Discovery Before Columbus? The University of Arizona, the U.S. Department of Energy?s Brookhaven National Laboratory, and the Smithsonian Institution claim they have used carbon-dating technology to determine the age of a controversial parchment that might be the first-ever map of North America. Their estimation? 1434 AD. ?Many scholars have agreed that if the Vinland Map is authentic, it is the first known cartographic representation of North America, and its date would be key in establishing the history of European knowledge of the lands bordering the western Atlantic Ocean,? said chemist Garman Harbottle, the lead Brookhaven researcher on the project. If it is, in fact, a forgery, then the forger was surely one of the most skillful criminals ever to pursue that line of work." Article Here