Shroud of Turin

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The Shroud of Turin: recent photo of the face, positive left, negative right. Negative has been contrast enhanced.

The first photo of the Shroud of Turin, taken in 1898 by Secondo Pia. It had the surprising feature that the image on the negative was clearer than the positive image.^[1]

The Shroud of Turin (or Turin Shroud) is a linen cloth bearing the image of a man who appears to have suffered physical trauma in a manner consistent with crucifixion. It is kept in the royal chapel of the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist in Turin, northern Italy. The origins of the shroud and its image are the subject of intense debate among scientists, theologians, historians and researchers.

Some contend that the shroud is the cloth placed on the body of Jesus Christ at the time of his burial, and that the face image is the Holy Face of Jesus. Others contend that the artifact postdates the Crucifixion of Jesus by more than a millennium.^[2] Both sides of the argument use science and historical documents to make their case.

The image on the shroud is much clearer in black-and-white negative than in its natural sepia color. The striking negative image was first observed on the evening of May 28, 1898, on the reverse photographic plate of amateur photographer Secondo Pia, who was allowed to photograph it while it was being exhibited in the Turin Cathedral. The Catholic Church has neither formally endorsed nor rejected the shroud, but in 1958 Pope Pius XII approved of the image in association with the Roman Catholic devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus.

Most probably, the Shroud of Turin is the single most studied artifact in human history.^[3] In 1978 a detailed examination was carried out by a team of American scientists called STURP. It found no reliable evidences of forgery. STURP called the question of how the image was formed "a mystery"^[4]. In 1988 a radiocarbon dating test was performed on small samples of the shroud, concluding that they date from the Middle Ages, between 1260 and 1390^[5][6]. Controversy has arisen over the reliability of the test.^[7][8][9]

Description

Secondo Pia's 1898 negative of the image on the Shroud of Turin has an appearance suggesting a positive image. It is used as part of the devotion to Holy Face of Jesus.

The shroud is rectangular, measuring approximately 4.4 × 1.1 m (14.3 × 3.7 ft). The cloth is woven in a three-to-one herringbone twill composed of flax fibrils. Its most distinctive characteristic is the faint, yellowish image of a front and back view of a naked man with his hands folded across his groin. The two views are aligned along the midplane of the body and point in opposite directions. The front and back views of the head nearly meet at the middle of the cloth.^[10]

Reddish brown stains that have been said to include whole blood are found on the cloth, showing various wounds that, according to proponents, correlate with the yellowish image, the pathophysiology of crucifixion, and the Biblical description of the death of Jesus:^[11] Markings on the lines include:^[12]

• one wrist bears a large, round wound, claimed to be from piercing (the second wrist is hidden by the folding of the hands)
• upward gouge in the side penetrating into the thoracic cavity. Proponents claim this was a post-mortem event and there are separate components of red blood cells and serum draining from the lesion
• small punctures around the forehead and scalp
• scores of linear wounds on the torso and legs. Proponents claim that the wounds are consistent with the distinctive dumbbell wounds of a Roman flagrum.
• swelling of the face from severe beatings
• streams of blood down both arms. Proponents claim that the blood drippings from the main flow occurred in response to gravity at an angle that would occur during crucifixion
• no evidence of either leg being fractured
• large puncture wounds in the feet as if pierced by a single spike

Full length negatives of the shroud.

The shroud includes images that are not easily distinguishable by the naked eye, and were first observed after the advent of photography. In May 1898 amateur Italian photographer Secondo Pia was allowed to photograph the shroud and he took the first photograph of the shroud on the evening of May 28, 1898. Pia was startled by the visible image of the negative plate in his darkroom. Negatives of the image give the appearance of a positive image, which implies that the shroud image is itself effectively a negative of some kind.^[13] Pia was at first accused of doctoring his photographs, but was vindicated in 1931 when a professional photographer, Giuseppe Enrie, also photographed the shroud and his findings supported Pia's.^[14] In 1978 Miller and Pellicori took ultraviolet photographs of the shroud.^[15][16]

The image of the "Man of the Shroud" has a beard, moustache, and shoulder-length hair parted in the middle. He is muscular and tall (various experts have measured him as from 1.75 m, or roughly 5 ft 9 in, to 1.88 m, or 6 ft 2 in).^[17]

Fourteen large triangular patches and eight smaller ones were sewn onto the cloth by Poor Clare nuns to repair the damage from a fire in 1532 in the chapel in Chambery, France. Some burn holes and scorched areas down both sides of the linen are present, due to contact with molten silver during the fire that burned through it in places while it was folded.^[18]

History

Full-length image of the Turin Shroud before the 2002 restoration.

Archaeologist William Meacham states that of all religious relics, the history of the Shroud of Turin has generated the greatest controversy.^[19] According to author Brian Haughton it is difficult to imagine a more controversial historical artifact, and that much of its history is obscure, with no historical record until the 16th century. Although prior historical references exist to some pieces of cloth with images, it is uncertain if these are the same as the shroud that is now in the Cathedral in Turin.^[20] The Catholic Encyclopedia echoes the same sentiment: "A certain difficulty was caused by the existence elsewhere of other Shrouds similarly impressed with the figure of Jesus Christ."^[21] However, the Catholic encyclopedia, as well as some other authors suggest that the recorded history traces back to the 14th century, but an origin date in the 15th century has also been suggested.^[22][23][24]

The historical records for the shroud can be separated into three time periods: prior to the 14th century; from the 14th to the 16th century; and thereafter. Prior to the 14th century there are some congruent references like Pray Codex. The period from the 14th to the 16th century is subject to debate and controversy among historians. The history from the 16th century to the present is well understood (and uneventful except for two chapel fires), since the shroud has been housed in Turin Cathedral since then. As of the 17th century the shroud has been displayed (e.g. in the chapel built for that purpose by Guarino Guarini^[25]) and in the 19th century it was first photographed during a public exhibition.^[26]

There are no definite historical records concerning the shroud prior to the 14th century. Although there are numerous reports of Jesus' burial shroud, or an image of his head, of unknown origin, being venerated in various locations before the fourteenth century, there is no historical evidence that these refer to the shroud currently at Turin Cathedral.^[27]

The pilgrim medallion of Lirey (drawing by Arthur Forgeais, 1865)

Historical records indicate that a shroud bearing an image of a crucified man existed in the small town of Lirey, France around the years 1353 to 1357. However, the correspondence of this shroud with the shroud in Turin, and its very origin has been debated by scholars and lay authors, with claims of forgery attributed to artists born a century apart. Some contend that the Lirey shroud was the work of a confessed forger and murderer.^[28] Professor Larissa Tracy, of Virginia also argues that the shroud in Turin is a forgery, but that it was forged by Leonardo da Vinci, who was born in 1452. Professor Nicholas Allen of South Africa on the other hand believes that the image was made photographically and not by an artist. Professor John Jackson of Colorado argues that the shroud in Turin dates back to the first century AD.^{[29][30][31][32][33]}

In his painting of the shroud in a Descent from the cross scene, Giulio Clovio made one slight error and showed the right hand crossed over the left, c. 1540.^[34]

The history of the shroud from the middle of 16th century is well recorded. The existence of a miniature by Giulio Clovio, which gives a good representation of what was seen upon the shroud about the year 1540, confirms that the shroud housed in Turin today is the same one as in the middle of the 16th century.^[21]

In 1532, the shroud suffered damage from a fire in the chapel where it was stored. A drop of molten silver from the reliquary produced a symmetrically placed mark through the layers of the folded cloth. Poor Clare Nuns attempted to repair this damage with patches. In 1578 the House of Savoy took the shroud to Turin and it has remained at Turin Cathedral ever since.^[35]

Repairs were made to the shroud in 1694 by Sebastian Valfrè to improve the repairs of the Poor Clare nuns.^[36] Further repairs were made in 1868 by Clotilde of Savoy.^[37] The shroud remained the property of the House of Savoy until 1983, when it was given to the Holy See, the rule of the House of Savoy having ended in 1946.

A fire, possibly caused by arson, threatened the shroud on 11 April 1997, but a fireman saved it from significant damage.^[38] In 2002, the Holy See had the shroud restored. The cloth backing and thirty patches were removed, making it possible to photograph and scan the reverse side of the cloth, which had been hidden from view. A ghostly part-image of the body was found on the back of the shroud in 2004.^[39] The most recent public exhibition of the Shroud was in 2000 for the Great Jubilee. The next exhibition is scheduled on April 10—May 23, 2010.^[40]

Religious perspective

Religious beliefs about the burial cloths of Jesus have existed for centuries. The Gospels of Matthew^[27:59-60], Mark^[15:46] and Luke^[23:53] state that Joseph of Arimathea wrapped the body of Jesus in a piece of linen cloth and placed it in a new tomb. The Gospel of John^[19:38-40] refers to strips of linen used by Joseph of Arimathea and John^[20:6-7] states that Apostle Peter found multiple pieces of burial cloth after the tomb was found open, strips of linen cloth for the body and a separate cloth for the head.

Although pieces of burial cloths of Jesus are claimed by at least four churches in France and three in Italy none has gathered as much religious following as the Shroud of Turin.^[41] The religious beliefs and practices associated with the shroud predate historical and scientific discussions and have continued in the 21st century, although the Catholic Church has never claimed its authenticity.^[42] An example is the Holy Face Medal bearing the image from the shroud, worn by some Catholics.^[43]

Devotions

Although the shroud image is currently associated with Catholic devotions to the Holy Face of Jesus, the devotions themselves predate Secondo Pia's 1898 photograph. Such devotions had been started in 1844 by the Carmelite nun Marie of St Peter (based on "pre-crucifixion" images associated with the Veil of Veronica) and promoted by Leo Dupont, also called the Apostle of the Holy Face. In 1851 Leo Dupont formed the "Archconfraternity of the Holy Face" in Tours, France, well before Secondo Pia took the photograph of the shroud.^[44]

Miraculous image

A poster advertising the 1898 exhibition of the shroud in Turin. Secondo Pia's photograph was taken a few weeks too late to be included in the poster. The image on the poster includes a painted face, not obtained from Pia's photograph.

The religious concept of "miraculous image" has been applied to the Shroud of Turin, as it has been applied to other religious artifacts such as the image of the Virgin Mary on the cloak in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe on Tepeyac hill in Mexico.^[45][46]

Without debating scientific issues, some believers state as a matter of faith that empirical analysis and scientific methods will perhaps never advance to a level sufficient for understanding the divine methods used for image formation on the shroud, since the body around whom the shroud was wrapped was not merely human, but divine, and believe that the image on the shroud was miraculously produced at the moment of Resurrection.^[47][48] Quoting Pope Paul VI's statement that the shroud is "the wonderful document of His Passion, Death and Resurrection, written for us in letters of blood" author Antonio Cassanelli argues that the shroud is a deliberate divine record of the five stages of the Passion of Christ.^[49]

Vatican position

The Vatican newspaper Osservatore Romano covered the story of Secondo Pia's photograph of May 28, 1898 in its June 15, 1898 edition, but it did so with no comment and thereafter Church officials generally refrained from officially commenting on the photograph for almost half a century.

The first official association between the image on the Shroud and the Catholic Church was made in 1940 based on the formal request by Sister Maria Pierina De Micheli to the curia in Milan to obtain authorization to produce a medal with the image. The authorization was granted and the first medal with the image was offered to Pope Pius XII who approved the medal. The image was then used on what became known as the Holy Face Medal worn by many Catholics, initially as a means of protection during the Second World War. In 1958 Pope Pius XII approved of the image in association with the devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus, and declared its feast to be celebrated every year the day before Ash Wednesday.^[50][51] Following the approval by Pope Pius XII, Catholic devotions to the Holy Face of Jesus have been almost exclusively associated with the image on the shroud.

In 1983 the Shroud was given to the Holy See by the House of Savoy.^[52] However, as with all relics of this kind, the Roman Catholic Church made no pronouncements claiming whether it is Jesus' burial shroud, or if it is a forgery. As with other approved Catholic devotions, the matter has been left to the personal decision of the faithful, as long as the Church does not issue a future notification to the contrary. In the Church's view, whether the cloth is authentic or not has no bearing whatsoever on the validity of what Jesus taught nor on the saving power of his death and resurrection.^[53][54]

Pope John Paul II stated in 1998 that:^[55]: "Since we're not dealing with a matter of faith, the church can't pronounce itself on such questions. It entrusts to scientists the tasks of continuing to investigate, to reach adequate answers to the questions connected to this Shroud." Pope John Paul II showed himself to be deeply moved by the image of the Shroud and arranged for public showings in 1998 and 2000. In his address at the Turin Cathedral on Sunday May 24, 1998 (the occasion of the 100th year of Secondo Pia's May 28, 1898 photograph), he said:^[56] "The Shroud is an image of God's love as well as of human sin ... The imprint left by the tortured body of the Crucified One, which attests to the tremendous human capacity for causing pain and death to one's fellow man, stands as an icon of the suffering of the innocent in every age." In 2000, Cardinal Ratzinger wrote that the Shroud of Turin is ″a truly mysterious image, which no human artistry was capable of producing. In some inexplicable way, it appeared imprinted upon cloth and claimed to show the true face of Christ, the crucified and risen Lord."^[57]

Pope Benedict XVI has not publicly commented on the Shroud's authenticity, but has taken steps that indirectly affect the Shroud. In June 2008 he approved the public display of the Shroud in the Spring of 2010 and stated that he would like to go to Turin to see it along with other pilgrims.^[58] In April 2009 Pope Benedict XVI advanced the beatification process of Sister Maria Pierina De Micheli who coined the Holy Face Medal, based on Secondo Pia's photograph of the Shroud, by formally recognizing a miracle attributed to her.^[59][60]

Scientific perspective

Station biologique de Roscoff in Brittany, France where the first scientific analysis of the photographs of the shroud was performed by Yves Delage in 1902.^[61]

The term sindonology (from the Greek σινδών—sindon, the word used in the Gospel of Mark^[15:46] to describe the type of the burial cloth of Jesus) is used to refer to the formal study of the Shroud.

Secondo Pia's 1898 photographs of the shroud allowed the scientific community to begin to study it. A variety of scientific theories regarding the shroud have since been proposed, based on disciplines ranging from chemistry to biology and medical forensics to optical image analysis. Very few scientists (e.g. STURP and the Radiocarbon dating teams) have had direct access to the shroud or very small samples from it, and most theories have been proposed "long distance" by the analysis of images, or via secondary sources. The scientific approaches to the study of the Shroud fall into three groups: material analysis (both chemical and historical), biology and medical forensics and image analysis.

Early studies

The initial steps towards the scientific study of the shroud were taken soon after the first set of black and whites photographs became available early in the 20th century. In 1902 Yves Delage, a French professor of comparative anatomy published the first study on the subject.^[62] Delage declared the image anatomically flawless and argued that the features of rigor mortis, wounds, and blood flows were evidence that the image was formed by direct or indirect contact with a corpse. William Meacham mentions several other medical studies performed between 1936 to 1981 which have agreed with Delage.^{[63][64][65][66]} However, these were all indirect studies without access to the shroud itself.

The first direct examination of the shroud by a scientific team was undertaken in 1969-1973 in order to advise on the preservation of the shroud and for the determination of specific testing methods. This led to the appointment of an 11-member Turin Commission to advise on the preservation of the relic and on specific testing which might be performed. Five of the commission members were scientists, and preliminary studies of samples of the fabric were conducted in 1973.^[63]

In 1976 physicist John P. Jackson, thermodynamicist Eric Jumper and photographer William Mottern used image analysis technologies developed in aerospace science for analyzing the images of the Shroud. In 1977 these three scientists and over thirty others formed the Shroud of Turin Research Project. In 1978 this group, often called STURP, was given direct access to the Shroud.^[67]

Material chemical analysis

Phase contrast microscopic view of image-bearing fiber from the Shroud of Turin. Carbohydrate layer is visible along top edge. The lower-right edge shows that coating is missing. The coating can be scraped off or removed with adhesive or diimide.

Radiocarbon dating

After years of discussion, the Holy See permitted radiocarbon dating on portions of a swatch taken from a corner of the shroud. Independent tests in 1988 at the University of Oxford, the University of Arizona, and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology concluded that the shroud material dated to 1260-1390 AD, with 95% confidence.^[5] This 13th to 14th century dating matches the first appearance of the shroud in church history,^[21] and is somewhat later than art historian W.S.A. Dale's estimate of an 11th century date based on art-historical grounds.^[68]

Once generally accepted by the scientific community^[69] by those who consider the shroud to be inauthentic^[70], and by some members of the Catholic Church^[71], these results have since been questioned in peer-reviewed journals by Raymond Rogers in Thermochimica Acta^[72] and by M.Sue Benford and Joseph G. Marino in Chemistry Today.^[73] Criticisms have been raised about aspects of the study as doubts were raised regarding the original nature of the sample that was taken for testing, not the quality of the radiocarbon testing itself.^{[74][75] [76]}

Tests for pigments

In 1970s a special eleven-member Turin Commission conducted several tests. Conventional and electron microscopic examination of the Shroud at that time revealed an absence of heterogeneous coloring material or pigment.^[63] In 1979, Walter McCrone, upon analyzing the samples he was given by STURP, concluded that the image is actually made up of billions of submicrometre pigment particles. The only fibrils that had been made available for testing of the stains were those that remained affixed to custom-designed adhesive tape applied to thirty-two different sections of the image.^[77]

John Heller and lan Adler examined the same samples and agreed with McCrone's result that the cloth contains iron oxide. However, they concluded, the exceptional purity of the chemical and comparisons with other ancient textiles showed that, while retting flax absorbs iron selectively, the iron itself was not the source of the image on the shroud.^[78][79] Other microscopic analysis of the fibers seems to indicate that the image is strictly limited to the carbohydrate layer, with no additional layer of pigment visible.^[80]

Material historical analysis

Historical fabrics

In 2000, fragments of a burial shroud from the first century were discovered in a tomb near Jerusalem, believed to have belonged to a Jewish high priest or member of the aristocracy. The shroud was composed of a simple two-way weave, unlike the complex weave of the Turin Shroud. Based on this discovery, these researchers stated that the Turin Shroud did not originate from Jesus-era Jerusalem.^[81][82][83]

A Roman loom, c. 2nd century CE.

According to textile expert Mechthild Flury-Lemberg of Hamburg, a seam in the cloth corresponds to a fabric found only at the fortress of Masada near the Dead Sea, which dated to the first century. The weaving pattern, 3:1 twill, is consistent with first-century Syrian design, according to the appraisal of Gilbert Raes of the Ghent Institute of Textile Technology in Belgium. Flury-Lemberg stated, "The linen cloth of the Shroud of Turin does not display any weaving or sewing techniques which would speak against its origin as a high-quality product of the textile workers of the first century."^[84]

In 1999, Mark Guscin investigated the relationship between the shroud and the Sudarium of Oviedo, claimed as the cloth that covered the head of Jesus in the Gospel of John^[20:6-7] when the empty tomb was discovered. The Sudarium is also reported to have type AB blood stains. Guscin concluded that the two cloths covered the same head at two distinct, but close moments of time. Avinoam Danin (see below) concurred with this analysis, adding that the pollen grains in the Sudarium match those of the shroud.^[85] Skeptics criticize the polarized image overlay technique of Guscin and suggest that pollen from Jerusalem could have followed any number of paths to find its way to the sudarium.^[86]

In 2002, Aldo Guerreschi and Michele Salcito argued that that many of these marks on the fabric of the shroud stem from a much earlier time because the symmetries correspond more to the folding that would have been necessary to store the cloth in a clay jar (like cloth samples at Qumran) than to that necessary to store it in the reliquary that housed it in 1532.^[87]

Dirt particles

A piece of travertine.

Joseph Kohlbeck from the Hercules Aerospace Center in Utah and Richard Levi-Setti of the Enrico Fermi Institute examined some dirt particles from the Shroud surface. The dirt was found to be travertine aragonite limestone.^[88] Using a high-resolution microprobe, Levi-Setti and Kolbeck compared the spectra of samples taken from the Shroud with samples of limestone from ancient Jerusalem tombs. The chemical signatures of the Shroud samples and the tomb limestone were found identical except for minute fragments of cellulose linen fiber that could not be separated from the Shroud samples.^[89]

Biological and medical forensics

Blood stains

There are several reddish stains on the shroud suggesting blood, but is uncertain whether these stains were produced at the same time as the image, or afterwards.^[90] McCrone (see painting hypothesis) identified these as containing iron oxide, theorizing that its presence was likely due to simple pigment materials used in medieval times. Other researchers, including Alan Adler identified the reddish stains as type AB blood and interpreted the iron oxide as a natural residue of hemoglobin. Blood type AB has been assumed to have relatively recent origin, perhaps as early as AD 700,^[91][92] but this notion is controversial due to principles of blood inheritance and co-dominance.

Heller and Adler further studied the dark red stains and determined and identified hemoglobin, establishing, within claimed scientific certainty, the presence of porphyrin, bilirubin, albumin, and protein.^[93] Working independently pathologist Pier Baima Bollone, concurred with Heller and Adler's findings and identified the blood as AB blood group,^[94] Subsequently, STURP sent blood flecks to the laboratory devoted to the study of ancient blood at the State University of New York (SUNY). Dr. Andrew Merriwether at SUNY stated that no blood typing could be confirmed, and the DNA was badly fragmented. He stated that it is almost certain that the blood spots are blood, but no definitive statements can be made about its nature or provenience, i.e., whether it is male and from the Near East."^[95]

Joe Nickell argues that results similar to Heller and Adler's could be obtained from tempera paint.^[96] Skeptics also cite other forensic blood tests whose results dispute the authenticity of the Shroud^[86] and that the blood could belong to a person handling the shroud, that the apparent blood flows on the shroud are unrealistically neat.^[86][97][98]

Flowers and pollen

A Chrysanthemum coronarium

In 1997 Avinoam Danin, a botanist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, reported that he had identified the type of Chrysanthemum coronarium, Cistus creticus and Zygophyllum whose pressed image on the shroud was first noticed by Alan Whanger in 1985 on the photographs of the shroud taken in 1931. He reported that the outlines of the flowering plants would point to March or April and the environs of Jerusalem.^[99][100] In a separate report in 1978 Danin and Uri Baruch reported on the pollen grains on the cloth samples, stating that they were appropriate to the spring in Israel.^[101] Max Frei, a Swiss police criminologist who initially obtained pollen from the shroud during the STURP investigation stated that of the 58 different types of pollens found, 45 were from the Jerusalem area, while 6 were from the eastern Middle East, with one pollen species growing exclusively in Constantinople, and two found in Edessa, Turkey.^[102] Mark Antonacci argues that the pollen evidence and flower images are inherently intervowen and strengthen each other.^[103]

Skeptics have argued that the flower images are too faint for Danin's determination to be definite, that an independent review of the pollen strands showed that one strand out of the 26 provided contained significantly more pollen than the others, perhaps pointing to deliberate contamination^[104] and that Frei had overstated evidence in a separate matter that did not involve the shroud.^[105][106]

In 2008 Avinoam Danin reported analysis based on the ultraviolet photographs of Miller and Pellicori^[107][108] taken in 1978. Danin reported five new species of flower, which also bloom in March and April and stated that a comparison of the 1931 black and white photographs and the 1978 ultraviolet images indicate that the flower images are genuine and not the artifact of a specific method of photography.^[109]

Image analysis

NASA researchers Jackson, Jumper, and Stephenson report detecting the impressions of coins placed on both eyes after a digital study in 1978.^[110] The two-lepton coin on the right eyelid was presumably coined under Pilate in 29—30,^[111] while the one-lepton coin on the left eyebrow was minted in 29.^[112] Greek and Latin letters were discovered written near the face (Piero Ugolotti, 1979). These were further studied by André Marion, professor at the École supérieure d'optique and his student Anne Laure Courage, graduate engineer of the École supérieure d'optique, in the Institut d'optique théorique et appliquée in Orsay (1997). Subsequently, through computerized analysis and microdensitometer, other writings were found, among them INNECEM (a shortened form of Latin "in necem ibis"—"you will go to death"), NNAZAPE(N)NUS (Nazarene), IHSOY (Jesus) and IC (Iesus Chrestus).^[113] The uncertain letters IBE(R?) have been conjectured as "Tiberius".^[114]

Image analysis by scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory found that rather than being like a photographic negative, the image unexpectedly has the property of decoding into a 3-D image of the man when the darker parts of the image are interpreted to be those features of the man that were closest to the shroud and the lighter areas of the image those features that were farthest. This is not a property that occurs in photography, and researchers could not replicate the effect when they attempted to transfer similar images using techniques of block print, engravings, a hot statue, and bas-relief.^[115]

In 2004, in an article in the Journal of Optics G. Fanti, R. Maggiolo reported finding a faint second face on the backside of the cloth, after the 2002 restoration.^[116]

Hypotheses on image origin

Many hypotheses have been formulated and tested to explain the image on the Shroud. To date, despite numerous and often media-related claims, it can be said that "the body image of the Turin Shroud has not yet been explained by traditional science; so a great interest in a possible mechanism of image formation still exists."^[117].

Painting

A thermographic image of a glass of water.

The technique used for producing the image is, according to W. McCrone, already described in a book about medieval painting published in 1847 by Charles Lock Eastlake ("Methods and Materials of Painting of the Great Schools and Masters"). Eastlake describes in the chapter "Practice of Painting Generally During the XIVth Century" a special technique of painting on linen using tempera paint, which produces images with unusual transparent features—which McCrone compares to the image on the shroud.^[118]

This hypothesis was declared to be unsound as the X-ray fluorescence examination, as well as infrared thermography, did not point out any pigment.^[119][120] It was also found that 25 different solvents, among them water, do not reduce or sponge out the image.^[121] The non-paint origin has been further claimed by Fourier transform of the image: in the common paintings one points out a directionality that is on the contrary absent in the Turin Shroud.^[122]

Photographic image production

According to the art historian Nicolas Allen the image on the shroud was formed by a photographic technique in the 13th century.^[123] Allen maintains that techniques already available before the 14th century, as e.g. described in the Book of Optics which was at just this time translated from Arabic into Latin, were sufficient to produce primitive photographs and that people familiar with these techniques would have been able to produce an image as found on the shroud. To demonstrate this, he has successfully produced photographic images similar to the shroud using only techniques and materials available at the time the shroud was made. He described his results in his PhD Thesis,^[124] in papers published in several science journals,^[125][126] and in a book.^[127]

However a double photographic exposure, needed in that case, should have considered the distances and in such case there would be areas of photographic superimposition with different lights and shades. The distances on Shroud instead correspond to the body position.^[128]

Dust-transfer technique

Scientists Emily Craig and Randall Bresee have attempted to recreate the likenesses of the shroud through the dust-transfer technique which could have been done by medieval arts. They first did a carbon-dust drawing of a Jesus-like face (using collagen dust) on a newsprint made from wood pulp (which is similar, but not identical to, 13th and 14th century paper). They next placed the drawing on a table and covered it with a piece of linen. They then pressed the linen against the newsprint by firmly rubbing with the flat side of a wooden spoon. By doing this they managed to create a reddish brown image with a life-like positive likeness of a person, a three dimensional image and no sign of brush strokes.^[129] This is probably the best copy of the face. However, it does not reproduce many special features of the Shroud at microscopic level.^[130]

Bas-relief

Another hypothesis suggests that the Shroud may have been formed using a bas-relief sculpture. Researcher Jacques di Costanzo, noting that the Shroud image seems to have a three-dimensional quality, suggested that perhaps the image was formed using an actual three-dimensional object, like a sculpture. While wrapping a cloth around a life-sized statue would result in a distorted image, placing a cloth over a bas-relief would result in an image like the one seen on the shroud. To demonstrate the plausibility of his hypothesis, Costanzo constructed a bas-relief of a Jesus-like face and draped wet linen over the bas-relief. After the linen dried, he dabbed it with a mixture of ferric oxide and gelatine. The result was an image similar to that of the Shroud. The imprinted image turned out to be wash-resistant, impervious to temperatures of 250 °C (482 °F) and was undamaged by exposure to a range of harsh chemicals, including bisulphite which, without the help of the gelatine, would normally have degraded ferric oxide to the compound ferrous oxide.^[131] Similar results have been obtained by author Joe Nickell. Instead of painting, the bas-relief could also be heated and used to burn an image into the cloth.

However, after comparing the histograms of 256 different grey levels, it was found that the image obtained with a bas-relief has grey values included between 60 and 256 levels, but it is much contrasted with wide areas of white saturation (levels included between 245 and 256) and lacks of intermediate grey levels (levels included between 160 and 200). The face image on the Shroud instead has grey tonalities that vary in the same values field (between 60 and 256), but the white saturation is much less marked and the histogram is practically flat in correspondence of the intermediate grey levels (levels included between 160 and 200).^[132]

Maillard reaction

The Maillard reaction is a form of non-enzymatic browning involving an amino acid and a reducing sugar. The cellulose fibers of the shroud are coated with a thin carbohydrate layer of starch fractions, various sugars, and other impurities. In a paper entitled "The Shroud of Turin: an amino-carbonyl reaction may explain the image formation,"^[133] R.N. Rogers and A. Arnoldi propose that amines from a recently deceased human body may have undergone Maillard reactions with this carbohydrate layer within a reasonable period of time, before liquid decomposition products stained or damaged the cloth. The gases produced by a dead body are extremely reactive chemically and within a few hours, in an environment such as a tomb, a body starts to produce heavier amines in its tissues such as putrescine and cadaverine. However the potential source for amines required for the reaction is a decomposing body,^[134] while no signs of decomposition have been found on the Shroud.^[135]

Alan A. Mills argued that the image was formed by the chemical reaction auto-oxidation. He noted that the image corresponds to what would have been produced by a volatile chemical if the intensity of the color change were inversely proportional to the distance from the body of a loosely draped cloth.^[136]

Energy source

Since 1930^[137] several researchers (J. Jackson, G. Fanti, T. Trenn, T. Phillips, J.-B. Rinaudo and others) endorsed the flash-like irradiation hypothesis bound to what American chemist Giles Carter called the Resurrection Event.^[138] It was suggested that the relatively high definition of the image details can be obtained through the energy source (specifically, protonic) acting from inside.^[139] The Russian researcher Alexander Belyakov proposed an intense, but short flashlight source, which lasted some hundredths of second.^[140] The Canadian researcher Thaddeus J. Trenn theorizes that the image was formed by bombardment of pions and muons, released after the so-called weak dematerialization.^[138] Some other authors suggest the X-radiation^[141] or a burst of directional ultraviolet radiation may have played a role in the formation of the Shroud image.^[142] From the image characteristics, several researchers suppose that the radiant source was prevalently vertical.^[121]

Corona discharge

During restoration in 2002, the back of the cloth was photographed and scanned for the first time. An article on this subject by Giulio Fanti of the University of Padua and others envisages the electrostatic corona discharge as the probable mechanism to produce the images of the body in the Shroud.^[143] Congruent with that mechanism, they also describe an image on the reverse side of the fabric, much fainter than that on the front view of the body, consisting primarily of the face and perhaps hands. Like the front picture, it is entirely superficial, with coloration limited to the carbohydrate layer. The images correspond to, and are in registration with, those on the other side of the cloth. No image is detectable in the reverse side of the dorsal view of the body.

Supporters of the Maillard reaction theory point out that the gases would have been less likely to penetrate the entire cloth on the dorsal side, since the body would have been laid on a stone shelf.

Recent developments

On April 6, 2009, the London newspaper The Times reported that Dr. Barbara Frale, an official Vatican researcher, had uncovered evidence that the Shroud had been kept and venerated by the Templars since the 1204 sack of Constantinople. According to the account of one neophyte member of the order, veneration of the Shroud appeared to be part of the initiation ritual. The article also implies that this ceremony may be the source of the 'worship of a bearded figure' that the Templars were accused of at their 14th century trial and suppression.^[144]

On October 5, 2009, Luigi Garlaschelli, professor of organic chemistry at the University of Pavia, announced that he had made a full size reproduction of the Shroud of Turin using only medieval technologies. Garlaschelli placed a linen sheet over a volunteer and then rubbed it with an acidic pigment. The shroud was then aged in an oven before being washed to remove the pigment. He then added blood stains, scorches and water stains to replicate the original. The image on the reproduction, non peer-reviewed, would closely match that of the Turin Shroud with differences explained as the result of natural fading over the centuries.^[145] But according to noted sindonologist Giulio Fanti, professor of mechanical and thermic measurements at the Padua University, "the image in discussion does not match the main fundamental properties of the Shroud image, in particular at thread and fiber level but also at macroscopic level"^[146].

In November 2009 Dr. Barbara Frale announced that she had "managed to read the burial certificate of Jesus the Nazarene, or Jesus of Nazareth." imprinted in fragments of Greek, Hebrew and Latin writing, together with the image of a crucified man on the cloth. She asserted that the inscription provided an "historical date consistent with the Gospels account" and that the letters, not obvious to the human eyes, were first detected during an examination of the shroud in 1978, with others since coming to light. Like the image of the man himself Frale reports that the letters are in reverse and only become intelligible in negative photographs. Frale further asserts that under contemporary Jewish burial practices, within a Roman colony such as Palestine, a body buried after a death sentence could only be returned to the family after a year in a common grave (though the gospels report that Jesus was buried in a tomb provided by Joseph of Arimathea), therefore a death certificate was glued to the burial shroud, usually stuck to the face, to identify it for later retrieval.

Other scholars have argued that the writing originates from a reliquary that the cloth was housed in during medieval times. Frale disagrees on her assumption that a medieval Christian would not have referred to Jesus as "the Nazarene" but rather "Jesus as Christ" since the former would have been "heretical" in the Middle Ages, defining Jesus as being "only a man" rather than the Son of God. Frale's reconstruction of the text reads:

"In the year 16 of the reign of the Emperor Tiberius Jesus the Nazarene, taken down in the early evening after having been condemned to death by a Roman judge because he was found guilty by a Hebrew authority, is hereby sent for burial with the obligation of being consigned to his family only after one full year".

Frale further argues that the use of three languages was in line with the multi-lingual practices of Greek-speaking Jews in a Roman colony.^[147]

In 2010, three professors of statistics wrote in a scientific paper that the statistical analysis of the raw dates obtained from the three laboratories suggests "the presence of an important contamination in the 1988 TS samples"^[148].

A team of graphic artists tried to recreate the real face of Jesus in a special two-hour documentary on the History Channel broadcasted for the first time in March 2010. The image was made by taking information and blood encoded on the Turin Shroud and transforming it into a 3D image^[149][150].

See also

• Relics attributed to Jesus
• List of artifacts significant to the Bible

References

Further reading

• Antonacci, Mark : The Resurrection of the Shroud, M. Evans & Co., New York 2000
• McCrone, Walter : Judgment Day for The Turin Shroud. 1996 Chicago: Microscope Publications.
• Nickell, Joe : Inquest on the Shroud of Turin: Latest Scientific Findings, Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 1987
• Picknett, Lynn and Prince, Clive: The Turin Shroud: In Whose Image?, Harper-Collins, 1994 ISBN 0-552-14782-6.
• Rogers, Raymond N, A Chemist's Perspective on the Shroud of Turin, ISBN 978-0-615-23928-6
• Whiting, Brendan, 2006, The Shroud Story, Harbour Publishing, ISBN 064645725X
• Wilson, Ian : The Turin Shroud: The Burial Cloth of Jesus Christ?, 1979 ISBN 0-385-15042-3
• Wilson Ian : The Shroud : the 2000-Year-Old Mystery Solved, 2010, ISBN 978-0-593-06359-0
• Zugibe, Frederick : The Crucifixion of Jesus: A Forensic Inquiry - (2005)

External links

• Official site of the custodians of the Shroud in Turin
• The Shroud of Turin through History - A photographic slideshow history of the shroud at Discovery.com
• Discovery of image on reverse side of shroud (The Guardian)
• Jesus' Shroud? Recent Findings Renew Authenticity Debate by National Geographic Society
• Photo in the News: Shroud of Turin by National Geographic Society
• Shroud Science Group's Shroud of Turin Wiki
• Online Length Measurements on Shroud Photographs

Pro-authenticity sites

• Shroud.com
• Speech by Pope John Paul about the Shroud
• "Shroud of Christ?" (A "Secrets of the Dead" episode on PBS)
• Authenticity of the Shroud
• "Forensic Medicine and the Shroud of Turin"
• Shroud of Turin Story - Guide to the Facts
• Relationship of Shroud of Turin to the Volto Santo
• Shroud University - Explore the Mystery
• Sindonology.org
• Shroud Exhibit and Museum (SEAM), Inc. website for the museum in Alamogordo, NM

Skeptical sites

• Shroud of Turin, sacred relic or religious hoax?
• McCrone Research Institute presentation of its findings Assertion that the shroud is a painting.
• The Skeptical Shroud of Turin Website
• News on the Shroud of Turin: Purpura-dye as a light sensitive layer? German, with an English summary.
• The shroud of Turin - The Skeptic's Dictionary

Coordinates: 45°04′23″N 07°41′09″E / 45.07306°N 7.68583°E / 45.07306; 7.68583