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Determination of the Radiocarbon Age of Parchment of the Vinland Map

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

D J Donahue ,
J S Olin  and
G Harbottle
D J Donahue*
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and NSF-Arizona AMS Laboratory, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA.
J S Olin
Affiliation:
Smithsonian Center for Materials Research and Education, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. 20560, USA
G Harbottle
Affiliation:
Chemistry Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973 and Department of Geosciences, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York 11790, USA
*
Corresponding author. Email: djd@physics.arizona.edu.
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Abstract

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The Vinland Map, drawn on a 27.8 × 41.0 cm parchment bifolium, is housed in the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University. In the northwest Atlantic Ocean, it shows “the Island of Vinland, discovered by Bjarni and Leif in company.” Skelton, Marston, and Painter (Skelton et al. 1965, 1995) firmly argued the map's authenticity, associating it with the Council of Basle (AD 1431–1449), that is, half a century before Columbus's voyage. Nevertheless, vigorous scholarly questioning of the map's authenticity has persisted (Washburn 1966; McCrone 1974; Olin and Towe 1976; Cahill et al. 1987; McCrone 1988; Towe 1990). We have determined the precise radiocarbon age of the map's parchment by accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS). The one-sigma calibrated calendrical date range is AD 1434 ± 11 years: the 95% confidence level age range is AD 1411–1468.

Type
Articles
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 44 , Issue 1 , 2002 , pp. 45 - 52
Copyright
Copyright © 2002 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

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