The Holy Shroud of Turin

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The Shroud of Christ

by Jodi@theshadowlands.net

Hoax or Holy Grail? That is the question every one wants to know. No body has been able to prove that The Shroud of Turin is the burial cloth of Christ. Yet the holds the haunting image of a man's wounded body, fitting the description of Christ.

    The shroud is undoubtedly old. Its history is known from the year 1357, when it surfaced in the tiny village of Lirey, France. Until recent reports that most of the scientific world accepted the findings of carbon dating carried out in 1988. The results said the shroud dated back to 1260-1390, and this is much to new to be Jesus' burial linen.

      It is said that the carbon dating is inaccurate. One Dr. Maria Grazia Siliato, Who has studied the shroud for 16 years     says the reason that the carbon dating is wrong, is that the fragment tested was a corner of the cloth that had been repaired five times since 1400. Another Dr, Dr. Leoncio Garza-Valdez, after months of examining microscopic samples, concluded in January that the shroud is centuries older than it's carbon date. Dr. Garza said the shrouds fibers are coated with bacteria and fungi that have grown for centuries. He said that the carbon dating had sampled the contaminants as well as the fibers' cellulose.

      In May 1993, Dr. Garza traveled to Turin, and examined a shroud sample with the approval of Catholic authorities. "As soon as I looked at a segment in the microscope, I knew that it was heavily contaminated, and I knew what had been radiocarbon dated was a mixture of linen, and bacteria, fungi, and bioplastic (A plastic-like coating that is a byproduct of bacteria and fungi.) " Dr. Garza enlisted Dr.Mattengly. Together they are working with an enzyme process to cleanse the contaminated samples.

      Practicing science with the shroud of Turin puts Drs. Garza and Mattingly in a charged atmosphere. Moving the shroud's origin back several centuries would place it closer to the time of Jesus' death. Adding to that a third member of their team has identified a part of the Shroud's markings as that of blood from a human male. No one has been able to determine exactly how the markings got there, but they appear in bas-relief in a perfect negative image. Testing has proved that there is no way that the image is forged.

      Major findings: No significant trace of paint, Ink, dye, or stain. It is not the product of an artist. Image becomes life like when their light values are reversed by a photographic negative. The Blood is real blood that has been confirmed by Dr. John Heller. The Wounds are consistent with the Gospel account of Christ's ordeal. A) Crown of thorns. B) Bruising of face. C) Shoulder abrasions D) Knee abrasions E) scourage marks F) nail wounds in hands and feet G) wound in side. H) Legs NOT broken!

      The shroud has been damaged in a fire, restored, repaired, and has passed through many hands. These things all make it harder to get an actual dating on it. There are many things about the shroud that would prove that it was the burial cloth of Christ, such as a Roman coin over the both eyes minted between 29 to 33 AD. Which says, if these coins were dated at the time of Christ, then the shroud's carbon dating may be wrong, and The Shroud of Turin is the Shroud of Christ. Testing is still being done. Scientist are still skeptic, they are saying that this shroud is ether the shroud of Christ and the physical proof of Jesus existence... Or the most unbelievably clever products of the human mind and hand. It's ether one or the other; there is no middle ground.


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Fresh tests link Turin Shroud to era of Jesus    1/31/05
By Bruce Johnston in Rome


The Turin Shroud is far older than carbon dating suggests and may indeed date to biblical times as believers claim, a study has found.

The findings may revive hopes that the cloth, far from being a medieval fake, is a miraculous recording of the face of Jesus after the Crucifixion.
  
The Turin Shroud: 1,300 to 3,000 years old 
Raymond Rogers, of the University of California's Los Alamos Laboratory, argues that carbon-dating tests on the shroud in 1988 were "invalid" because they were performed on a replacement section rather than the original linen.

His own exhaustive tests, most of them chemical analyses of fibres he says were taken from the original linen, instead reveal its age to be from 1,300 to 3,000 years old.

Many Roman Catholics, who believe the cloth bears the image of Jesus after it was used to wrap his body when he was taken from the Cross, were incensed by the results of the first scientific tests.

Researchers, working separately in Arizona, Cambridge and Zurich, carried out tests which concluded that the shroud could be dated only to between AD 1261 and 1390, and was therefore likely to be a deception devised in the Middle Ages.

Even the then cardinal of Turin, Anastasio Alberto Ballestrero, was forced to concede that the garment was probably a hoax.

However, writing in the journal Thermochimica Acta, Mr Rogers explains that fibres from the original linen showed no trace of a chemical called vanillin.

Vanillin is produced by the thermal decomposition of lignin, a chemical compound found in plant material such as flax. Levels of lignin in material such as linen fall over time.

Had the shroud been produced in medieval times it would still contain vanillin.

Mr Rogers, a member of the original Shroud of Turin Research Project which first began studying the linen in 1978, wrote of his surprise at the findings of the radio-carbon dating a decade later.

After re-examining the data, he concluded that the sample used for dating in 1988, and the other 32 samples he had personally taken of the linen fibre from all over the four-yard shroud, using adhesive tape, were not the same.

Chemical kinetics, analytical chemistry, and other tests, including some for cotton content, proved, he said, that the "radio-carbon sample was not part of the original cloth", and so was "invalid in determining the age of the shroud".

According to the academic, the cloth used in the carbon dating was probably woven into the shroud during repairs in late medieval times.

The linen sheet was damaged in several fires after its existence was first recorded in France in 1357, including in a church blaze in 1532.

It was also been treated with alizarin dye, available in Italy only after the 1300s, and with a plant gum to help match the original's sepia colour.






Turin shroud 'older than thought'    1/27/04


The Shroud of Turin is much older than suggested by radiocarbon dating carried out in the 1980s, according to a new study in a peer-reviewed journal.
A research paper published in Thermochimica Acta suggests the shroud is between 1,300 and 3,000 years old.
The author dismisses 1988 carbon-14 dating tests which concluded that the linen sheet was a medieval fake.

The shroud, which bears the faint image of a blood-covered man, is believed by some to be Christ's burial cloth.

 The radiocarbon sample has completely different chemical properties than the main part of the shroud relic
Raymond Rogers 

Raymond Rogers says his research and chemical tests show the material used in the 1988 radiocarbon analysis was cut from a medieval patch woven into the shroud to repair fire damage.
It was this material that was responsible for an invalid date being assigned to the original shroud cloth, he argues.

"The radiocarbon sample has completely different chemical properties than the main part of the shroud relic," said Mr Rogers, who is a retired chemist from Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, US.

Fire damage

He says he was originally dubious of untested claims that the 1988 sample was taken from a re-weave.

"It was embarrassing to have to agree with them," Mr Rogers told the BBC News website.

The 4m-long linen sheet was damaged in several fires since its existence was first recorded in France in 1357, including a church blaze in 1532.

It is said to have been restored by nuns who patched the holes and stitched the shroud to a reinforcing material known as the Holland cloth.

"[The radiocarbon sample] has obvious painting medium, a dye and a mordant that doesn't show anywhere else," Mr Rogers explained.


"This stuff was manipulated - it was coloured on purpose."
In the study, he analysed and compared the sample used in the 1988 tests with other samples from the famous cloth.

In addition to the discovery of dye, microchemical tests - which use tiny quantities of materials - provided a way to date the shroud.

These tests revealed the presence of a chemical called vanillin in the radiocarbon sample and in the Holland cloth, but not the rest of the shroud.

Vanillin is produced by the thermal decomposition of lignin, a chemical compound found in plant material such as flax. Levels of vanillin in material such as linen fall over time.

'Older date'

"The fact that vanillin cannot be detected in the lignin on shroud fibres, Dead Sea scrolls linen and other very old linens indicates that the shroud is quite old," Mr Rogers writes.

"A determination of the kinetics of vanillin loss suggests the shroud is between 1,300 and 3,000 years old."

In the 1988 study, scientists from three universities concluded that the cloth dated from some time between 1260 and 1390. This ruled it out as the possible burial cloth that wrapped the body of Christ.


That led to the then Cardinal of Turin, Anastasio Alberto Ballestrero, admitting the garment was a hoax.
Michael Minor, vice-president of the American Shroud of Turin Association for Research, commented: "This is the most significant news about the Shroud of Turin since the C-14 dating was announced in 1988.

"The C-14 dating isn't being disputed. But [the new research] is saying that they dated the rewoven area."

But since the announcement of the 1988 results, several attempts have been made to challenge the authenticity of these tests.

"The sample tested was dyed using technology that began to appear in Italy about the time the Crusaders' last bastion fell to the Mameluke Turks in AD 1291," said Mr Rogers.

"The radiocarbon sample cannot be older than about AD 1290, agreeing with the age determined in 1988. However, the shroud itself is actually much older."

Some now hope the Vatican will give approval for samples of the shroud to be re-tested.

But, says Mr Minor, "the church is very hesitant, very reluctant for that to be done, because they've been given so many conflicting opinions".




Turin Shroud 'shows second face'    New 4-13-04

New research into the Turin Shroud has added to the mystery surrounding the controversial artefact.
A second ghostly image of a man's face has been discovered on the back of the linen, according to a report published by London's Institute of Physics.

The delicate 14ft-long linen sheet is believed by some to be the cloth in which Jesus was wrapped after being taken down from the cross.

It has been dismissed by others as an elaborate hoax.

The back of the shroud has rarely been seen as it was hidden beneath a piece of cloth sewn on by nuns in 1534, after it was damaged by fire.

But the back surface was exposed during a restoration project in 2002.

 It is extremely difficult to make a fake with these features - Professor Giulio Fanti 

A professor at Italy's Padua University, Giulio Fanti, thought he saw a "faint image" in the photographs from this project and decided to investigate it further.
"Though the image is very faint, features such as nose, eyes, hair, beard and moustaches are clearly visible," he said.

"There are some slight differences with the known face. For example, the nose on the reverse side shows the same extension of both nostrils, unlike the front side, in which the right nostril is less evident."

Professor Fanti has dismissed claims that the image on the back confirms that the shroud is a fake - with paint soaking from the front to the back.

"This is not the case of the shroud. On both sides, the face image is superficial, involving only the outermost linen fibres," he said.

"It is extremely difficult to make a fake with these features."

Shrouded in mystery

These findings are just the latest in the controversy which has dogged the cloth since it was first photographed more than 100 years ago.

Carbon-dating tests carried out in 1988 suggested the shroud was a fake.
In the 1988 study, scientists from three universities concluded that the cloth dated from some time between 1260 and 1390, and that it was not the burial cloth wrapped around the body of Christ.

That led to the humiliating spectacle of the then Cardinal of Turin, Anastasio Alberto Ballestrero, admitting the garment was a hoax.

But since then, some doubt has been cast on the carbon-dating techniques.

In 1997, a Swiss archaeologist who spent 16 years studying the shroud said new tests had proved its authenticity "beyond all reasonable doubt".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3621931.stm


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