For years, scientists considered several elements of the so-called Vinland Map suspicious. For example, its highly accurate depiction of Greenland was so good that it was actually considered to be too good.
Experts also pointed to authenticity concerns in relation to the ink, the handwriting, and other elements of the map, which Yale University made public in 1965.
According to the New York Times, Yale initially described the map as evidence of Viking travels "in the western Atlantic," the "first European depiction of North America," and a "precious medieval treasure."
Roughly 55 years later, the school changed its story.
"It's a fake"
"The Vinland Map is a fake," Raymond Clemens, curator of early books and manuscripts at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale, accentuated in a statement released this month.
"There is no reasonable doubt here. This new analysis should put the matter to rest."
The university announced that a team of experts analyzed elements in the map's lines and text. This resulted in the discovery of high levels of a titanium compound that wasn't used in inks until the 1920s.
Yale highlighted the fake that someone created fooled a lot of people.
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