to the map being forged by someone in the 1950s.<\/p>\n

The Vinland map\u2019s heavily debated authenticity is something to focus on. How is it that a map, with glaring falsities\u2014like ink that was created in the post-Atomic era, and depictions of Greenland inconsistent with the beliefs at the time\u2014can still be considered real? To some extent, some blame must be placed on Yale historians: the map was carbon dated to around AD 1434, was bound in an anthology of verified Medieval documents that had been collected by the Catholic church, and the black ink followed the process of yellowing and browning like a document contemporary to the time would (McCulloch). Yale historians saw these markers as undeniable proof and left their analysis of the map at that. The Vinland map would be an amazing collector\u2019s item for Yale: the implications of this map were great enough, ground breaking enough, that despite the evidence against the map the context this map implied should be considered.
\nNot only are maps considered historical documents, their context regularly remains unquestioned. A map can be found of Jerusalem in the 1200\u2019s that is wildly inaccurate, however it will be taken at its face value. The biases that the mapmaker had go unquestioned because the creators of maps often remain invisible. This phenomenon of the invisible author remains true in modern maps as well\u2014historical maps simply have help write the history of a time period. A map like the Vinland map could very easily shift Viking history as we know it.
\nThe Vikings were a civilization built on maritime travel, but up until the discovery of the Vinland Map it had been assumed that their voyages were done without maps. The Vinland Map verified many things: the use of maps in Viking society, knowledge of America pre-Columbus by the Catholic Church, and settlements in North America almost a century before Columbus. The map was released on the eve of Columbus Day, a publicity stunt by the university, and effectively outraged both American and European citizens alike. Suddenly the world-wide pat on the back that Columbus received was unwarranted (not that it wasn\u2019t to begin with, but that\u2019s another story) and the Americans who traced their lineage back to Columbus\u2019 voyages felt somewhat lost on the importance of their heritage. This map questioned the identity many Americans found in Columbus\u2019 discovery. The Vinland map muddled the authenticity of Spain\u2019s discovery of the New World. Archaeologists questioned their findings in Scandinavia and historians took another look at the texts published on the Viking culture. Sooner, rather than later, archaeologists began new digs in Canada in an attempt to verify the settlement displayed on the map (Smithsonian Channel).
\nIf all maps are biased and do not fully show the reality of the time\u2014then what does a fake map show? As the years have passed more and more historical cartographers have labeled the map a \u2018clever forgery\u2019 (Goldstein). In 2008, Ohio State University published a 62-page paper that contained a majority of the evidence against the Vinland Map, and yet\u2026 The map continues to be cited to counter the argument of Columbus discovering the New World. Maps are used to interpret and help grasp the vastness of the world around us, in turn they are viewed as the reality. The Vinland Map quickly became the perceived reality of the 1430\u2019s. Without developing news covering the dismantling of the map\u2019s authenticity, the public continued to believe that the Vikings settled in American and the Roman Catholic church knew. Fake as the map was, it became part of their perception of history. As it turns out, even a fake map can impact history.<\/p>\n

Secrets? A Viking Map. Documentary. Directed by Kenton Vaughn. 2012. Smithsonian Channel.
\nGoldstein, Thomas E. Conceptual Patterns Underlying the Vinland Map, (19:4, 321-331). Renaissance News, 1966
\nMcCulloch, Huston. The Vinland Map\u2014Some \u201cFiner Points\u201d of the Debate. Ohio State University. March, 2005.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the eve of Columbus Day, 1965, Yale University issued a statement that they possessed a map that disputed the agreed upon fact that Columbus discovered the New World. After this announcement, Yale received visits from many esteemed historians attempting … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3239,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/livesofmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/livesofmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/livesofmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/livesofmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3239"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/livesofmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/livesofmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1635\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/livesofmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/livesofmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/livesofmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}