Inger E Johansson wrote:

Tom,
I think you are naysayer acting like a strawman. You simply haven't got it
have you:
No matter if there where hundreds of coconut bowls in Europe in 14th
century,
No matter where all the other but two orgined from,
At least one of the two silvered coconut bowls origined from Vinland. That's
very very well documented. Re. the other our friend here in group Goran
Baarenhielm once told me was found in Iceland. Guess Goran might be able to
fill in the details for that one.

You have to accept fact. On a ship leaving Bergen 1354, passing Iceland was
Ivar Bardson and Paul Knutson. On board was Ivar Bardson's Icelandic
collegue - the tithes collector for Iceland as Ivar was for the dioceses
under Gardar Greenland. The dioceses in Iceland were two - Hola and
Skalholt. The dioceses under Gardar were three at the time in question and
Vinland was one of them.
It's also proven beyond any reasonable doubt that Ivar Bardson did return
with ALL of Vinland's tithes for 1354-1364 and the other tithes for the
Greenland See's dioceses AND that among the Vinland tithes items were the
silvered coconut bowl directly brought over the Atlantic. That's very very
well documented in Papal papers!

Inger,

I'm not questioning whether someone brought the bowl back to
Norway as part of Peter's Pence. I am wondering why you assume
that it was *made* in the New World? You haven't addressed that
at all.

You also haven't addressed the possibility that the bowl was
originally brought to Greenland and/or Vinland from Europe, and
was returned to Norway when the Norse in the west had to find
valuables to pay the tithes. Unless you can clearly demonstrate
that the bowl was made in the west, from a coconut that derived
from North America, you have only a 'what-if' scenario. Your
assumptions are no better than anyone else, and if you don't
address the possible options, you can't be acting in a scholarly
manner on this issue.

Tom McDonald

snip