Study by Yale experts proves that the Vineland map is a hoax

Scholars at Yale University have just completed a comprehensive analysis of the Vineland map, a map of the northeast coast of North America presumed to have been drawn in the 15th century. Yale experts examined the ink used to draw the markers using the latest high-tech methods and finally confirmed the Vineland map hoax. It was made in the recent past by an unknown producer, using an ink first produced in the 1920s.

The Inland map was allegedly drawn by Viking explorers who allegedly mapped the land they encountered on their transatlantic voyage. The label "Inland" ("Wine-land" in English) refers specifically to a coastal region of North America where wild grapes for wine production are abundant.

The Vineland map hoax: debunked after almost 60 years!

Ever since the Vineland map first appeared in 1965, the debate over its authenticity has intensified. Proponents point out that the map is geographically accurate and that the parchment on which it was drawn is radiocarbon dating back to the 15th century.

However, the consensus in the academic community is that this is a lie. In support of this contention, some limited research has found significant anomalies in the map's inks, which do not appear to contain the components used in the Middle Ages.

In the new Yale study, analysts were finally able to scrutinize the entire contents of the map from top to bottom. This gave them a unique opportunity to determine the quality of the map inks and to more accurately date their production.

While the Vineland map parchment proved to be legally old parchment, the chemical characteristics of the ink indicated that it was added to the parchment sometime in the 20th century. Scientific tests conducted by experts found that all of the inks used on the maps contained significant amounts of titanium, a substance first added to commercially produced ink in the 1920s.

Raymond Clemens of Yale University declared, "The Vineland map is a fake."

Raymond Clemens, director of Yale University's Beiderbecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, announced the results of the study in a Yale University press release, saying, "The Vineland map is a fake.". "There is no reasonable doubt here. This new analysis should put things to rest."

Further evidence of forgery was found on the back of the map. There is a Latin inscription that appears to provide instructions on how to bind the map into a larger book, a 15th-century encyclopedia called the "Mirror of History.

When the map first surfaced in the 1960s, research on it showed that it had been bound as a copy of this book, which dates from the 1440s. The inscription was originally supposed to have been written at the time, but experts at Yale University found it was also written in ink that was not available in the 15th century.

Clemens said, "The modified inscription was intended to lead people to believe that the map was created at the same time as the prehistoric telescope.". "This is strong evidence that this is a forgery, not an innocent work created by a third party co-opted by others, even though it does not tell us who perpetrated the deception."

There is an ironic aspect to this hoax. Although the Welland map is a forgery, it attempts to prove the fact that Norwegian settlers reached North America before Columbus - three years after the map first appeared in 1957 - before it was proven to be true.

In 1960, Norwegian archaeologists Hegel and Anne Stine Standing discovered the remains of an ancient Norwegian settlement at Cleanse aux Meadows in Newfoundland, Canada. The site was eventually dated to 1000 AD, which means that Norwegian explorers did land in North America long before Columbus reached the Bahamas in 1492.

Yale debunks a forgery it helped propagate

The Vineland Map was acquired by Yale University in the late 1950s. It was purchased and donated to Yale by Yale alumnus Paul Mellon, heir to the famous Mellon Bank family fortune.

Mellon's purchase and donation also included two original manuscripts, which were previously bound copies of the Vineland map. Included were copies of the aforementioned medieval encyclopedia, "the Speculate Historical," by Dominican friar and historian Vincent DE Beaujolais, and a manuscript describing the travels of two 13th-century Polish clergymen in Mongolian lands, "Tartars" (in English "Tatar Relations"). Interestingly, the Welland maps were all initially bound into the Historical before being removed and bound together to form a separate volume.

Although Mellon was willing to purchase the map and donate it to Yale University, he insisted that a group of experts carefully examine the map to determine if it was authentic before announcing the discovery to the public. A team of Yale librarians and British Museum curators studied the Vineland map for several years, and after concluding that it was probably authentic, they revealed its existence to the world in a book titled The Vineland Map and the Tartar Connection the day before Columbus Day in 1965.

Despite the apparent confidence of Yale scholars in the authenticity of this map, its authenticity has been disputed from the beginning. Indeed, various tests conducted on the ink over the years seemed to indicate that the map was made in contemporary times. But 56 years after the Vineland map was first made public, a more comprehensive study is needed to finally reveal the full truth.

The latest research project was organized by Yale University librarians Marie-France Le May and Paula Ditz. They recruited scientists from Yale's Institute for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage to help them complete a final examination of the original Vineland map. The team used X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF) to analyze the ink of the documents, and with this technique, they were able to determine once and for all that the Vineland map was a modern creation.

Raymond Clemens was one of those who expressed great pleasure with the final result.

"Objects like the Vineland map take up a lot of intellectual space," he explains. "We didn't want this to continue to be a controversy. There are so many fascinating things that we should look into that could tell us something about exploration and travel in the medieval world."

Contemplating an ancient and shadowy historical oddity

There's no way to know exactly when the Welland map forgeries were made, or who made them. But three good suspects may be involved in some way. All three were booksellers, dealing with rare and valuable manuscripts, and all played a role in the "discovery" of the map and its associated texts.

One of them was the Spanish-Italian dealer Lorenzo Conferral, who first produced the map in 1957 and tried to sell it, and the Hysteria Mortar copy bound to the British Museum.

A second interested party was British businessman Irving Davis, who tried to broker the proposed deal between Conferral and the museum and eventually produced the prehistoric speculate purchased by Paul Mellon.

The third suspect is American businessman Lawrence Mitten II, who, like Mellon, is a Yale alumnus who first came up with the idea of buying all this material and donating it to his Alma mater (he claims he couldn't afford it).

It is possible that Conferral and Davis collaborated in the Vineland map scam and tricked Mitten into later becoming involved. It is also possible that Mitten was involved in their scam from the beginning and used his connection to Yale University to secure the purchase of the Vineland map at a reasonable price. Perhaps all three individuals were innocent and taken advantage of by the real forgers.

Since the individuals involved in the original transaction are now dead, the perpetrators behind the Welland map scam may never be known. But the question of its authenticity has now been answered, and that is the question that occult scholars are most interested in solving.