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A significant discovery: 1965

The reality of Vinland, the first European settlement in north America, is given an exciting boost when the university of Yale acquires and publishes (in 1965) a very significant map. Drawn in Switzerland in the 15th century, it shows Greenland and Vinland as islands marked in rough outline and clearly named. This is the first documentary evidence of Vinland, apart from the descriptions of it in the Icelandic sagas.

Even better, a Latin inscription specifically mentions Bjarni and Leif as the brave companions who discover this new land - thus confirming in satisfying detail one of the accounts in the Icelandic sagas.
 



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In translation the inscription reads: 'By God's will, after a long voyage from the island of Greenland to the south toward the most distant remaining parts of the western ocean sea, sailing southward amidst the ice, the companions Bjarni and Leif Ericsson discovered a new land, extremely fertile and even having vines, the which island they named Vinland.'

To the embarrassment of Yale, it is soon proved that the north American details have been added by a forger to the original map.
 

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