In 1957, American Bookstore bought a medieval Latin manuscript for US$3,500. The book was called "Records of Tatars". map. Incredibly, check showed that parchment was created more than 50 years earlier than Columbus, and on back it was written “a drawing of first and second parts of third part of Prehistoric Book”, and on front side it really was accurate On map of North Atlantic there is “New Light", similar to modern American continent, including British Isle and island of Ireland, Greenland, etc., because "Isle of Vinland" is marked next to "New World" of Boujarni and Leif (both were discovered jointly by Vikings), therefore map is called " Map of Vinland.

There is no doubt that Vinland map is a mysterious map that rewrites history: Columbus discovered New World of America in 1492, but Vinland map shows that Scandinavians discovered Americas at least 50 years before Columbus. at same time Surprisingly, map of Vinland draws many areas of Europe with high accuracy, almost same as modern ones, far beyond navigation and drawing level of time, which adds countless mysteries to this map, which makes people feel difficult to judge , there seemed to be a highly developed prehistoric civilization or aliens?

Over past 60 years, there have been those who admired him and those who doubted him. After new century, with development of science and technology, Yale University did another test on Vinland map in their collection, and final result was unexpected!

Later, an American bookseller donated map to Yale University. Everyone was shocked by this mysterious card. Then researchers determined that it was a genuine product. The age of parchment was between 1420 and 1440, and specific time was around 1434. There is no doubt that this was a major discovery, so in 1965 it was put on public display, and "Map of Vinland" became known throughout world for a while.

Coincidentally, relics of a "Viking" landing were discovered in Newfoundland, Canada at time, proving that Vikings discovered New World of America long before Columbus. According to literary records, Viking seafaring activity ceased after 1100 AD. In legend of Vikings, no one knows who man "Bujarni" is now, but there are related records about man "Leif". It is said that Leff discovered island of Vinland - island of Newfoundland, Canada, America.

Thus, at that time, people believed that Vikings had excellent navigational skills and ability to draw maps accurately. They crossed North Atlantic and cruised between America and Europe. Lan Map. Later, maps they drew spread to Italy and other regions.

However, after Vinland map was made public, it immediately raised many doubts. Many people believed that Vinland map was not real, but was forged by modern people.

The most doubtful are many Italian-Americans who claim to be descendants of Columbus. The reason they asked questions is very simple. If Vinland map is real, then Columbus was not first person to discover New World of America. It is then highly probable that Columbus discovered America by following a map and not by relying on his own ability. It can be said that appearance of Vinland Map seriously affected historical reputation of Columbus.

The reason why some people doubt this is because there are indeed a lot of suspicious things on "Vinland Map" that must be product of a modern forgery, and most suspicious thing is ink. Because anatase component found in yellow-brown ink used on map is a product of 20th century and cannot be made in 15th century. At time, American geographer Doyle pointed out that ink on Vinland map consisted of small, round crystals obtained by chemical methods, rather than larger, fractured crystals obtained by non-chemical methods.

However, scientists who support non-forgery of map believe that although it is impossible to prove natural origin of anatase, it cannot be completely denied, because nature is miraculous. In 2009, Yale University scientist Rene Larson held a press conference and pointed out that over past 5 years they have analyzed ink stains and paper, but all tests have not revealed signs of a fake. In end, René Larson decided that ink was contaminated when it was sand-dried, so a chemical analysis in 1972 showed that it contained titanium dioxide, making it too new to be genuine.

Aside from ink, suspicion is hard to avoid on this map itself: firstly, national borders of Mediterranean region are marked very clearly, almost indistinguishable from modern maps; secondly, Greenland is drawn too accurately, but in fact, waters around Greenland beyond Arctic Circle are extremely dangerous. It was not until 19th century that people took a steam iron ship to draw a map of island, but it was extremely inaccurate for convenient terrain of Norway. Thirdly, map of Vinland cannot be used for navigation.

In short, over past sixty years, as Vinland map has become more and more famous, voices of doubt and controversy have grown louder, which is why Yale has restarted test again in past few years. years During this test, researchers found important evidence!

To get to bottom of this, researchers first looked at history of discovery of Vinland map. It turned out that American bookseller first bought Records of Tatars, mixed with parchment maps, and then bought manuscript - part of a copy of third volume of Prehistoric Records. Historical records" and eyes of worm on map are exactly same. The contents of two books refer to different parts of same book. Yale later received two books and map. According to radiocarbon dating, age of parchment and paper is between 1400 and 1460, and parchment with map is indeed a product of 15th century.

After that, researchers focused on ink, and scan results showed that ink of entire map had titanium, and iron content was very low, which was opposite of two manuscripts. For further research, research team found ink fragments from 50 Central European manuscripts around time that Vinland map was made and found that iron content of these manuscripts was much higher than on map, while titanium content was lower. much lower than on map, but it corresponded to "Records of Tatars", etc., similar in content. Due to ink research, it seems to have reached a dead end again, and it is still difficult to reveal truth because proponents might think that ink was contaminated, resulting in increased titanium content, etc.

However, in various comparisons, researchers found an important clue: "Anatase particles are very similar to those found in pigments that were produced in Norway in 1923." In other words, composition of card ink is basically same as that of commercial ink from beginning of last century.

After careful observation, researchers found that on back of card there is a line of original text written in iron tannate ink, widely used in Middle Ages. It is covered with a new word, which roughly translates as "drawing first and second parts of third part of Qianshijian" (see above), and ink of this text corresponds to ink of map. to make map look implausible," researchers said.

The parchment of map appears to be from 15th century, but map was forged in last century. Perhaps forger thought he needed to leave some clues to solve case, so he rewrote a line of text to cover original text. (The picture below shows a map of Vinland, which is somewhat similar to a high-altitude bird's eye view)

The Yale team's "Case Solving Process" is full of high-tech colors and process is extremely rigorous, but if you look closely, case-solving process is not really hard or complex. is to discover original text on back of card In addition to distinguishing ink and content from newly written text, newly written text is consistent with ink on front of card, thus "deciding". But is it true that at level of research of last century or research capacity of 2009, these problems cannot be detected? That's what's intriguing. Perhaps such a card, full of loopholes, should have been confirmed as a fake long ago, but why didn't this happen? What if Chinese drew map of Vinland? Perhaps ink does not need to be detected at all, and there is no need for sixty years of controversy, because European and American scientists have long judged them as a fake!

Since modern times, ancient "miracle" level achievements have continued to appear in Europe and United States. People can't help but feel that long history of West and grandeur of Western civilization seem more glorious than Chinese civilization. West since modern times.

Reference material: "Latest Yale research confirms that Vinland Map Department is forged", etc.