Inger E Johansson wrote:

Tom,
your questioning is a strawman-alike questioníng. Now I happen to know which
Indian tribe that mined the silver,
for that an for the silver in Icelandic artifacts. That doesn't alter the
simple fact that Ivar Bardson on travelling the voyage for collecting the
Tiundetaka(yes that was then name for the tithes 'taken'(=collected) from
the dioceses under Gardar Greenland. Ivar Bardson's voyage took several
years, as did the other known collector's voyages when Greenland and Vinland
was on the agenda. Latest documented collection was from 1500's(!) btw.

Fact is that the silvered coconut bowl came from the tithes collected in
Vinland North America. Not Greenland. Not Iceland nor anywhere else in the
Old World.

You better try to live with that instead of trying to find 'what if'
scenarios. Such doesn't alter the case at all.

Inger E


Inger,

So you don't have any evidence that the bowl was made in
Vinland. You have a 'what-if' about silver from the New World;
you have a 'what-if' about coconuts from North America. But you
haven't put that together to make a proof of your thesis.

In science, we pose all conceivable options to explain an issue
under scrutiny. Then we test each option to see how it fits the
facts. You haven't given me any reason to think that the bowl
was fabricated in the New World, other than that it turned up in
Norway as part of a collection of tithes from a certain bishopric.

Your mysterious and unverifiable reference to Indian silver
mining has no value in this discussion unless it can be: (1)
established to have occurred at a particular time and place; and
(2) analysis of the silver in the subject cup shows it to have
originated from that mine. Until that time, your argument is a
big 'what-if'.

OTOH, we do know that a number of these bowls were floating
around Europe at the relevant time, and that they were sometimes
considered high-status items. We know that there was both
immigration to Greenland, and also trade between Greenland and
ports east of Greenland. We know that the conservative
Greenlanders maintained customs, dress and technology from their
home country.

If a bowl of a type found in Europe turns up in tithes from a
bishopric that includes Greenland and, at least nominally,
Vinland, _and_ the provenance of that bowl cannot be
demonstrated to interested folk to have been from west of
Iceland, then it is proper to continue to ask the question
'could it have come originally from Europe?'

Do you have any information that you can and will share with us
to support your assertion (that's all it is, Inger) about it
being made in the New World?

Tom McDonald