Re: The Vinland Map's Ink
David B wrote: AU66e.17828$S9.9353@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx,
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
I find this not very convincing as motive, even if the forger knew
about the new technique and was able to judge the consequenses.
Who was that all-round and skilful forger with that kind of motive?
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.
I am no experienced bookworm handler, but is it
realy possible to place them so precise?
And where did he find the worms?
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.
--
- Peter Alaca -
.
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, ...
(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
... Prankster unbinds an old manuscript book containing part of the Speculum ... Andrea Bianco circular world map from 1436 (or rather, ... but keeps the Tartar Relation and the map separate ...
(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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