The Maillard reaction theory is still just a theory, and an incomplete one at that. The clarity and vertical collimation of the shroud image have not been fully explained by laws of gaseous diffusion, despite the mentions of Brownian motion and whatever else. Has anyone attempted to replicate the linen and create a reasonable image with an amine-derivative gas point source?
However, even if a Maillard reaction explains the image color, what’s to say the entire shroud wasn’t uniformly darkened at some time by exposure to a gas whether intentionally or not? Wilson’s forger could have then bleached the shroud as he described, leaving behind a Maillard reaction- produced image. Are there other natural sources of an appropriate gas other than rotting corpses?
If Wilson’s admittedly far-fetched theory of a crusader robbing an old tomb for the shroud has any merit, such a shroud may have indeed been darkened by the amine gases within the tomb. Whether or not that shroud had been in direct contact with a corpse, a long exposure to the diffuse gases in an enclosed tomb could have darkened the entire shroud.
Then there are the wrinkles on the shroud, which appear in photographs to be colored the same as the image, only darker. If Wilson is right, these creases pre-dated the image formation, and thus shaded the shroud from bleaching along the crease lines. The rest of the image would have faded a little over time with some sun exposure, but the wrinkles would have maintained their darker color as you see today. Did the shroud researchers study the wrinkle threads and compare their properties to the image-bearing threads?
On the other hand, the second face on the back of the shroud requires explanation if Wilson’s theory is to hold up. Also, what about the blood stains? It has been reported that there was no image color to the fibers beneath the bloodstains. How true is this and how thoroughly were the bloodstains checked for this? It is very difficult to imagine how the shadow image forger could have left the blood sites unshaded for the sun-bleaching stage, to be filled in later with blood. And very unlikely that a forger would do that.
It seems too soon to dismiss Wilson’s theory but much more work is needed on it yet.
"The clarity and vertical collimation of the shroud image have not been fully explained by laws of gaseous diffusion, despite the mentions of Brownian motion and whatever else. Has anyone attempted to replicate the linen and create a reasonable image with an amine-derivative gas point source?"
I agree.
One of the the things we have to be prepared for, though, is the conclusion that the image was indeed produced by a Maillard reaction, but that no plausible models of gaseous diffusion can explain the clarity of the image. In other words, a natural process could have created the image, but a natural process might not be able to convincingly explain the remarkable artistic composition of the image.
We could end up with a natural process that could have produced the Shroud with a nearly zero probability that it actually happened that way.
If that happens, we must resist the tendency to force the data and say: "Well, since the Shroud exists, and the natural process explains its existence, the probabilities must have aligned such that it happened." It may be that the truth is that we have a natural photograph of a miracle.
We must be skeptical, but we must not be deterministic and assert, a priori, that the Shroud MUST have been made by a random natural process. Because maybe it was made by a non-human but nevertheless DIRECTED natural process. We won't ever be able to positively assert that is the case, at least not in this life anyway. But we must not fall into the trap of asserting that there cannot be a non-human intelligence that guided nature to make the image.
Then there are the wrinkles on the shroud, which appear in photographs to be colored the same as the image, only darker. If Wilson is right, these creases pre-dated the image formation, and thus shaded the shroud from bleaching along the crease lines. The rest of the image would have faded a little over time with some sun exposure, but the wrinkles would have maintained their darker color as you see today. Did the shroud researchers study the wrinkle threads and compare their properties to the image-bearing threads?
The wrinkles are not really darkened at all... they are wrinkles and because they are not flat, they reflect the light falling on them differently. They are not bleached any differently than other parts of the shroud. When artifically flattened, say with a glass plate, and then photographed, the wrinkles are much harder to see. The threads in the wrinkles are essentially the same as the threads elsewhere on the shroud.
Also, what about the blood stains? It has been reported that there was no image color to the fibers beneath the bloodstains. How true is this and how thoroughly were the bloodstains checked for this? It is very difficult to imagine how the shadow image forger could have left the blood sites unshaded for the sun-bleaching stage, to be filled in later with blood. And very unlikely that a forger would do that.
The fact that there is no image under the blood stains has been confirmed by several researchers in peer-reviewed work. The checking was done on blood stained fibers and threads taken from image areas. When the blood was removed, there was no image underneath... even though there might be image immediately adjacent to the blood on the same thread. You are right about the difficulty you decribe as well as the questionable motive for doing such an odd thing.
If the blood were added BEFORE the image was "bleached" into the linen, protecting it from the effects of the sun could be accomplished by painting a "mask" on the glass plate with an opaque paint that completely and exactly covers the blood stain. There are a few problems with this. First, some of the blood stains, such as the blood seeping from the scourge wounds, are very diffuse and non-contiguous. Painting a mask to protect them would be impossible. Secondly, any mask painted on a glass pane would protect the blood only when the sun is in a certain position, say Noon, but not completely protect it at 4:00PM, and this would be very noticeable on the peripheries of the stains. Finally, clotted blood will crumble and flake... really fresh blood will smear... all things that would happen of a glass plate were to be placed on the stain.