Viking map, may re-write US history

I found this article in various forms on over 6 different news sites and achealogical news sites. We are always finding out more and more about the past of our ancestors and the races that once travelled the lands we all call home. I especially like this article as the Viking people were know for their exceptional seamanship and it sounds entirely plausible that the information I have found (read below) may be true. It would be a great help if any members online tonight who have a knowledge symbolism and past US history could give me their balanced views on this, as I believe if this story is to be believed then there must be some trace either archeological or linked symbolism which would point to Vikings having been in the US.
Enjoy

Danish experts will travel to the U.S. to study evidence that the Vikings landed in the New World five centuries before Columbus.

A controversial parchment said to be the oldest map of America could, if authentic, support the theory that the Vikings arrived first.

The map is said to date from 1434 and was found in 1957. Some people believe it is evidence that Vikings, who departed from Greenland around the year 1000, were the first to land in the Americas.

The document is of Vinland, the part of North America believed to be what is today the Canadian province of Newfoundland, and was supposedly discovered by the Viking Leif Eriksen, the son of Erik the Red.

Three researchers from the Danish Royal Library and School of Conservation hope that modern techniques developed in Denmark will be able to "shed more light on this document whose authenticity is questioned worldwide", said Rene Larsen, head of the School of Conservation in Copenhagen and the leader of the project.

The trio will on Monday begin their work on the map, which is kept at Yale University's Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library in Connecticut.

The three have been "authorised to, for two to three days, photograph, analyse with microscope and undertake various studies of the document and its ink, but not alter it", Larsen said.

He said the results of the study would be presented early next year.

"We hope that the new techniques that we have developed in Denmark ... will help to better [date] the document and ink with which the map was drawn in order to lift the veil on its authenticity or counterfeit," he said.

The map was considered a sensation when it was found. Experts largely agree that the parchment dates from the 1400s, but by the 1970s some experts had begun arguing that the ink used contained materials that were only developed in the 20th century.

U.K. chemist Professor Robin Clark, from University College London, has meanwhile said he believed the document was a fake.

He based his conclusion on the work of another researcher, Dr Walter McCrone, who in the 1970s found that the ink contained a derivative of titanium dioxide, which did not exist until the 1920s, according to the journal Analytical Chemistry.

Any help here is much appreciated

This is already very well known information. I suggest you read up on Eric the REd and his son Leif Erickson. We already know the Vikings arrived first because Columbus went to Iceland to study the Viking explorations.

I believe that the theory is that the Vikings came to North America almost 1000 years ago. What I've been wondering is "How long did they stay"?

Originally posted by intrepid
I believe that the theory is that the Vikings came to North America almost 1000 years ago. What I've been wondering is "How long did they stay"?

It's very possible that more than a few Vikings never left North America but that they intermarried with the Native Americans who lived here. There have been discoveries of Viking artifacts up and down the New England coast as well as Maritime Canada. Some people believe the Maine Coon cat first arrived on Viking ships. Interesting stuff!

~Smile
www.tmgray.tk

Here's a good website that explains more about the map AND also has a section on the controversy, including links to some of the papers and news reports:
www.isidore-of-seville.com...

I remember reading something about this, because the presence of "titanium dioxide" (a name that no artist will forget! (it's the name of the white paint we use)) caught my attention. Hopefully this will resolve things, but the conditions under which the map was found (turned up in 1965-ish out of nowhere) make it terribly suspicious.

(that said, I'm perfectly willing to believe that Vikings did hit the shores of North America back in the 1100's and occasionally might have intermarried with the Eskimo folk or more southern tribes. I don't think there's any solid proof yet, but I don't think it's "beyond the pale.")

If memory serves, Newfoundland was actually Markland, the land of wood. Vinland is reputed to be either Nova Scotia or Massachusetts. One of the stories about Vinland features Leif Eriksson's men finding what they described as "grapes" (they must've been berries, actually).

I also remember seeing a program (on the Discovery channel, I believe) where researchers found that a stone tower in New England believed to date back to the 17th century could actually be the remains of a Viking church.

I'm citing all this from memory, however. I'll look it up on the net.

The Vikings traveled to NewFoundland, not North American mainland. This has been known for ages and will not re-write american history... they would probally be too lazy too do it anyway and deny it.

Thanks for all the usefull links and advice guysthis helped paint a clearer picture in my head f event surrounding viking travels and possible landing and artifacts:>

the vikings did not get here first the indians did they were the first ones here.

The Native Indians were born there, they didn't travel there; we are on about traveling.

You may find this interesting.
www.pc.gc.ca...

I clearly remember seeing a program in History channel about this. According to them the vikings did come to North America, they came to NewFoundland and stayed for couple of years and left. I don't think they migrated inward.

But I thought this was already history.

Surf

Does anyone have the knowledge to comment on this little suggestion I remember seeing on TV at some point?
The Vatican supposedly has some sort of records from the Vikings which indicate the Vinland colony was up to 10 times the size that historians generally believe it was.

Would the church actually have a census or other such records, would they be likely to still exist, and would the increased size of the colony be seen as significant in historical terms?

Here in Sweden we learn about this in school when we are about 7 years old, so i known this for the past 20 years now, its nothing new, The Vikings did travel alot all over the world including Africa.

Originally posted by The Vagabond
The Vatican supposedly has some sort of records from the Vikings which indicate the Vinland colony was up to 10 times the size that historians generally believe it was.

Would the church actually have a census or other such records, would they be likely to still exist, and would the increased size of the colony be seen as significant in historical terms?

I don't remember hearing this before.

Why would they church want to censor this find? Vikings occupied a very small time frame in our history.

Even if these records exist, it does no good other than giving credit to the vikings. Why would the church want to deny that? As far as I know the church got nothing to loose, in fact saying they have something like this only increases their popularity. (Well Maybe)

Surf

Well, don't know if this map is phony or not. Doesn't change the fact the Scandinavians were here long before Columbus. Tribes of blondes were here long before him. Check out these links to Votan and Wotan. If you study Scandinavia deeply enough (Hitler didn't), you find moccasins and tipis in Finland. I know Innuit guys named Thorvaldssen, the two peoples intermarry to this day.

I used to sail small boats. The places I've been are stories that have never been published, and I didn't leave any artifacts. Vikings and Mexicans and cavemen all had boats as capable or bigger. Our ancestors, of all colors, were great seafarers, and they lived by a code we have all but forgotten: FREEDOM. They went wherever the wind and their wills would take them.

To get an idea of what is possible, check out Joshua Slocum, the 'first man to sail singlehanded around the world in modern times'. Do a web search on Thor Heyerdahl and Kon Tiki. And learn to sail!

[edit on 29-11-2004 by Chakotay]

I've known this since the third grade. I saw a book about the first to explore North America and I came accross a time-line that shows the Vikings landing on the shores of New England in the year 1000.

yeah but they say indians migrated here.. so we were the first ones to reach this land

iv read that the aztecs worshipped gods who had fair hair blue eyes and beards they came in great ships, and they wore ornaments on thier heads depicting serpents. heres the link.

www.ensignmessage.com...

Where I come from Norway where vikings come from, we have learn at school that Viking was in north america loong before columbus. Thay was on the way to Island and turn upp in america by a misstake. I think it is the son of Harlad H�rfagre hwo did it. But I cant remember becuse I didi sleep in the history class but I can look in my old history book