[split] Jorge's Retracer Thread: darker ink, retracing of text and drawings

[Koen G]

Just consider how long it took for the Vinland Map to be recognized as a forgery after McCrone's initial report. There were good experts on both sides of that debate...

Certainly, but now there is a critical mass that clearly leans in one direction, and I don't think there's any coming back from that. It's like nobody will start believing in Santa Clause again. And I would argue that we have reached a similar state with the VM, many times over. Only, there are many holdouts from pre-critical mass times that still have their own axe to grind.

It used to be the case that people didn't even have decent color scans of the whole manuscript. There was a lot of empty space to fill in, and the best thing many could do was build elaborate personal theories, because there wasn't much else to go on.

But gradually, over the years, we have built up a better understanding of the manuscript, with more actual data at our disposal. The stubborn rejection of such data in favor of personal preferences is not ideal, though I assume everybody does this at times.

I think we just have to be careful that "experts disagree with one another" does not become "there is no more expertise". I will keep naively assuming that the people at McCrone know what they are talking about.