Vinland Map HiRes
29 July 2002
- Classification
- Painting
- Museum
- Wikimedia Commons
- Credit line
- "Vinland Map". Yale University Press, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Via: "Scientists Determine Age of New World Map". July 29, 2002. Brookhaven National Laboratory. Archived from original.
- Rights
- Public domain, as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
About this work
The Vinland map / chart is purportedly a 15th century Mappa Mundi, redrawn from a 13th century original. Drawn with black ink on animal skin, if authentic the map is the first known depiction of the North American coastline, created before Columbus' 1492 voyage. The upper left caption reads: “By God's will, after a long voyage from the island of Greenland to the south toward the most distant remaining parts of the western ocean sea, sailing southward amidst the ice, the companions Bjarni and Leif riksson discovered a new land, extremely fertile and even having vines, ... which island they named Vinland.” Most scholars and scientists who have studied the map have concluded that it is a fake, probably drawn on old parchment in the 20th century.
