Antique maps of Iceland

[Ferran]

Antique maps of Iceland

All antique maps of Iceland (older than 1900) that are in the collection of the National and University Library of Iceland and the Central Bank of Iceland have been converted to a digital format and are accessible here. A short historical description in Icelandic and English is available for most of the maps. They are based on the book Kortasaga Íslands (A history of cartography of Iceland) by Haraldur Sigurðsson.

http://kort.bok.hi.is


I’d also like to give a special mention to this one:

http://kort.bok.hi.is/kort.php?a=gm&id=2

[Savage]

The Vinland map, fake or genuine?



In the early 1960s, something called the "Vinland map" was uncovered.
It became famous because it proved that Vikings came to America before Columbus. It seemed to be a map of the North Atlantic as drawn from Scandinavian discoveries between 800 and 1100 CE, well before western Europe's great Age of Exploration that began in 1400. It was announced by Yale University in the early 1960s, receiving much fanfare, and much skepticism.

Link to google search on the Vinland map

[Savage]

The Vinland map may be fake , but at the collapse of the Norse society atGreenland it may have had as much as 5000 inhabitants, and they had used the area for nearly 400 years...

http://www.archaeology.org/online/features/greenland/
http://www.greenland-guide.gl/leif2000/history.htm