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Good news, map fans

"A Danish expert said on Friday that a 15th century Vinland Map, the first known map depicting part of America prior to Christopher Columbus’ arrival on the continent, is almost certainly authentic... The map shows both Greenland and a western Atlantic island "Vinilanda Insula," the Vinland of the Icelandic sagas, now linked by scholars to Newfoundland, Canada, where Norsemen under Leif Eriksson settled around AD 1000.

Larsen said his team studied the ink, writing, wormholes and parchment of the map, which is kept at Yale University. They found that wormholes caused by wood beetles were consistent with those in the books in which the map was bound, he said". Source

Not the last word in accuracy, even for the 'known world', and probably not much use for route planning. Better than the Mappa Mundi though.

As some may have noticed, I have an unhealthy interest in maps, and may well do some more map posts further down the line. The major problem is scanning A3/A2 ish sized maps, even in parts without damaging the spines of the atlases concerned. Anyway if anyone fancies seeing a hilariously inaccurate French county map of the UK from about 1860 I'll give it a go, techical problems notwithstanding.

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This entry was posted on Friday, July 24, 2009 at 8:31 am. You can skip to the end and leave a response.

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Blogger Nick Drew said... 11:51 am

yes, yes *clamour* *tumult*  



Blogger Croydonian said... 11:58 am

Hurrah. Time to fire up the trusty ScanJet 5550C.  



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