Turin Shroud could be from Christ's lifetime: Infrared tests show
ancient cloth may NOT be a medieval fake after all
* Infra red tests dated the cloth to some time between 300BC and
400AD
* The shroud will appear in a live TV broadcast on Saturday
By Fiona Macrae
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PUBLISHED:13:54 GMT, 28 March 2013| UPDATED:01:25 GMT, 29 March 2013
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Some venerate it as the burial cloth of Christ. To others, the Turin
Shroud is nothing more than a medieval hoax.
Now, science has come down on the side of the believers.
Researchers have dated a sample of the 14ft linen sheet to anything
between 300BC to 400AD.
[Separated at birth: Split screen showing the likeness between the
Turin Shroud and a portrait by Leonardo da Vinci]
Separated at birth: Split screen showing the likeness between the Turin
Shroud and a portrait by Leonardo da Vinci
They used forensic tests to compare fibres from the shroud with a range
of ancient fabric samples. And they discovered that the material could
have been made in Jesus's lifetime.
Their results contradict a landmark 1988 study, spearheaded by the
British Museum, which used carbon dating to examine the cloth.
It said the shroud, which has an imprint of a bearded man with wounds
consistent to being nailed to a cross, was actually made in the Middle
Ages more than 1,000 years after the Crucifixion.
But scientists at Padua University believe the original results could
have been skewed by centuries of water and fire damage. More...
* The Turin Shroud DOES have miraculous powers... whether it is
genuine or not
<http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2077341/The-Turin-shroud-DOES-m\
iraculous-powers--Whether-genuine-not.html>
* Shroud of Turin is a fake created by famous master Giotto, claims
Italian art expert
<http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2000406/Shroud-Turin-fake-creat\
ed-famous-master-Giotto-claims-Italian-art-expert.html>
* The Turin Shroud is a fake
and it's one of 40: Historian
claims linen cloths were produced 1,300 years after crucifixion
<http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2157217/The-Turin-Shroud-fake-E\
minent-historian-claims-40-similar-cloths-originated-1-300-years-AFTER-c\
rucifixion.html>
The shroud, which is one of Catholicism's most controversial relics,
was once described by Pope John Paul II as `an icon of suffering in
every age'.
The findings are in a new book called Il Mistero della Sindone (The
Mystery of the Shroud) which is published on Good Friday.
The authors, Professor Giulio Fanti, an expert in mechanical and thermal
measurement at the University of Padua's Engineering Faculty and
journalist Saverio Gaeta, examined fibres from the Shroud and compared
them to samples of cloth dating back to between 3000BC and up to the
modern era to contrast them and see if it is a Medieval forgery.
[Turin Shroud Face] [Turin Shroud Face]
Has Turin Shroud mystery been solved? 14ft-long linen cloth, pictured
above left in 1934, bears the faint image of the front and back of a
tall, long-haired, bearded man and appears to be stained by blood from
wounds in his feet, wrists and sides that match those suffered by Christ
at his Crucifixion
Key to the findings are three new tests, two chemical ones and one
mechanical, the first two were carried out using infra-red light, and
the other using Raman spectroscopy - which measures radiation through
wavelengths and is commonly used in forensic science.
The results dated the fibres from the cloth to a period between 300BC to
400AD, which covers the years of Christ's life. Debate has raged whether
the image is that of Christ or a fake from the Middle Ages. But what is
certain is that experts have never really been able to explain how the
image was made.
Carbon 14 tests were conducted on the cloth in 1988 and these findings
suggested it dated from between 1260 and 1390.
However, some scientists have since claimed that contamination over the
ages from water damage and fire, were not taken sufficiently into
account and could have distorted the results.
Since then, there have been several requests for fresh tests but Church
chiefs have always refused - and this is why Professor Fanti and his
team had to rely on fibres that were used in the 1988 tests.
Before he retired last month pope Emeritus Benedict XVI gave permission
for the Shroud to go on display as a 'last gift' to the millions of
Catholics before he retired from public office.
Thirteen years ago when he was plain cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Benedict
wrote that the shroud was a `truly mysterious image, which no human
artistry was capable of producing. In some inexplicable it appeared
imprinted upon cloth...'
Italian state TV will broadcast footage of the Shroud but it is not
thought that general public access will be allowed until 2025, the date
of the next scheduled display.
As part of the TV broadcast, a new app called Sindone 2.0 has been
developed, showing a series of HD images of the shroud which highlight
details of the cloth not visible to the naked eye.
Read more:
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eval-fake-dates-Christs-lifetime-say-scientists.html#ixzz2Ovy3UyKA
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