Re: The Vinland Map's Ink

Eric Stevens wrote in message ...
>
>none of the unbelievers "can come up with even a primitive
>start-to-finish model of what happened" either.

Rubbish.
I presented a primitive start-to-finish model in 2003;
but if you insist, here's a new version:

1) A smart prankster, having seen news items about the wondrous new
carbon-14 dating technique, decides to put it to the test
2) Prankster unbinds an old manuscript book containing part of the Speculum
Historiale, plus the Tartar Relation, and removes a couple of pages, which
may or may not already be blank
3) Prankster scrubs (so vigorously that they become seriously frail),
polishes and prepares the removed pages, ready to be drawn on. In the
process, though the prankster doesn't realise it, one of the chemicals
which soaks into the parchment introduces serious carbon-14 contamination
4) Prankster, who knows the date of the old book from text on the re-used
parchment of the cover pastedowns, obtains a high-quality slide of the
Andrea Bianco circular world map from 1436 (or rather, probably of just the
northern part of the map, down to the page fold)
5) Prankster makes a frame with a roughly elliptical aperture, which is
then placed over the prepared pair of pages
6) Prankster obtains some brown paint, and modifies it for use as a rather
thick ink
7) Projecting the slide into the frame aperture from different angles and
distances, prankster copies sections of the Bianco map coastline to make a
new, oval world map
7a) As part of the incentive to carbon-date the map, some details are
modified from Bianco, to add anachronistic features like parts of Japan
7b) See step 14
8) After the frame is removed, anachronistic representations of Iceland and
Greenland are added, plus a slightly less anachronistic Vinland. The actual
position of these features is based on a map made about a decade after the
Columbus voyage
9) Rivers are added to the main landmass, but for the dual purposes of
avoiding too much awkward drawing across the page fold and adding intrigue,
most of these rivers do not correspond with the rivers depicted by Bianco
10) Place-names and detailed captions are added; most of these are
Latinisations of names from Bianco, but some are taken from Ptolemaic maps
of the same period, and some from the first few pages of the Tartar
Relation (which supplies much of the text for the detailed captions,
sometimes out-of-context)
11) As part of the carbon-14 challenge, the prankster then prepares a
second, black ink by burning some pages of the Speculum Historiale and
collecting the soot
12) A second line is drawn over the map outline using the new ink. This
process is time-consuming and not altogether satisfactory, so no attempt is
made to redraw over the finest writing of the captions
13) Because the second line looks, in many places, very obviously like a
second line, most of it is rubbed off, leaving only tantalising specks in
most areas, except where the register with the brown line was most accurate
14) The components of the Speculum volume all have wormholes, which link
them together. Originally I assumed that the map lines were deliberately
drawn across some of these wormholes to add to the appearance of age, which
would be step 7b, but information in Kirsten Seaver's "Maps Myths and Men"
suggests that they are equally likely to have been made deliberately by
placing live worms in suitable spots after the map was completed.
15) Our hero roughly re-binds the remaining part of the Speculum
Historiale, but keeps the Tartar Relation and the map separate
15a) A guard strip is applied to bind the map in with the Tartar Relation,
and patches are pasted over the wormholes- no attempt is made to hide the
modernity of these additions
16) The tempting items are introduced, at bargain prices, into the rare
book trade, via a less-than-scrupulous dealer named Enzo Ferrajoli


David B.




.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: The Vinland Maps Ink
    ... > 2) Prankster unbinds an old manuscript book containing part ... Poly alkene compounds, short polyethylene, parafins, ... > Andrea Bianco circular world map from 1436 (or rather, ...
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  • Re: The Vinland Maps Ink
    ... Prankster scrubs, ... which soaks into the parchment introduces serious carbon-14 ... high-quality slide of the Andrea Bianco circular world map from 1436 ...
    (sci.archaeology)
  • Re: The Vinland Maps Ink
    ... >2) Prankster unbinds an old manuscript book containing part of the Speculum ... >Andrea Bianco circular world map from 1436 (or rather, ...
    (sci.archaeology)
  • Re: The Vinland Maps Ink
    ... >>1) A smart prankster, having seen news items about the wondrous new ... >>which soaks into the parchment introduces serious carbon-14 contamination ... >>Andrea Bianco circular world map from 1436 (or rather, ... black ink by burning some pages of the Speculum Historiale and ...
    (sci.archaeology)
  • Re: The Vinland Maps Ink
    ... >>>1) A smart prankster, having seen news items about the wondrous new ... >>>Andrea Bianco circular world map from 1436 (or rather, ... >> This is speculation. ... Vinland Map as an faked document from those who attack it. ...
    (sci.archaeology)
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