The Viking Deception (2005)

Is the VINLAND MAP a Fabulous Find or a Daring Fake?

There are few more tantalizing or notorious historical documents than the Vinland map. A faded, yellowing scrap of parchment bearing a faint tracery of lines, the map apparently shows the eastern seaboard of North America-yet it was drawn at least half a century before Columbus reached the New World. Was this proof that the Vikings discovered the New World?

On the eve of Columbus Day, 1965, Yale University announced the spectacular discovery of a previously unknown map showing a large island in the Atlantic labeled "Vinilanda insula." The map supposedly dated from about 1440, half a century before Columbus made his first voyage to America. It seems to present unshakeable proof that the Vikings were the real discoverers of the Americas.

But for 40 years, a bitter debate over its authenticity has raged among cartographers, historians, and scientists. Despite chemical analysis and radiocarbon tests, the case remained unresolved. Behind the map's wrinkled parchment and faded ink lies a tale of medieval explorers, shady book dealers, skeptical scholars, and dueling scientists. In the four decades since its public debut, the Vinland Map has been tested and retested but the controversy over its authenticity refuses to die.
Now, NOVA enlists the world's foremost authorities on the map and presents its own definitive investigation. With its verdict in, NOVA then traces the shady tangle of intrigue that surrounds the Vinland's map's origins, exposing clues that have never been aired before, and leading viewers into a fascinating labyrinth of scholarly skullduggery and intrigue.

In an exclusive investigation, NOVA presents fresh evidence confirming that the map was probably one of the cleverest forgeries of all time, and probes who might have wanted to carry out the deception. In this enthralling cartographic detective story, NOVA pursues a trail from Scandinavia to Austria, Switzerland, London, and the U.S.

Tech Specs:
Video Codec:x264 CABAC High@L4
Video Bitrate: 2 650 Kbps
Video Resolution: 1006x576
Display Aspect Ratio: 16:9
Frames Per Second: 29.970 fps
Audio Codec: AC3
Audio Bitrate: 224 kb/s CBR 48000 Hz
Audio Streams: 2
Audio Languages: english
RunTime Per Part: 53 min 23 s
Number Of Parts: 1
Part Size: 1.07 GB
Source: DVD
Encoded by: DocFreak08 @ MVGroup