-Caveat Lector- <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/"> </A> -Cui Bono?- London Times: 3/12/00 Image:http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/news/pages/sti/2000/03/12/stifgneur03010.h tml Fresh evidence could date Turin shroud to Christ John Follain, Rome A SWISS scientist claims to have found new evidence suggesting that the Turin shroud, the venerated relic dismissed a decade ago as a medieval fake, might be genuine after all. Carbon dating tests carried out in 1988 indicated that the shroud, revered by many Christians as the winding-sheet in which the body of Christ was wrapped for burial, had been made between 1260 and 1390. However, Mechthild Flury Lemberg, a leading authority on the history of textiles who helped to restore the relic, said last week that she had found a strong similarity between the shroud and fragments of cloth produced in the Middle East about 2,000 years ago. Her claim prompted demands for the Vatican to order new tests. In a report presented to a conference organised by the Catholic church, Lemberg likened stitching on both hems of the shroud and on a lengthy seam down one side to that on cloth found in the ruins of Masada, a mountain stronghold overlooking the Dead Sea and Jordan. These have been dated at between 40BC and AD73. "The seam is very well done, in such a way that you can only see it on the reverse side of the cloth," said Lemberg, a former curator of the Abegg Foundation textile museum in Switzerland. "In my opinion, the shroud is not a medieval fake. The parallels I have found indicate that it could have existed at the same time as Jesus Christ and in what is now Israel." Believers and non-believers alike have long been fascinated by the origins of the cloth, which bears the ghostly imprint of a bearded, long-haired man with markings that correspond to the stigmata. Pressure for a new carbon-14 dating test has grown since Israeli scientists claimed last year that the most common pollen found on it comes from a plant that could have been used to weave the crown of thorns placed on Christ's head. The plant, described in the Bible as tumbleweed, grows only in the Middle East. "Scientists have been divided on the value of carbon-testing ever since the first test was carried out," said Ian Wilson, author of several books on the shroud and one of the experts summoned by the church. "But the Masada and pollen studies have helped build a new consensus in favour of a fresh test." It is up to the Vatican to decide whether to go ahead. Although it has yet to respond officially to Lemberg's analysis, church organisers made her paper the first to be heard at the conference in Turin, where the shroud is kept. The first documented display of a burial shroud bearing the features of Christ dates back to 1389 after Geoffroi de Charnay, a French knight, wrote to Clement VII, the Avignon anti-pope, to tell him of the cloth he had inherited from his father. The shroud will go on public display in a bullet-proof case from August to October as part of the church's celebrations of the 2,000th birthday of Christ. It is expected to attract more than 3m people. <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soap-boxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
