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Viking Deception, The
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Program Overview
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NOVA
investigates the history and authenticity of the Vinland Map, a document
believed by some to be the first to depict America, and to date to 1440, half a
century before Columbus' famous voyage.
The program:
recounts the Vinland Sagas, 13th-century chronicles that relate Leif
Erikson's discovery of Vinland, an island named after the vines found growing
there.
reports how the Vinland Map first came to light in 1957 when an Italian
book dealer tried unsuccessfully to authenticate a world map bound in a
15th-century manuscript titled the Tartar Relation.
notes that the map indicates an island labeled Vinland located at
approximately where North America would be and includes a short description
that details the island's discovery by the Vikings.
details how the manuscript was sold to an American dealer who used
watermarks and worm holes to try to date the Tartar Relation and the map.
describes how the discovery of a manuscript titled the Speculum
Historiale led to the belief—confirmed by the location of worm
holes—that the Speculum, the Vinland Map, and the Tartar Relation had
once all been part of the same medieval volume.
relates Yale University's subsequent purchase and unveiling of the
map.
reports on archeological finds from a fishing village in Newfoundland
that provided evidence that the Vikings had reached North American shores prior
to Christopher Columbus.
notes that when scholars questioned the map's genuineness, Yale officials
agreed to scientific tests to verify the map's authenticity.
reviews the testing of the map's ink, including analyzing the ink under
different lights and microscopes, comparing it to medieval inks, testing it at
the atomic level, and subjecting it to microprobe spectroscopy.
notes that evidence indicated that the map was a forgery.
concludes with a proposed suspect who might have created the map—an
Austrian Jesuit priest and map authority who may have made the map as a private
exercise, thinking that it should exist but never believing it would be seen by
others.
Taping Rights: Can be used up to one year after the program is taped off the air.
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