Re: The Vinland map - Nova programme Tuesday evening

From: Martyn Harrison (nospam_at_spammers.of.the.world.unite)
Date: 02/13/05 

Date: Sun, 13 Feb 2005 11:06:22 GMT

Apparently on date 12 Feb 2005 19:03:10 -0800, "Daryl Krupa"
<icycalmca@yahoo.com> said:

> As mentioned in another post, the V.M. seems to also incorporate
>Baffin's early-17th-Century discovery of the north shore of Melville
>Bay.

I think you must misunderstand me.

The thrust of my comment is how to make a convincing forgery. This is useful in
understanding what might have been deliberately done to add credibility, and
also, of course, useful for anyone thinking about how to make a forgery but
that's not really the intention.

In particular, a modern forger wouldn't be especially challenged to use
magnetic distortions that fit nicely with the sort you would expect had the
lines been drawn according to a compass-based technology and with magnetic
north where it would have been in, say, 950 CE. What I'm adding to that idea is
the concept that it would be even more effective - as a forgery - if the author
deliberately used magnetic distortions that are almost (but significantly, not
quite) right, as to most proper researchers the tempting bait of a chance to
learn something new about magnetic deviations in the period, would tend to help
them to regard the whole thing as true so that they could indeed discover this
new data.

I'd be hoping they would reason "how could a forger get it wrong, so perfectly?
It has to be genuine."

As for the map detail in the west, I can explain that away easily enough even
though I think the map is fake:

The map isn't about Vinland - it's a map of Europe incorporating the rest of
the world as well, albeit in an unhelpful projection.

Had it been about Vinland, a different projection / scheme would be used.

The discussion about magnetic deviation is technique, in this particular map
the detail of the west is projected way out of shape so it would mask any test
of this type either way.

Given the map data for the western part is distorted you can reason that it
wasn't drawn to inform sailors where to find the islands in the west, but as a
sort of verbal summary of what had been reported in the west, to inform the
folks back in Europe.

To put this into perspective, sail around the area for a couple of years. Now
summarise what the coastlines are like in a verbal fashion to a person who
hasn't been in the region but can write down what you and your shipmates say
(or have heard second, third hand), on maybe one side of A4 lined paper. Give
this paper to someone who has no idea what America is like and get them to draw
a chart from your description.

Frankly, if the resulting map was survey-grade accurate, I'd smell a really big
rat and so would everyone else. To miss off an island or two, or make the gaps
too wide, is quite natural and reasonable.

I repeat, I don't think the map is genuine anyway, I'm just interested in why,
how it could be done better, what is possibly clever forgery techniques and
what is difficult to image as being anything other than genuine. E.g. I can do
fancy things to get the C14/C12 ratio about right, or I can just start with a
genuine piece of parchment and make my ink in the traditional way from suitably
aged ingredients, etc. Since I can do this, someone else carbon dating the map
is wasting their time if I've got that right.

OTOH it would tend to restrict the age of the forgery, i.e. the map could only
have been produced in the time suggested, or at a time later than the
pioneering of C14 dating techniques, not for example in the 17th century where
nobody would know they had to age the carbon for the ink (even though they
might use an old parchment for similar but contemporary reasons.) It's possible
a 17th century forger could end up with all the C14 correct but highly unlikely
as they wouldn't deliberately set out to do this. D'ye see what I mean now? The
data available on magnetic pole also indicates something about the forger's
techniques, although in this particular case it's not all that important
(poorly done, given the opportunity existed).

Relevant Pages

  • Re: The Vinland Maps Ink
    ... > think that's one reason some folks, including Seaver, considered ... that the forger's (assuming for argument's sake that it is a forgery) ... OR he/she who was forced to make the map, ... The germans did not know writing or latin ...
    (sci.archaeology)
  • Re: The Vinland Maps Ink
    ... >> If the map is a forgery, some of the properties of the map ... Another is that it was made at the end of one era of map making and ...
    (sci.archaeology)
  • Re: The Vinland Maps Ink
    ... >> There is a myth that the Vinland Map is a skilful forgery. ... actually tells us one of the reference books he used; ...
    (sci.archaeology)
  • Re: New Review of Seavers book on the VM: A Saga of Wormholes and Anatase
    ... A review by William W. Fitzhugh ... his sources proves the map to be a hoax, is on my VM webpage, ... A positive reason to think that even if the VM is a forgery, ... Such fabrication of scientific data is what may ...
    (sci.archaeology)
  • Re: James Ossuary Forgery Case in Shambles
    ... more than 5,000 pages of testimony, what has been billed as the "forgery ... to reputable archaeology sites (not blogs or hype-riddled newspapers, ... inscription that is believed genuine. ... If there are any chips or flakes from the tool used, these techniques ...
    (soc.history.ancient)
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