Monday, November 26, 2007

TSoT: Bibliography "C"

Here is the Bibliography "C" page for authors' surnames beginning with

[Left: "The Shroud of Turin and the C-14 Dating Fiasco" (1996) by Thomas W. Case, Amazon.com. See `tagline' quotes below (bold emphases mine) all from this book.]

"C" of books which I will probably refer to in my book outline, "The Shroud of Turin: Burial Sheet of Jesus?"


THE SHROUD OF TURIN: BURIAL SHEET OF JESUS?
© Stephen E. Jones


CONTENTS

BIBLIOGRAPHY "C"

Case, T.W., 1996, "The Shroud of Turin and the C-14 Dating Fiasco," White Horse Press: Cincinnati OH.
Cassanelli, A., 2002, "The Holy Shroud," Williams, B., transl., Gracewing: Leominster UK.
Culliton, B.J., 1978, "The Mystery of the Shroud of Turin Challenges 20th-Century Science," Science, Vol. 201, 21 July, pp.235-239.
Currer-Briggs, N., 1987, "The Shroud and the Grail: A Modern Quest for the True Grail," St. Martin's Press: New York NY.
Currer-Briggs, N., 1995, "Shroud Mafia: The Creation of a Relic?," Book Guild: Sussex UK.

Stephen E. Jones, BSc. (Biology).
My other blog: CreationEvolutionDesign


"Heller and Adler published their findings in an article titled `A Chemical Investigation of the Shroud of Turin,' in the Canadian Society for Forensic Science Journal, Vo1. 14, No.3 (1981). For our purposes it is important to take note of the exhaustive studies the two chemists performed to answer the question of whether or not the `blood' on the Shroud was real blood. ... Heller, in his 1983 book Report on the Shroud of Turin, takes note that any one of these: the reflection scan, the microspectrophotometric scan, the positive hemochromogen test, the positive bile test, the positive cyanomethemoglobin test, the heme porphyrin fluorescence-is forensic proof in a court of law that blood is present. Taken together, the proof is irrefutable. The forensic evidence demonstrates the presence of about 120 scourge marks (some visible only under ultraviolet light), primarily on the back and shoulders of the figure. There is a mass of blood dripping from the crown of the head, from the puncture wounds in the hands and feet, and from a wound in the side. All the forensic evidence conforms in detail to the Gospel renditions of the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Reputable scientific -conclusion #1: THE BLOOD ON THE SHROUD IS REAL BLOOD." (Case, T.W., "The Shroud of Turin and the C-14 Dating Fiasco," White Horse Press: Cincinnati OH, 1996, pp.18-20. Emphasis original).

"The Image has been determined by the same two chemists-Heller and Adler-to be the result of chemical degradation of the crowns of the top-most fibrils in the Image area. This degradation fits most closely the operation of acid on linen. It first of all involves dehydration: a severe drying out process. Secondly it is oxidation, the mild forms of which produce a yellowing or browning, the more severe forms of which produce a scorch, a char, and finally a fire. Heller and Adler found that a piece of linen soaked in sulfuric acid for half an hour produced the requisite straw-yellow color of the Image. Light sources, including ultraviolet and infrared rays, gamma rays, and the other rays constituting the electromagnetic spectrum, were applied to linen-none produced the color of the Image. Furthermore, there was no evidence of any foreign substance (in anything like enough quantity) that could possibly be construed as being the result of painting, or rubbing, or spraying, or any conceivable artistic procedure. Spectroscopic analysis as well discovered no evidence of the metals which would have had to be present in any sort of inorganic `paint' that could make the image by artifice. Reputable scientific conclusion #2: THE IMAGE WAS FORMED BY DEHYDRATION AND OXIDATION OF THE FIBERS OF THE IMAGE AREA ITSELF, AND NOT BY ANY ADDED COLORING AGENT." (Case, 1996, pp.21-22. Emphasis original).

"This is, so far, only to describe the chemical properties of the Image. There are a couple of other odd features which must be mentioned. The various shades of color in the Image are not caused by a deeper or lighter coloring of any particular fibrils. They are caused rather by the density of colored fibrils in a given area. It is a lot like the half-tone prints in newspaper photos, where `black' is made by black ink dots bunched together, and `gray' is made by black ink dots interspersed with white areas. Suppose, then, that some sudden light or heat radiation mildly `scorched' the Shroud to make the Image. It is difficult to see how such a radiation could selectively produce the localized `on-off' coloring that produces the shading in the Image. Nor could the Image be any sort of naturally produced oxidative scorch at all, since a scorch fluoresces orange under ultraviolet light, while the Image does not fluoresce at all. The only way the Image resembles a mild scorch is in its color and in its being the result of some kind of dehydration. We must also recall that if the Image on the Shroud was somehow projected from the body by a kind of unknown `radiation' from that body, nothing could be natural about the process. Dead bodies do not radiate anything like what is required for the Image. Nor do they secrete any oils or vapors in any conceivable manner that could produce the undistorted 3-D detail of the Image. The Image is a perfect three-dimensional rendition of a crucified man. Assuming the Shroud was in contact with the body, any transference of `something' from that body onto the Shroud, would, when the Shroud is straightened out, produce an utterly distorted Image. This is a point brought out strongly by John Jackson and other scientists who investigated the typography of transferring an image from a three dimensional object to a two dimensional object. ... The Shroud Image, on the other hand, resembles exactly a mirror image. It is like the image you see when you look into a mirror face on. The mirror shows your whole frontal appearance in depth. It shows nothing of your sides, or the back side of your arms or legs, or the back of your head, or any of your head past the top point. If you turn your back to the mirror, though you can't see it, the image of your back would have the same characteristics. And in fact, this is exactly the portrait of the Crucified Man, front and back on the Shroud of Turin. The most important thing to understand is that, supposing a radiation of some type proceeding outwards from every point on the body, if the Shroud that covers the body is draped or curved over it in any degree, the resulting image on the Shroud must necessarily be distorted. That holds especially if the source-points of the radiation throw out their rays in all directions. It also holds if the radiation proceeds straight outwards in single lines from every point on the body. And it also holds even if the `rays' were projected straight upwards to intersect the draped Shroud at an angle. No matter: once the Shroud is straightened out, it will have inscribed on it an image distorted to a degree that becomes more extreme as the curvature of the previously draped cloth was greater. It will be wider and a little longer than the original, and all the features on it will be wider and a bit longer. ... The only way, according to the optics of the situation, that the Image could be the mirror image that it is, is for the Shroud to have been stiff as a board as it lay atop the body. Then if any `rays' came straight upwards from the body, they would impact the Shroud so as to produce an undistorted image. Reputable scientific conclusion #3: NO ONE CAN TELL HOW THE IMAGE GOT ONTO THE SHROUD IN ORDER TO PRODUCE AN UNDISTORTED THREE-DIMENSIONAL COPY OF THE FRONT AND BACK OF THE BODY" (Case, 1996, pp.22-25. Emphasis original).

"On the other hand, if we go back to the forgery thesis, we may say that of course the artist painted on a flat surface, producing an image faithful to his own conception. It would not be distorted. One may then ask how a medieval artist knew how to paint a pale, diffuse yellow image that disappears if you look at it closeup, and paint it in such a manner that a photographer (after photography was invented 600 years later), could take a picture of the Shroud, develop the negative, and watch as that negative suddenly and strikingly formed into a perfectly clear three dimensional image-an image not at all apparent from the original? ... John Heller, in the accompanying interview, tells us how this medieval magician would have had to work in order to acid-paint each individual microscopically-sized fibril. Recall that there is no `direction' that would be present even if a Pointillist applied tiny dots. Even a `dot' would betray a slight directional movement. Rather the color comes from acid-like degradation of the very crowns of individual micro-fibrils. And the microfibril next door might have no color. The `painting' would have to be done under a powerful microscope with an `enormous focal length' (notes Dr. Heller); and painted so fast that the acid would not destroy the artist's `brush'; and then immediately the artist would have to wash away the acid before it ate away the cloth-which would smear the image. And if he were to succeed in performing these impossible tasks, his `masterpiece' would look pale and flat and diffuse, only to come clear and distinct 600 years later in a photographic negative. The further conclusion ... is that what we have here is either a Medieval miracle or a first century miracle. If the 1988 C 14 test dates are correct, we have a Medieval miracle, complete with human (or at least primate) blood. This is extremely important to understand. ... supposing that after all the C-14 tests performed in 1988 gave the true date, the fact is that the Image on the Shroud could not have been produced by any conceivable human agency-whatever the true date of the Shroud. If the Shroud were discovered today, and it was determined somehow that it was `made' today, it would still fail every scientific test intending to show that it could have been made by the hand of man. If there was something wrong about the C-14 test, and the correct date is around 33 A.D., we have overwhelming indications that the Turin Shroud is the authentic burial cloth of Jesus Christ, with an oxidation Image faithfully reproducing his features-either as a by-product of the Resurrection, or as a purposeful supernatural work done at the time of the Resurrection, for a sign and an aid to belief. In either case, it is worth remarking that it was twentieth century science that first demonstrated the detailed chemistry and 3-D optics of the Shroud, and ruefully declared it could not conceive of how the Image could possibly have gotten onto the cloth." (Case, 1996, pp.26-27).

Saturday, November 24, 2007

TSoT: Bibliography "I"

Here is the Bibliography "I" page for authors' surnames beginning with "I" of


[Left: John C. Iannone's, "The Mystery of the Shroud of Turin: New Scientific Evidence" (1998), Amazon.com. See `tagline' quotes below from Iannone's book (bold emphases mine).]


books (at present only this one book) that I will refer to in my book outline, "The Shroud of Turin: Burial Sheet of Jesus?"


THE SHROUD OF TURIN: BURIAL SHEET OF JESUS?
© Stephen E. Jones


CONTENTS

BIBLIOGRAPHY "I"

Iannone, J.C., 1998, "The Mystery of the Shroud of Turin: New Scientific Evidence," St Pauls: Staten Island NY.

Stephen E. Jones, BSc. (Biology).
My other blog: CreationEvolutionDesign


"What is the Shroud of Turin? ... The Shroud, often called the `Holy Shroud,' is most commonly referred to as the Shroud of Turin because it has been physically located in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Turin, Italy for over 400 years. This precious cloth is considered by millions of Christians throughout the world to be the actual burial cloth of Jesus Christ - a direct witness to His passion, death and resurrection 2,000 years ago. The Shroud is the holiest relic in Christianity. Physically, the Shroud is a remarkably well-preserved oblong piece of linen cloth 14'3" long (4.36 meters) and 3'7" wide (1.1 meters), weighing approximately 5 1/2 lbs. (2.45 kgs.) . The linen fibers are woven in a three-to-one herringbone twill with a Z-twist and consist of a fairly heavy yarn (34/100 of a millimeter thick) of Near Eastern or Mediterranean basin flax. Down the left side of the Shroud is a border approximately 3 1/2 inches wide (8 centimeters from the edge) running the full length of the linen cloth. Once thought to be a side-strip sewn onto the main cloth, it has now been determined to be a selvedge, that is, a piece of cloth woven into the main cloth so that it will not unravel. It is done in such a manner as to require no hem. The reason for adding the selvedge is not known for certain. However, historian and renowned English sindonologist Ian Wilson speculates that the selvedge may have been added at a later date perhaps to center the image on the cloth for viewing. He considers this the most logical explanation and points out that the selvedge was added at the same time as the fringe and gold covering, the overall purpose being to transform the cloth from a shroud to what seems to have been some sort of `portrait.'" (Iannone, J.C., 1998, "The Mystery of the Shroud of Turin: New Scientific Evidence," St Pauls: Staten Island NY, pp.1-2. Italics original).

"The body in the Shroud had to have been set at a slight angle, the head raised by some pillow-type support, the arms drawn very stiffly over the pelvis - left hand over right- the right shoulder set lower than the left, the legs decisively flexed at the knee and the left foot partly over the right. As Wilson remarked, `If the Shroud is a forgery, the care with which even the post crucifixion lie of the body has been thought out is quite remarkable.' [Wilson, I., "The Mysterious Shroud," Doubleday & Co: Garden City NY, 1986, p.16] The body is clearly laid out in an attitude of death. It would appear, then, that the Man of the Shroud was of Jewish origin and that the bloodstains and wounds studied by forensic pathologists in their careful examination of the Shroud are remarkably coordinated with the testimony of the Gospels relative to the Roman crucifixion weapons and procedures regarding the passion, death and resurrection of the historical Jesus Christ. His burial is consistent with Jewish burial practices of the day as outlined in the Mishnah which contains interpretations of scriptural ordinances as compiled by the Rabbis in the first and second centuries. ... More recent investigations of the Shroud by Dr. Alan Whanger, Professor Emeritus of Duke University in North Carolina, utilizing modern scientific instrumentation such as the polarized image overlay technique, appear to reveal the presence of a tephillin- a Jewish phylactery or prayer box that contains a portion of Scripture - attached to the forehead and the right arm. [Stevenson, K.E. & Habermas, G.R., "The Shroud and the Controversy," Thomas Nelson: Nashville TN, 1990, p.67] In addition to the possible phylactery, previous investigations of the Shroud point to the presence of Roman coins over the eyes (identified by some as leptons or widow's mites minted during the administration of Pontius Pilate), pollen from the ancient Near East, calcium carbonate (limestone) dust from the cave-tombs of Jerusalem, mites from the ancient Near East as well as possible floral images around the head area. Such findings ... confirm the longevity and antiquity of this cloth. As several authors point out, if the Shroud was the work of a forger, its creation would be more `miraculous' than if it were the actual burial cloth of Jesus." (Iannone, 1998, pp.8-9. Italics original).

"Some consider the images to have been formed by some as yet unknown `natural phenomena.' However, as Stevenson rightly points out, `If this type of body-on-cloth is natural, why are there so many burial garments that have no images of the person buried in them?' [Stevenson, K.E. & Habermas, G.R., "The Shroud and the Controversy," Thomas Nelson: Nashville TN, 1990, p.127] Sindonologist Robert Wilcox states that `even if (researchers) come up with some `natural' process, the failure, so far, to find anything like the Shroud amongst the world's body cloths and artifacts leaves them with the further problem of why the process occurred only once in the history of the world, so far as is yet known.' [Wilcox, R.K., "Half of Shroud Scientists Say Image Is Authentic," The Voice, 5 Mar. 1982, p.13] The late Dr. John Heller, who was a research scientist at the New England Institute and author of the book Report on the Shroud of Turin, commented: `We do know, however, that there are thousands on thousands of pieces of funerary linens going back to millennia before Christ, and another huge number of linens of Coptic Christian burials. On none of these is there any image of any kind.' [Heller, J.H., "Report on the Shroud of Turin," Houghton Mifflin Co: Boston MA, 1983, p.220]" (Iannone, 1998, p.10).

"Later, in 1973, French scholar, Professor Gilbert Raes of the Ghent Institute of Textile Technology in Belgium, was permitted to join the team to carefully examine two small linen samples (one 13 x 40 millimeters, the other 10 x 40 millimeters) from the Shroud. .... Dr. Raes reported that the Shroud was indeed woven of linen with a three-to-one herringbone twill with a Z-twist and that it is sewn with linen thread (all the warp, weft and sewing threads of the Shroud are of linen). He noted that the yarn was indicative of a good-quality workmanship and the weave density an average of a little over thirty-five threads per centimeter, corresponding favorably with the thirty thread per centimeter average of the finest Egyptian mummy fabrics. The normal weave in Palestinian, Roman and Egyptian loom-technology was a one-over-one. The three-to-one herringbone twill was a more refined weave. It would have been an expensive piece of cloth for the first century. However, we know from the Gospels that Joseph of Arimathea was a rich man and it was he who provided the Shroud used to bury Jesus (Mt 27:57-61). During the radiocarbon analysis done at Oxford in 1988, cotton fibers were found on the Shroud. ? Dr. Raes, using polarized light for microscopic viewing, had also identified traces of cotton fibers (fibrils) that he classified as of the Gossypium herbaceum type, a cotton that existed in the Middle East of the first century. [Raes, G., "Rapport d'Analise," La S. Sindone, supplement to Rivisita Diocesana Torinese, January 1976, pp.79-83] Professor Philip McNair of Birmingham University, England, supports these finds and points out that the ... Gossypium herbaceum type ... was cultivated in the Middle East during the first century, but was not known in Europe during the period when possible faking of the Shroud could have occurred. The cotton traces indicated that the Shroud was woven on a loom that had been used previously to weave cotton cloth. Paul Maloney, a research archaeologist and sindonologist from Pennsylvania, notes that cotton was actually a part of the linen thread. Dr. Raes says that these findings support the contention that the Shroud linen was woven in the Middle East, since raw cotton was unknown in Europe until the ninth century when it was first planted in Spain by the Moors. Cotton was first woven in Venice and Milan in the fourteenth century and cotton cloth was not even seen in England until the fifteenth century. Cotton was grown in China and India in antiquity and was expertly woven in India several centuries before the Christian era. By the first century it was grown extensively in Mesopotamia and Egypt. Wilson notes that cotton is also known to have been introduced to the Middle East by the monarch Sennacherib during the seventh century B.C. By the time of Christ it would certainly have been established in the environs of Palestine, and therefore offers no difficulty to the authenticity of the Shroud. Dr. Raes concluded that this piece of linen could have been manufactured in the first century. He could not say with certainty that it was. The late John Tyrer, a chartered textile technologist who worked in the field for twenty-five years as an associate of the Textile Institute of Manchester, England, discovered that while Middle East linens similar to the Shroud exist as far back as 3600 B.C., not much medieval linen has survived. He states that `it would be reasonable to conclude that linen textiles with Z-twist yarns and woven 3-1 reversing twill similar to the Turin Shroud could have been produced in the first-century Syria-Palestine.' [Tyrer, J., "Looking At the Turin Shroud as a Textile," Shroud Spectrum, 6, 1983, pp.68-69]" (Iannone, 1998, pp.13-14).

"In 1978 the S.T.U.R.P. team with over 40 scientists conducted a thorough scientific investigation of the Shroud using the latest equipment. The group determined that the actual image was created by a phenomenon (as yet unknown) or a momentous event that caused a rapid cellulose degradation (aging) of the linen fibers, that is, an accelerated dehydration and oxidation of the very top linen fibrils of the cellulose fibers of the Shroud, thereby creating a sepia or straw -yellow colored image similar to that of a scorch. Whatever precipitated this rapid aging affected only the very top fibrils of the fibers of the linen. As noted previously, the images are a surface phenomenon. Most scientists compare it to a light scorch such as might be created if an iron touched a handkerchief for too long a period. What caused this to happen? This is a central part of the mystery of the Shroud. No one has yet been able to provide a comprehensive explanation ... . Those who believe in the Resurrection of Jesus believe that something startling occurred at the moment of the Resurrection - some phenomenon as yet not understood by science that left its mark on the Shroud - a photo of the Resurrection for people of all eras to ponder. Many call the Shroud the `silent witness' for this reason and claim that the Shroud is a modern witness to the Resurrection." (Iannone, 1998, p.15. Italics original).

"Ancient Pollen on the Shroud? The late Protestant Swiss botanist and criminologist Dr. Max Frei was permitted in 1973 and 1978 as part of the S.T.U.R.P. team to take sticky-tape samples of pollen grains directly from the Shroud. ... Before his death in 1983, Dr. Frei had identified fifty-eight different types of pollen on the sticky tapes and further demonstrated that some of this grouping came from Jerusalem ... some from Eastern Turkey and some from Europe, the final resting place of the Shroud. With regard to Turkey, Dr. Frei was certain that the Shroud had been in the area he describes as the Anatolian steppe, which he qualifies as a phytogeographical term for the region of the towns of Bitlis, Diyarbakir, Mardin, Urfa, Gaziantep and Malatya. Urfa is the modern Turkish name for the former Byzantine city of Edessa, believed to have been home to the Shroud until 944. At the time of his death, Frei was seeking to identify nineteen other pollens which would have brought the number to seventy-seven. ... Aharon Horowitz, an illustrious Israeli palynologist ... noted that the pollens found on the Shroud can be compared to pollens found in Palestine but not in North Africa. Avinoam Danin, the chief expert in Israeli desert flora, agrees with him and adds that it is possible to demonstrate, on the basis of the pollens present on the Shroud, an itinerary across the Negev to the highlands of Lebanon. Some critics have proposed that pollen could have been airborne from the Middle East to Europe and made their way to the Shroud. However, Dr. Frei, responding to this claim stated: Groups A, B, and C of plants on the Shroud from Palestine and Anatolia are so numerous, compared to the species from Europe, that a casual contamination or a pollen-transport from the Near East by storms in different seasons cannot be responsible for their presence... the predominance of these pollen must be the result of the Shroud's stay in such countries." (Iannone, 1998, pp.19-21. Italics original).

"The Presence of Mites on the Shroud Dr. Frei concluded that many pollen matched species found `almost exclusively' in halophyte fossils from the Dead Sea. To Frei's mind, the weight of evidence mitigated against a medieval fraud. Stevenson further points out that this was Dr. Frei's field of expertise and his work has been confirmed by Turin microbiologist Dr. Giovanni Riggi Di Numana, who also found samples of mites or `minute animal forms extremely similar in their aspects and dimension to those from Egyptian burial fabrics.' [Riggi Di Numana, G., "Rapporto Sindone 1978-1987," 3M Edizioni: Milan, Italy, 1988] During Dr. Riggi's analysis of samples vacuumed from between the Shroud and its backing cloth in 1978, he isolated and identified a mite peculiar to ancient burial linens, specifically Egyptian mummy wrappings. As Stevenson points out: `If the Shroud was a creation of the Middle Ages, then its forger must have ordered the mites (and pollen) to go with it.' [Stevenson, K.E. & Habermas, G.R., "The Shroud and the Controversy," Thomas Nelson: Nashville TN, 1989, p.65] In addition, the work of Oswald Scheuermann and Dr. Alan Whanger ... further confirms the work of Dr. Frei since the [images of] flowers they identified are consistent with the pollen identified by Dr. Frei. Renowned archaeologist William Meacham further stated that `pollen... is empirical data... ipso facto evidence of exposure to the air in those regions.' [Meacham, W., interview with Rev. Kenneth Stevenson, Tarrytown NY, July 15, 1988]" (Iannone, 1998, p.21. Italics original).

"Floral Images on the Shroud? During his studies in 1983, Oswald Scheuermann made an observation that there seemed to be flowerlike patterns around the face of the Man of the Shroud. Two years later, Dr. Alan Whanger, while examining photographs of the Shroud with a magnifying lens, suddenly saw out of the corner of his eye the image of a large chrysanthemum-like flower on the anatomic left side about fifteen centimeters lateral to and six centimeters above the midline top of the head. [Whanger, A. & M., "Floral Coin and Other Non-Body Images on the Shroud of Turin," Duke University: Durham NC, 1989] Dr. Whanger and Oswald Scheuermann collaborated in further studies. Dr. Whanger utilized many life-size second generation photos of parts of the Shroud as well as the full length images from the Giuseppe Enrie negatives of 1931. These were processed and enlarged by Gamma Photographic Laboratories of Chicago, Illinois. Some were processed with the specific request to maximize the detail in the off-body area. By standing some distance away from the photographs and looking at the off-body areas, definite patterns became apparent to Dr. Whanger. He secured the definitive set of volumes of Flora Palaestina by Michael Zohary and reviewed drawings of the 1,900 plants depicted therein. Whanger worked with flowers, buds, stems, leaves and fruits that are reasonably clear. He did side-by-side comparisons of images - and polarized image overlay comparisons in a number of instances - to show reasonable compatibility of the drawings of the plants from Flora Palaestina with what is seen on the Shroud. While there are vague or partial images of many flowers on the Shroud, Dr. Whanger and Oswald Scheuermann believe that they have tentatively identified twenty- eight plants whose images are sufficiently clear on the Shroud to make a good comparison and to be compatible with the drawings in Flora Palaestina . Of the twenty-eight plants identified on the Shroud, twenty-three are flowers, three are small bushes and two are thorns. All twenty-eight plants grow in Israel and twenty grow in Jerusalem itself (i.e., the Judean mountains). The other eight plants grew either in the Judean desert or the Dead Sea area or in both. Hence, these plants or flowers would have been available in Jerusalem's market in a fresh state. [Whanger, ibid]. They noted that a rather high percentage of the flower images identified have corresponding pollen found on the Shroud by Dr. Max Frei. Of the twenty-eight plants whose images they believe they have identified, Dr. Frei had already identified the pollen of twenty- five of them. In addition, they noted with great interest that twenty-seven of the twenty-eight plants bloom during March and April, which would correspond to the time of Passover and of the Crucifixion. Dr. Whanger also states that the age of the flowers between the time they were picked and the time that the image was formed can be reasonably determined. He notes that the evidence indicates that the image of the body was formed (mysteriously) in a very brief time by some type of high energy process sometime between twenty-four and forty hours after death when decomposition (not seen on the Shroud image) would have begun to be apparent. Whanger believes that most of the flowers whose images are on the Shroud would be between twenty-four and thirty-six hours old after picking. He notes that the image formation of the flowers and other non-body objects may not be from the same mechanism that formed the body image." (Iannone, 1998, pp.25-26. Italics original).

"The Vignon-Markings Wilson's theory linking the Image of Edessa with the Shroud receives strong support from the work done previously by the famous sindonologist Paul Vignon in the 1930's. Vignon pointed out that, among the family of post-sixth century portraits of Christ, there was a recurrence of certain unusual markings seemingly derived from the Shroud. Tribbe notes that `in each of these cases, the artist, wishing to be totally faithful to the original, incorporated these oddities even though they are irrelevant to or detract from the naturalness of the face.' He goes on to say that `all these artists must have copied from the same original, and all of them misunderstood the nature of these imperfections.' However, because of the sacred status of the acheiropoietas it was very important that every detail, even if odd or unusual, be faithfully duplicated by the Byzantine artists. [Tribbe, F.C., "Portrait of Jesus?," Stein & Day: New York NY, 1983, p.239] Wilson, following Vignon, cites fifteen such oddities or anomalies which have come to be known as the Vignon- Markings: Starkly geometric topless square (3-sided) visible between the eyebrows on the Shroud image. 1. Starkly geometric topless square (3-sided) visible between the eyebrows on the Shroud image. 2. V-shape visible at the bridge of the nose. 3. A transverse streak across the forehead. 4. A second V-shape inside the topless square. 5. A raised right eyebrow. 6. An accentuated left cheek. 7. An accentuated right cheek. 8. An enlarged left nostril. 9. An accentuated line between the nose and upper lip. 10. A heavy line under the lower lip. 11. A hairless area between the lip and beard. 12. The fork in the beard. 13. A transverse line across the throat. 14. The heavily accentuated `owlish eyes.' 15. Two loose strands of hair falling from the apex of the forehead.' [Wilson, I., "The Shroud of Turin," Doubleday & Co: New York NY, 1979, pp.104-105]" (Iannone, 1998, pp.151-152. Italics original. List numbers mine).

"The Polarized Image Overlay Former Professor of Psychiatry and long-time sindonologist Dr. Alan Whanger of Duke University developed the technique, noted earlier, called the Polarized Image Over lay, to point out these many oddities and anomalies relating the Shroud with post-sixth century Christian art. The technique basically utilized two polarized filters at right angles to each other and enabled Whanger to superimpose two images over each other and shift back and forth to discover similarities or anomalies. He discovered that many images of later (post-sixth century) art must have been made directly from the Shroud or a copy of it based on the high number of congruencies between the images. He studied many portraits, mosaics, frescoes and coins and compared them, via the Polarized Image Overlay, to the Shroud images. He concludes that a consistent, shroud-like, long-haired, fork-bearded, front facing likeness of Christ can be traced back through numerous works in the Byzantine tradition dating many centuries before the time of Geoffrey de Charny (1357). [Wilson, I., "The Mysterious Shroud," Doubleday & Co: New York NY, 1986, p.105] Wilson had noted the same thing, citing as an example the Christ Pantocrator ... from Cefalu, Sicily. He also notes, a century earlier, the Pantocrator of the Dome of the Church of Daphni, near Athens (a city that once served as the temporary home of the Shroud from 1204-1207); the "Christ Enthroned" in the church of St. Angelo in Formis, near Capua, Italy in the tenth century;

[Right: "Christ Enthroned," tenth century, Church of St. Angelo in Formis, Capua, Italy, Wikipedia]

and a similar Christ portrait from the eighth century found in the depths of the Pontianus Catacomb near Rome. In the sixth century, the Christ portrait appears on a silver vase found at Homs, in present-day Syria and on the beautiful icon of Christ Pantocrator from the Monastery of St. Catherine in the Sinai desert. As Wilson states: `Despite stylistic variations, each of these works seems inspired by the same tradition of Jesus' earthly appearance. And each has a strong resemblance to the face visible on the Shroud.' [Wilson, 1986, p.105] We can add to this list the seventh-century coins, the tremisses and solidus coins, minted by Justinian II [669-711] with shroud-like images; the Spas Nereditsa fresco (Savior of Neredica) in 1199 and the icon in the Church of St. Bartholomew of Armenia in Genoa, Italy." (Iannone, 1998, pp.153-154. Italics original).

"The Epitaphioi - Embroidered Cloths In the tenth and eleventh centuries there developed the epitaphioi in Byzantine art.

[Left: Epitaphios of King Stefan Uroš II Milutin, Serbia, ca. 1300.]

These are large embroidered cloths used in the Good Friday liturgy explicitly symbolic of the Shroud. The body of Jesus is depicted frontally with hands crossed such as the epitaphioi of King Uros Milutin. All of these seem to point to the rediscovery of the full-length of the Shroud in Constantinople in the tenth and eleventh centuries." (Iannone, 1998, p.154. Italics original).

"The Hungarian Pray Manuscript: Four Fingers and Four Circles On the Shroud today one notes that, in addition to the distinctive marks of the 1532 fire, there are four sets of triple burn holes that are the result of some incident previous to the famous fire that damaged the Shroud. This prior existence is known because a painting of 1516 from the Church of Saint Gommaire, in Lierre, Belgium, clearly shows the four sets of triple holes. In 1986, the French Dominican Father A.M. Dubarle, corresponding on the subject of the Shroud-like figure on the Hungarian Pray Manuscript (1192-1195), had his attention drawn to some curious holes noted on the Shroud in the illustration. Wilson points out that `clearly visible on the sarcophagus in the scene of the three Marys visiting the empty tomb was a line of three holes, with an extra one offset to one side.' [Wilson, I., "Holy Faces, Secret Places," Doubleday: London, 1991, p.160] Even more curious, though almost vanishingly tiny, was a similar set of three holes to be seen on the Shroud or napkin-like cloth depicted rolled up on the sarcophagus. It appears that the artist of 1192 who illustrated the Hungarian Pray Manuscript was aware of the "burn-holes" on the Shroud in his day. If correct, it would set the Shroud's date nearly a hundred years earlier than the very earliest date allowed by Carbon-14 dating. Significantly, Jesus is depicted as naked and laid on a Shroud. His arms are crossed, with the right hand placed over the left, and the hands show only four fingers. There is a herring-bone weave in the lower illustration. There is an imprint of a body on the inside and not on the outside of the Shroud. However, on the illustration there are four circles that appear to be burn holes on the Shroud. The othonia (other burial cloths) are rolled up separately. The appearance of only four fingers and four circles on the illustration and matching the same on the Shroud is highly significant. Pathologists studying the Shroud noted that only four fingers appear to the viewer, and the thumb is not seen, as we noted earlier. Moreover, the four burn holes seen in the Hungarian Pray Manuscript correlate to four holes found in the corresponding area of the Shroud and predate the fire of 1532." (Iannone 1998, pp.154-155. Italics original).

Sunday, November 18, 2007

TSoT: Bibliography "A"

Here is the Bibliography "A" page for authors' surnames beginning with "A" of books

[Left: Mark Antonacci's, "The Resurrection of the Shroud" (2000), Amazon.com. See `tagline' quotes below (bold emphases mine) from this excellent book.]

that I will probably refer to in my book outline, "The Shroud of Turin: Burial Sheet of Jesus?"


THE SHROUD OF TURIN: BURIAL SHEET OF JESUS?
© Stephen E. Jones


CONTENTS

BIBLIOGRAPHY "A"

Adams, F.O., 1982, "Sindon: A Layman's Guide to the Shroud of Turin," Patrick Walsh Press: Tempe AZ.
Antonacci, M., 2000, "The Resurrection of the Shroud: New Scientific, Medical, and Archeological Evidence," M. Evans & Co: New York NY.

Stephen E. Jones, BSc. (Biology).
My other blog: CreationEvolutionDesign


"The Shroud of Turin, a large linen cloth 14 feet 3 inches long and 3 feet 7 inches wide (4.34 m x 1.10 m), takes its present name from the city where it has been kept for the last 422 years-Turin, Italy. In ancient times, burial shrouds were wrapped lengthwise around a body as shown below. Jesus would have been wrapped and buried in such a linen shroud. The Shroud of Turin purports to contain evidence of some of the most startling events in all of history: that a man who was beaten and scourged, his head pierced repeatedly about the crown; a man who was crucified, pierced in the side, a man who was dead and buried-that this man was resurrected; and, further, that he was Jesus Christ. Unlike any other burial garment, this cloth contains the front and back images of the body of a man ... Of course, we might be tempted to dismiss such claims as colorful legends from the far reaches of the past, assumptions carried forth by our own philosophical desires. But the passage of time and the expansion of our knowledge about the world around us have, surprisingly, borne out these claims to greater and greater degrees. As the greatest advances in our knowledge have come about with increasing intensity during the twentieth century, so, too, has our knowledge about the enigmatic Shroud of Turin." (Antonacci, M., 2000, "The Resurrection of the Shroud: New Scientific, Medical, and Archeological Evidence," M. Evans & Co: New York NY, pp.1,4).

"Not only are all the above tests consistent with the presence of blood, but venous blood flows can even be distinguished from arterial blood flows in some of the bloodstains on the man's forehead. In general, venous blood appears denser and darker red, and it flows more slowly than arterial blood. In large wounds or wounds that puncture a vessel and produce a large blood flow, venous blood slowly thickens as it descends because it takes a few minutes for the coagulation process to begin and a clot to form. The large epsilon-shaped clot in the middle of the man's forehead is a good example of a large venous blood flow. .... In contrast to blood from a vein, arterial blood spurts from a wound, driven by the pumping action of the heart. ... Dr. Rodante, who has made one of the most extensive studies of the forehead wounds to date, has identified the origins of many of the head wounds based on the size or coagulation pattern of blood flows on the skin. ... As examples, the epsilon-shaped forehead clot lies exactly over the frontal vein, while the arterial wound numbered AI in figure 21 precisely corresponds with the frontal branch of the superficial temple artery. According to Rodante, `The perfect correspondency of the forehead dots imprinted on the [Shroud], overlaying as they do the vein and the artery in mirror image, gives us the certainty that the linen covered the corpse of a man, who, while living, suffered the lesion of these blood vessels:' ... These examples of distinctly venous and arterial wounds indicate that the injuries evident on the man's image could have occurred only on an actual human body. Regardless of technique, no artist, especially one working in the Middle Ages, has ever represented the distinction between venous and arterial blood so accurately. .... In fact, the difference between arterial and venous blood was not even discovered until 1593 [actually 1628 - SEJ], more than 230 [265 - SEJ] years after some allege that the Shroud image was painted. The epsilon-shaped clot on the man's forehead contains another realistic detail. As the blood flow descended, it broadened and changed course twice. Physicians believe this was because forehead muscles spontaneously contract when they are injured. The forehead, temple, and scalp contain a web of nerves that is highly sensitive to pain. Thus, contracting forehead muscles would be a natural reaction to the intense pain caused by having more than thirty head wounds." (Antonacci, 2000, pp.25-26).

"Nickell Powder-Rubbing Method Joe Nickell, a former stage magician and amateur detective, has experimented with a proposed technique of image encoding. Nickell's technique involved conforming wet linen to a bas-relief while impressing all the relief's features onto the cloth. After the cloth dried, he used a cotton dauber covered with cloth to rub powdered pigment onto the impressions left on the linen. [Nickell, J., "Inquest on the Shroud of Turin," Prometheus Books, 1987] The results obtained by such a technique ... show what happened when STURP members tested Nickell's theory. As is evident in the VP-8 photograph, Nickell's powder-rubbing method does not produce a true three-dimensional image. A powdered bas-relief technique would involve the application of a substance to the Shroud. As discussed earlier, all the extensive scientific examinations of the cloth indicate that no powdered particles or foreign materials of any kind have been added to the body-image fibrils that could account for the coloring-and therefore visibility-of the image. Specifically, magnified photographs of the body image threads do not reveal any sort of applied particles or staining substance. The `natural experiment,' arising from the fire of 1532, also disproves Nickell's theory, as it did the painting theory. Nickell promulgates that the powdered pigments used were iron oxide, myrrh, or aloes. Yet if organic substances such as these had been used to encode the Shroud image, they would have been altered or decomposed during the fire, depending on their distance from the hottest areas of the cloth. However, no such alteration in the body image can be found on the Shroud when those image areas nearer the burn marks are compared to those areas farther away." (Antonacci, 2000, pp.73-74. Emphasis original).

"Nickell contends that his powder-rubbing method produces a superficial image. However, when STURP scientists reproduced his experiment using linen with a herringbone weave that simulates the Shroud's weave, large quantities of powder fell through the weave of the cloth and accumulated on the reverse side. Shroud researcher and archaeologist Paul Maloney even tried using a piece of linen with a box weave, which is the tightest linen weave known. Maloney found that powdered particles still penetrated through to the back of the cloth. Obviously, Nickell's technique fails to meet the requirement of image superficiality. Nickell's theory seems far-fetched for other reasons. The Shroud contains, conservatively, thousands of individual body-image fibrils, but each fibril is encoded with a uniform intensity of color. Someone applying powdered pigment onto a cloth with a hand-held dauber and/or rubbing powder on woven linen could never achieve this uniform intensity on all image fibrils. In fact, experiments involving powder rubbing have shown that a uniform application of powder cannot be obtained on even one fibril." (Antonacci, 2000, p.74).

"Photographic examinations of the Shroud done with X ray, reflectance, and raking light (light directed at the cloth at a grazing angle) revealed various horizontal fold marks. (Due to the angle of illumination used in the raking-light study, vertical fold marks would not be visible.) The locations of these horizontal fold marks are consistent with the fold configuration in which the Shroud is believed to have been stored more than a thousand years ago ... If Nickell's powder-rubbing method were responsible for the image on the Shroud, evidence of fold marks should also be evident at such places as the top of the head, eyebrow area, nose, lips, chin, hands, feet, et cetera-everywhere the linen would have been molded to an underlying bas-relief. However, no fold marks in these areas can be found on the Turin Shroud." (Antonacci, 2000, p.75).

"Nickell's attempts to reproduce blood images were as unsuccessful as his body image efforts. He asserts that the blood marks were made by tempera paint, but this assertion conflicts with the evidence showing that the blood marks were made by actual whole blood. Tempera paint cannot chemically pass for primate or human blood. In addition, the application of tempera paint could not begin to account for the serum halos surrounding the edges of the wounds covering the man in the Shroud." (Antonacci, 2000, p.76).

"Nickell has never submitted his experimental cloth to scientists for verification, but he has presented photographs showing the results of his powder-rubbing technique. On these photos his painted `blood' does not begin to approach the realism of the wounds found on the Shroud. They also do not have the shape or appearance of actual wounds that have formed and bled on human skin. The actual blood marks evident on the Shroud are mirror images on cloth of how actual wounds appear on skin. The deficiencies of Nickell's method become even more apparent when one considers the smaller wounds on the Shroud, such as the scourge marks. The slightly depressed centers and raised edges of these scourge marks have been encoded on the cloth in such a way that their characteristics are not even visible unless one examines photographs that have been enlarged and then magnified under a microscope. The fluorescing borders, composed of actual serum, around the scourge marks are also invisible until observed under ultraviolet light, as are the scourged areas that consist of only scratches or lines. None of these characteristics of the blood, serum, or scourge marks can be encoded, or duplicated, by Nickell's proposed application of tempera paint." (Antonacci, 2000, p.76).

"Microscopic and ultraviolet examinations of the Shroud indicate that the blood images were transferred to the cloth before the body image. If the body image were encoded through contact with a hot surface, thermal discoloration or degradation of bloodied fibrils would be evident because the blood images would have been in direct contact with the bas-relief heated to temperatures high enough to scorch linen. Indeed, this effect appeared in the experimental testing of this technique. Microscopic study of the bloodstains on the Shroud, however, reveals no thermal discoloration or fusing (except in areas where the fire marks of 1532 intersected bloodstains). Furthermore, a heated bas-relief could not produce the many other aforementioned unique features of the blood on the Shroud." (Antonacci, 2000, p.79).

"Available scientific evidence strongly supports the contention that the Shroud of Turin was in Palestine and in Turkey sometime before the 1350s when its presence in Europe was first documented. Of the fifty-eight [57 - SEJ] pollen grains from plant species that were found on the Shroud by Dr. Frei (discussed earlier), only seventeen of these-less than one third, can be found in France or Italy. That seventeen of these pollen grains are grown in France or Italy should come as no surprise, since the Shroud has spent its last 645 years in these countries. What is surprising is that only a minority of pollens are native to Western Europe; the majority are native to the Middle East, including Turkey and Israel. It is interesting that the proportion of pollen grains from plants in Edessa (eighteen) and Constantinople (thirteen) is very similar to that of western European plants (seventeen). One would expect such a proportional distribution if the Shroud had a strong history associated with the Mandylion and the Image of Edessa, as postulated by Wilson and others." (Antonacci, 2000, p.153).

"As you can see, a historically documented, plausible provenance of the Shroud of Turin from first-century Jerusalem to present-day Turin is not hard to put together. Critics who denounce the Shroud as a fraud have not only been unable to agree on a method of forgery-they have also never agreed on a plausible, documentable place or `artist' of a forged Shroud. We have already seen that it would be impossible to forge the Shroud naturally or artistically, even with today's technology-much less during medieval times." (Antonacci, 2000, p.154).

"Before we review the radiocarbon dating controversy in connection with the Shroud, you should understand the fundamental principals of radiocarbon dating. Three isotopes of carbon are normally found in carbon-containing materials: carbon-12 (C-12), carbon-13 (C-13), and carbon-14 (C-14). C-12 accounts for 98.9 percent of naturally occurring carbon. C-13 accounts for the other 1.1 percent. C-14 is present only in trace amounts. C-13 and C-12 are stable isotopes that were formed when the planet's other atoms were formed. Practically all of the earth's carbon in organic and inorganic materials consists of these two isotopes. Any C-14, or radiocarbon, that was formed along with the planet disappeared long ago because this isotope is radioactively unstable and decays. However, new, minute amounts of C-14 are continuously formed during collisions of cosmic rays with nitrogen-14 (N-14) atoms in the atmosphere. N-14 is not unusual: Air is about 78 percent nitrogen and 99.63 percent of all the nitrogen on earth is N-14. This newly formed C-14 is also unstable and disappears naturally. The amount of C-14 on earth remains nearly the same because new C-14 is created in the atmosphere at almost the same rate that older C-14 is decaying on the earth's surface. Thus, carbon-14 is said to be in balance. However, this balance is infinitesimal with C-14 being approximately one part in a trillion of the overall carbon content (1/1,000,000,000,000). This very tiny amount of C-14 formed in the atmosphere, along with the much larger amounts of C-13 and C-12, is taken up in atmospheric carbon dioxide by photosynthesizing plants and is, thereby, spread throughout the biosphere, thus allowing all living things to have a similar ratio of C-14 to C-12. Since these carbon isotopes have the same chemical behavior, this ratio is maintained while the organism lives. However, upon its death, the C-14 disappears according to its radioactive half-life, which is approximately 5,730 years. By measuring the C-14 to C-12 ratio, scientists can calculate the date of the organism's death. ... Since the fraction of C-14 to C-12 is so infinitesimal, and since this measured ratio is the basis for calculating the organism's age, any error in measuring or counting the C-14 isotope could alter the date, perhaps significantly. A correct date can be calculated if and only if the very tiny trace amount of measured C-14 from the object accumulated there by the above natural process. If the measured C-14 got on the object any other way, the interpretation of the date will be incorrect." (Antonacci, 2000, pp.156-157. Emphasis original).

"Errors in radiocarbon dating have been quite numerous. .... This dating measures the ratio of C-14 to C-12, so if there are any errors in measuring the small amount of C-14 or in measuring the C-12, the date will be incorrect. Even if the two isotopes are correctly measured, the isotopes that were measured must be original, and must belong only to the object from which they were taken. This dating process is not absolute and is subject to enormous error. ... Quotes from the most elementary textbooks show that contamination can cause errors in dating. `Carbon from other sources may easily be trapped in porous materials ... The archaeologist is the only person who is in a position to know of these contaminating potentials' [Stuckenrath, R., Jr., "On the Care and Feeding of Radiocarbon Dates," Archaeology, Vol. 18, 1965, pp.277-281]. `[C]ontamination of the sample may take place ... and removal of the contaminant from the pore spaces and fissures is almost impossible.' [Goudie, A., "Environmental Change," Clarendon: Oxford, 1977, p.10]. Excavated samples are `liable to absorb humic matter from the solutions, that pass through them (resulting in) contamination by carbon compounds of an age younger than its own ... there is also the possibly of exchange of carbon isotopes under such conditions ... That there are other risks of contamination and other pitfalls involved in this method is obvious enough.' [Zeuner, F.E., "Dating the Past," Hafner: Darien CT, 1970, pp. 341-346] The possibility of contamination should be exhaustively investigated and pretreatment measures should be designed accordingly whenever any critical radiocarbon dating is being attempted. Unfortunately, even with specialized pretreatment, contamination cannot always be detected and, if detected or identified, cannot always be eliminated." (Antonacci, 2000, pp.157-158).

"The first area of scientific research that we shall examine may constitute the most important challenge to and refutation of the carbon dating of the Shroud. These scientific findings also indicate the key areas of future testing that must be performed on the Shroud to confirm whether it was irradiated with a particular form of radiation, whether new C-14 was created within it, to distinguish the original C-14 from the additional C-14, and to calculate the cloth's true age. In the same issue of Nature in which the carbon dating report of the Shroud appeared, this scientific journal also published a letter by Thomas Phillips of the High Energy Physics Laboratory at Harvard University [Phillips, T., "Shroud Irradiated with Neutrons?," Nature, Vol. 337, 1989, p.594]. Phillips, also an IBM scholar, stated that if the body of the man in the Shroud gave off radiation during the image-encoding process it could have radiated neutrons, `which would have irradiated the Shroud and changed some of the nuclei to different isotopes by neutron capture. In particular, some C-14 could have been generated from C13.' [ibid] This same process could also form newly created C- 14 from nitrogen. This newly created C-14 would make the Shroud appear much younger that it actually is. When asked by a journalist if such a process could have caused an incorrect dating of the Shroud in 1988. Michael Tite, who coordinated the carbon dating of the Shroud for the British - Museum, commented: `It is certainly possible if one gave the Shroud a large dose of neutrons to produce C-14 from the nitrogen in the linen cloth.' [Jennings, P, `Still Shrouded in Mystery;' 30 Days in the Church and in the World, 1.7, 1988, pp.70-71, p.71]. Robert Hedges, one of the scientists who participated in the carbon dating of the Shroud at the Oxford laboratory, also acknowledged to the journalist that a `sufficient level of neutrons from radiation on the Shroud would invalidate the radiocarbon date which we obtained.' [ibid]. In fact it was Dr. Hedges who pointed out that the amount of neutron flux required to cause a 1,300-year difference in age was not nearly as much as first suggested by Phillips. [Hedges, R., `Hedges Replies,' Nature, Vol. 337, 1989, p.594] Because the amount of C-14 in the C-14 to C-12 ratio is so minuscule (one part in a trillion), if a neutron flux activated only an extra 18 percent of C-14 compared to that present naturally in the linen, it would cause a cloth from the first century to appear to be only 650 years old [Kelly, B., `Turin Shroud,' New Scientist, Vol. 119, September 1988; Statement confirmed by Dr. Robert Otlet of the Harwell Laboratory and by Prof. Edward Hall of the Oxford Laboratory according to Wilson in the British Society for the Turin Shroud Newsletter, 20, October 1988, p.14]." (Antonacci, 2000, pp.159-160).

"Gove's book makes it absolutely dear that he assumed leadership on every possible issue that he could, and that he was a major influence not just on the laboratories but also on the final decisions that led to such controversial results. Moreover, his book revealed ... his deep-seated animosity toward STURP, the full extent of which would be revealed only by his publication seventeen years after joining STURP's effort, and eight years after the radiocarbon dating of the Shroud had taken place. Gove's true feelings and motives toward STURP and its involvement in the scientific testing of the Shroud are clearly revealed on the first page, on which he mentions them, in the very first chapter of his book. `I was determined to prevent their involvement in its [the Shroud's] carbon dating, if that were ever to come about.... Fortunately in this I was successful.' [Gove, H.E., "Relic, Icon or Hoax?: Carbon Dating the Turin Shroud," Institute of Physics Publishing: Bristol UK, 1996, pp.6-7] On the next page, he states, `I am happy to say that, in the end, they [STURP] played no role in its carbon dating.' [ibid., p.8] One of the sad ironies is that STURP's participation could have prevented many amateurish aspects of the procedure and precluded the questionable sampling. While discussing the early period of 1978 to 1979, Gove further informs us of his actual `disdain for those [STURP] scientists.' [ibid., p.48] In his 1996 book, he shows that his hypocritical and concealed attitude existed before he even made any pledges to or agreements with STURP. Immediately before he called STURP in 1979, accepting that its C-14 committee members could be present during the removal of the sample from the Shroud and during the sample's preparation and measurement, he blatantly reveals his duplicity: ` ... they [STURP] had good connections in Turin, and could be useful in obtaining a shroud sample for dating-if only they could be prevented from playing any other role.' [ibid., p.57]" (Antonacci, 2000, p.193).

"In light of the Shroud's known and unknown contaminants and history, Meacham warned the lab directors at the Turin workshop, and in an article published the same year, `[t]o measure Shroud samples, one must consider every possible type of contamination and attempt to identify and counter them all, before the measurement is made and a 'radiocarbon age' assigned.' [Meacham, W., "Radiocarbon Measurement and the Age of the Turin Shroud: Possibilities and Uncertainties," in "Turin Shroud: Image of Christ," Cosmos: Hong Kong., 1987, pp.41-56] Meacham further warned that `an elaborate pretreatment and screening program should be conducted before the samples are measured.' [ibid., p.48]. If the laboratories had followed this advice, perhaps they could have determined whether wax or starch had chemically bound to the cellulose in the sample taken from the Shroud for dating. Chemical analysis by combustion of the linen before and after the cleaning treatment could have revealed if any wax had become chemically bound to their samples. Enzymes could have detected the presence of starch. Meacham's article, as well as previous articles, had even listed wax and starch among the known contaminants discovered on the Shroud. Meacham further warned in the same article that, `unless there are specific conditions which warrant specialized pretreatment, most laboratories process samples with acid and alkali washes. While this standard pretreatment is usually effective in removing modern contaminants, it may not do so for intrusive materials deposited much earlier.' [ibid., p.47]" (Antonacci, 2000, pp.197-198).

"The scientific evidence found on the cloth itself gives a good deal of information about its images, in particular that they appear to have resulted from some type of radiation. ... Neither the scorch marks nor the body images have faded with time, and neither were caused by foreign materials or particulates. ... For these and many other reasons, most scientists, as well as other Shroud experts, have concluded that some form of light or heat (or radiation) caused the images on the Shroud. However, the absence of pyrolitic compounds or products expected from high-temperature cellulose degradation indicates that the image-forming process took place at a fairly low temperature. This type of low-temperature radiation would not leave any residue on the cloth, as is the case with the Shroud's body images. Neither would it leave any directionality across the width or length of the image. In addition, radiation is an agent that can operate on skin, hair, coins, or flowers, and can uniformly encode the fibers on a cloth. It is extremely difficult to imagine how the subtle shades of light and dark on the Shroud's body images could possibly have been obtained without using light or radiation. These body images are not saturated or diffused. The edges of the man's body at the sides, top, and bottom break off sharply. Furthermore, the agent, acting at a distance, barely penetrated the cloth. As one noted scientist who has studied the Shroud for more than two decades observed, `An agent acting at a distance with decreasing intensity is, almost by definition, radiation. The limitation of the cloth darkening to the outermost surface pointed to a non-penetrating, non-diffusing agent, like radiant energy' ..... [Gonella, L., "Scientific Investigation of the Shroud of Turin: Problems, Results and Methodological Lessons," in "Turin Shroud-Image of Christ?," Cosmos: Hong Kong, 1987, pp.29-40, p.31]" (Antonacci, 2000, p.212).

"A vertical beam or beams of light or radiation also best explains how the Shroud's body image was encoded through space in a straight line from the body to the cloth. STURP scientist John Heller stated, "It is as if every pore and every hair of the body contained a microminiature laser." [Heller, J., in McDonald, W. "Science and the Shroud," The World and I, October 1986, pp.420-428, p.426] This vertical directionality of the Shroud body image has only been accounted for by methods involving radiation. As scientist Luigi Gonella explained, "Whatever the mechanism might be, it must be such to yield effects as if it were a burst of collimated radiant energy." [Gonella, L., "Scientific Investigation of the Shroud of Turin: Problems, Results and Methodological Lessons," in "Turin Shroud-Image of Christ?," Cosmos: Hong Kong, 1987, pp.29-40, p.31]" (Antonacci, 2000, p.213).

"We also saw earlier how the various shades of light and dark on the cloth's frontal image directly correlate to the various distances that they were from the underlying body. This ratio exists throughout the length of the body image, even in places where the cloth could not have been touching the body, resulting in an image that contains precisely encoded, three-dimensional information. Such a precisely encoded correlation over such a distance could seemingly only be achieved by radiation. The Shroud's highly resolved image is also difficult to imagine unless light or radiation coming from the body is somehow directed onto the cloth." (Antonacci, 2000, p.213).

"All of the evidence points to a very unique occurrence that caused the images on the Shroud, something that could never have been created by the technology of the medieval ages (or even by the technology of today). Only through simulation have today's scientists been able to come close to the Shroud's three-dimensionality, vertical directionality, and finely resolved and highly focused image; their simulation achieved by a mechanism in which light was attenuated in a liquid, then traveled in a vertical, straight-line direction from the plaster reference face while it was being focused in a camera. [Jackson, J.P. & Jumper, E.J. & Ercoline, W R., "Correlation of Image Intensity on the Turin Shroud with the 3-D Structure of a Human Body Shape," Applied Optics, Vol. 23, No. 14, July 1984, pp.2244-2270]." (Antonacci, 2000, p.213).

"Dr. Giles Carter, Professor Emeritus, Eastern Michigan University, has conducted years of experiments with X rays. He has noted that cloth samples placed in an X ray beam and exposed to low-energy, long-wave X rays for different periods of time will produce superficial, straw-yellow discoloration like that found on the Shroud body images. [Carter, G.E., "Formation of the Image on the Shroud of Turin by X Rays: A New Hypothesis," in Lambert, J.B., ed., "Archaeological Chemistry, III," American Chemical Society: Washington DC, 1984, pp.425-446] He also noted that these same types of X rays are easily absorbed in air. Because of this absorption or attenuating quality Carter stated that X rays given off by the body would also convey three-dimensional information onto the cloth. [Carter, ibid. p.435]. Dr. Carter first suggested in 1984 that the finger bones are visible on the photographic negative images of the man in the Shroud. In addition, he noted that the bones extending into the hand, over the wrist, could also be visible, helping to explain why the man's fingers appeared so long. Since then, other scientists and physicians have confirmed the identification of these finger and hand bones. [Accetta, A.D., "Experiments with Radiation as an Image Formation Mechanism," Shroud of Turin International Research Conference, Richmond VA, June 18-20, 1999] Carter stated that these `images may be due at least in part to x-rays emanating from the bones in the body.' [Carter, ibid. p431] Scientists and physicians have identified other possible internal skeletal features on the man in the Shroud. Dr. Jackson has noted that part of the skull at the forehead may be visible on the man. Surgeon Alan Whanger, utilizing his modified Polarized Image Overlay Technique with the Shroud's negative and positive images, has also identified features from the skull, as have Dr. Carter and Dr. August Accetta. [Whanger, M. & A., "The Shroud of Turin," Providence House Publishers, Franklin TN, 1998, pp.116-117]" (Antonacci, 2000, p.213).

"Dr. Accetta, a physician, has also conducted experiments concerning radiation-imaging of skeletal and other bodily features. Dr. Jackson and Dr. Accetta have further identified faint images of the curved and inverted thumb under the man's left palm. [Accetta, ibid., 1999; Jackson, J.P., "An Unconventional Hypothesis to Explain All Image Characteristics Found on the Shroud Image," in Berard, A., ed., "History, Science, Theology and the Shroud," 1991, pp.333-335] Carter, Whanger, and Accetta have stated that images of the man's teeth could be partially visible, especially on the right side of the man's mouth. [Carter, 1984, pp.433-434; Whanger, 1998, pp.117-118]. Dr. Carter also first stated that, `Part of the backbone may be visible on the dorsal image ...' of the man in the Shroud. [Carter, ibid., p.433] This identification has also been confirmed by Dr. Whanger. [Whanger, ibid., p.118] Recently I enlisted the services of Dr. Joseph Gerard and Dr. Cheri Ellis, who, in their profession as chiropractic physicians, make and view more X-ray images of the spinal column than almost any other profession. After studying quality photographic negatives of the dorsal area, they were able to specifically identify numerous vertebrae in the neck and backbone (and even a few pedicles of the vertebrae with disc spaces prevalent). All these skeletal features lie near the surfaces of the frontal or dorsal sides of the man in the Shroud. All are encoded correctly, and none were visible for hundreds of years-until the development of modern technology. The existence of just some of these features shows not only that the radiation came from the body, but that it resembled or had qualities analogous to X rays." (Antonacci, 2000, pp.213-214).

"Since we know the Shroud contained a body, the fact that both the frontal and dorsal images are contained on the inside of it is an indication that the body wrapped within was the source of radiation. We also saw that the reason a truly proportional three-dimensional image resulted was because the lightness or darkness of the image on the cloth correlated to the distance that it was from the body. Since the various degrees of the body image's lightness are all contained on the Shroud's surface, and the cloth itself received this information indicating the corresponding distances between it and the body below, the light had to have come from the body. In fact, all the numerous body image features, that are encoded over the entire lengths and widths of both the frontal and dorsal body images, indicate that the radiation emanated throughout the length and width of the body. Having studied the various features of the Shroud body image that have been discovered since its first extensive scientific examination in 1978, physicist Kitty Little wrote: `It was already known that the image was inside the Shroud and not on the outside. With this further examination it became certain that the source of the illumination that had formed the image came from within-that is, from the body-and that whatever caused it had a range of about four centimetres ... [with] the "illumination" coming from the body as a whole.' [Little, K., "The Holy Shroud and the Miracle of the Resurrection," Christian Order, April 1994, pp.218-231]" (Antonacci, 2000, p.214).

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

TSoT: Bibliography "W"

This is the Bibliography "W" page of my book outline, "The Shroud of Turin: Burial Sheet of Jesus?," of

[Left: Ian Wilson's, "The Blood and the Shroud" (1998), Amazon.com. Second only in importance to his, "The Turin Shroud" (1978), in laying out the evidence for and against the Shroud of Turin being the burial sheet of Jesus.]

authors' surnames beginning with "W" of books and journals that I will probably refer to.


THE SHROUD OF TURIN: BURIAL SHEET OF JESUS?
© Stephen E. Jones


CONTENTS

BIBLIOGRAPHY "W"

Walsh, B.J., ed., 2000, "Proceedings of the 1999 Shroud of Turin International Research Conference, Richmond, Virginia," Magisterium Press: Glen Allen VA.
Walsh, J.E., 1963, "The Shroud," Random House: New York NY.
Weaver, K.F., 1980, "Science Seeks to Solve...The Mystery of the Shroud," National Geographic, Vol. 157, June, pp.730-753.
Whanger, M. & Whanger, A.D., 1998, "The Shroud of Turin: An Adventure of Discovery," Providence House Publishers: Franklin TN.
Whiting, B., 2006, "The Shroud Story," Harbour Publishing: Strathfield NSW, Australia.
Wilcox, R.K., 1977, "Shroud," Macmillan: New York NY.
Wilson, I., 1979, "The Shroud of Turin: The Burial Cloth of Jesus?," [1978], Image Books: New York NY, Revised edition.
Wilson, I., 1986, "The Evidence of the Shroud," Guild Publishing: London.
Wilson, I., 1991, "Holy Faces, Secret Places: An Amazing Quest for the Face of Jesus," Doubleday: New York NY.
Wilson, I., 1998, "The Blood and the Shroud: New Evidence that the World's Most Sacred Relic is Real," Simon & Schuster: New York NY.
Wilson, I. & Schwortz, B., 2000, "The Turin Shroud: The Illustrated Evidence," Michael O'Mara Books Limited: London.
Wuenschel, E.A., 1954, "Self-Portrait of Christ: The Holy Shroud of Turin," Holy Shroud Guild: Esopus NY, Third printing, 1961.

PS: See `tagline' quotes below (bold emphases mine) , one from each of the above.

Stephen E. Jones, BSc. (Biology).
My other blog: CreationEvolutionDesign


"The radiocarbon dating performed on the Shroud of Turin in 1988 by laboratories located in Oxford, Tucson and Zurich concluded with a 95% probability that the linen cloth of the Shroud of Turin dated from between 1260 - 1390 AD. A reanalysis of the data used to derive this range of dates suggests that the statistical tests performed earlier assumed 14C homogeneity in the samples and as a result may have lead to a misleading range of dates. A different series of statistical evaluations has been applied to this radiocarbon date data leading to the conclusion that the Shroud subsamples each contained differing levels of 14C. An evaluation of this conclusion was conducted and found to be statistically supportable. Further analysis revealed that the sample dates observed were directly related to the physical location of the sample on the Shroud linen. This necessarily implies that the linen samples were non-homogeneous as regards 14C and the radiocarbon date derived for the Shroud samples are of questionable validity. The hypothesis of a relationship between the sample location on the Shroud cloth and the date measured was evaluated and found to be statistically significant." (Walsh, B.J., 2000, "The 1988 Shroud of Turin Radiocarbon Tests Reconsidered," in Walsh, B.J., ed., "Proceedings of the 1999 Shroud of Turin International Research Conference, Richmond, Virginia," Magisterium Press: Glen Allen VA, p.326).

"Only this much is certain: The Shroud of Turin is either the most awesome and instructive relic of Jesus Christ in existence-showing us in its dark simplicity how He appeared to men-or it is one of the most ingenious, most unbelievably clever, products of the human mind and hand on record. It is one or the other; there is no middle ground." (Walsh, J.E., 1963, "The Shroud," Random House: New York NY, pp.xi-xii).

"It would not be the shroud's first brush with science. That happened eighty years before, in 1898, with the first photographs of the relic. Those pictures uncovered the most surprising of the shroud's many mysteries. When the photographer, Secondo Pia, examined his first glass-plate negative as it emerged from the developing bath, he almost dropped it in shocked excitement. He was looking not at the usually unrealistic, confusing photographic negative, but at a clear positive image. Highlights and shadows were reversed from those on the cloth and were far more lifelike and realistic. Moreover, they showed details never before seen in the shroud, which was now revealed as a negative image. A negative image? Hundreds of years before the invention of photography? The idea that the shroud was a hoax suddenly seemed less plausible, for how could a medieval artist have produced a negative image, and why would he choose to do so?" (Weaver, K.F., 1980, "Science Seeks to Solve...The Mystery of the Shroud," National Geographic, Vol. 157, June, pp.730-753, 743. Italics original).

"PRIOR TO RELEASING OUR FINDINGS ON the Pantocrator icon and the Justinian II solidus, we had read about the work of Father Filas on the identification of coins over the eyes of the Man of the Shroud. The possibility of the presence of coins over the eyes was first raised when three scientists, John P Jackson, Eric J. Jumper, and R. W (Bill) Mottern, the instigators of the 1978 Shroud of Turin Research Project, put a photograph of the Shroud face in a VP-8 Image Analyzer (a specialized computer device which converts the density of an image into height) and saw, to their astonishment, an accurate three-dimensional representation rather than the irregular and distorted image resulting from all ordinary photographs and paintings. Two button-like objects, one over each eye, were visible; it was suggested they might be coins which had been used to keep the eyes of the dead closed, a practice common to many peoples for many centuries [Jackson, J.P., Jumper, E.J. Mottern, B. & Stevenson, K.E., ed., "The Three Dimensional Image On Jesus' Burial Cloth," in Stevenson, K.E., ed., "Proceedings of the 1977 United States Conference of Research on The Shroud of Turin," Holy Shroud Guild: Bronx NY, 1977, pp.90-91]. British historian Ian Wilson mentioned several coins from the time of Pontius Pilate which would correspond to the size of the `buttons,' about fifteen millimeters or five-eighths of an inch in diameter. In 1979, more out of curiosity than anything else, Filas re-photographed an enlargement of a photograph which had been made from a second-generation 1931 Enrie print of the face. To his surprise, he noticed something he had not seen before-a sort of design directly over the right eye. He took this photograph to Michael Marx, a numismatist (coin expert) who had earlier volunteered his professional expertise. Marx became excited as he scanned the photograph with a magnifier, for he could identify four curving capital letters, UCAI. There also was something that looked like a shepherd's crook. Filas next obtained a copy of Madden's History of Jewish Coinage, and of Money in the Old and New Testament and a catalog of all Pontius Pilate coins in the British Museum. He found only one coin which had as its main motif a `shepherd's crook,' actually an astrologer's staff or lituus: this was a lepton (small coin) or `widow's mite' of Pontius Pilate, and it was the correct size. Then, also in 1979, numismatist Bill Yarbrough obtained several Pontius Pilate lepta and gave one to each of several Shroud researchers, including Filas, as a souvenir. Filas became convinced that there are indeed images of coins over the eyes. He identified the one over the right eye definitely as a lituus lepton of Pontius Pilate; and on very minimal evidence (three very short curving lines that seemed to spread away from each other from a common source) suggested that the one over the left eye was likely also a Pontius Pilate lepton but of a different design, that of a sheaf of barley, which is found on a Pontius Pilate lepton known as the Joulia (Julia) lepton, which was struck only during a six-month period in A.D. 29 in honor of Julia the mother of Tiberius Caesar. " (Whanger, M. & Whanger, A.D., "The Shroud of Turin: An Adventure of Discovery," Providence House Publishers: Franklin TN, 1998, pp.23-24. Emphasis original).

"Not all the pollens present on the Shroud had been identified previously by Frei, because many were found to be coated in a calcium-rich mineral that made classification difficult. Considering that the underside of Christ's burial shroud had been in hard contact with the limestone burial platform of the cave-tomb, the intriguing question was whether the mineral coating on these pollens had come from rock in the same area. This question was taken up in 1986 by optical crystallographer Dr Joseph Kohlbeck, resident scientist at Hercules Aerospace, Colorado. He gained the support of archaeologist Dr Eugenia Nitowski, an expert in ancient Jewish tombs of Israel, who obtained for him some limestone samples from a first-century tomb in Jerusalem. Dr Kohlbeck closely analysed and compared his samples from the underside of the Shroud with Dr Nitowski's samples. In both instances he identified the calcium component to be of the aragonite variety, and in both he also uncovered traces of strontium and iron. In scientific terms, these points meant a close match. [Kohlbeck, J.A. & Nitowski, E.L., "New evidence may explain image on the Shroud of Turin," Biblical Archaeology Review, Jul/Aug 1986, p.23] There was still more that Dr Kohlbeck could do to test his evidence. He took his mineral-coated pollen samples and the limestone tomb samples to Dr Ricardo Levi-Setti at the Enrico Fermi Institute in the University of Chicago. The two scientists studied the patterns of spectra produced by the comparative samples through a high-resolution scanning ion microprobe. Although they were unable to prove beyond doubt that the Shroud aragonite had come from the Jerusalem area, the samples were found to be an unusually close match. This led Dr Kohlbeck to assess the strong probability that the Shroud limestone is of Jerusalem provenance." (Whiting, B., "The Shroud Story," Harbour Publishing: Strathfield NSW, Australia, 2006, pp.129-130).

"If I had known Stewart would need a profile of the man in the shroud, I would have brought along the photographs made by Leo Vala, a photographer of British royalty and a pioneer in the development of the 3D visual process and cinemascope movie screens. By manipulating light through photo transparencies, he produced an image on a normal screen that enabled sculptors to make a three-dimensional model which could then be photographed in profile or indeed from any other angle. In perfecting the process Vala had selected the shroud face as a subject `because it's such a beautiful image.' After publishing the results of his experimentation in the March 8, 1967 issue of Amateur Photographer, he became an outspoken critic of anyone who thought the image could have been produced by human hands either through artistry or technology. `I've been involved in the invention of many complicated visual processes, and I can tell you that no one could have faked that image. No one could do it today with all the technology we have. It's a perfect negative. It has a photographic quality that is extremely precise.'" (Wilcox, R.K., "Shroud," Macmillan: New York NY, 1977, pp.130-131).

"Even from the limited available information, a hypothetical glimpse of the power operating at the moment of creation of the Shroud's image may be ventured. In the darkness of the Jerusalem tomb the dead body of Jesus lay, unwashed, covered in blood, on a stone slab. Suddenly, there is a burst of mysterious power from it. In that instant the blood dematerializes, dissolved perhaps by the flash, while its image and that of the body becomes indelibly fused onto the cloth, preserving for posterity a literal `snapshot' of the Resurrection. However the image was formed, we may well be entranced by the fourteen-foot length of linen in Turin. For if the author's reconstruction is correct, the Shroud has survived first-century persecution of Christians, repeated Edessan floods, an Edessan earthquake, Byzantine iconoclasm, Moslem invasion, crusader looting, the destruction of the Knights Templars, not to mention the burning incident that caused the triple holes, the 1532 fire, and a serious arson attempt made in 1972. It is ironic that every edifice in which the Shroud was supposedly housed before the fifteenth century has long since vanished through the hazards of time, yet this frail piece of linen has come through almost unscathed. Frustratingly, the Shroud has not yet fully proven itself to us-not uncharacteristic of the gospel Jesus, who at certain times seems almost deliberately to have made his presence obscure, as in his post-Resurrection appearance to Mary Magdalen when she mistook him for a gardener, and in his walking, shortly after, as an unrecognized stranger with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. But one cannot help feeling that it has its role to play, and that its hour is imminent." (Wilson, I., "The Shroud of Turin: The Burial Cloth of Jesus?," [1978], Image Books: New York NY, Revised edition, 1979, pp.250-251).

"Attempts to simulate some aspects of such a process have been made by Drs. Jackson and Jumper and colleagues in a comprehensive review of the comparative plausibility of every conceivable variety of image-forming process. But although images were produced, as in so many other experiments, these fell far short of the photographic realism of the Shroud. As Jackson and Jumper felt obliged to conclude: `We have examined a variety of image formation processes in a generic sense and found that ... no single hypothesis seems to simultaneously explain them all ...' [Jackson, J.P., Jumper, E.J. & Ercoline, W.R., "Correlation of image intensity on the Turin Shroud with the 3-D structure of a human body shape," Applied Optics, Vol. 23, No. 14, 15 July 1984, pp.2244-2269, 2269] Nonetheless a quite new and in its own way remarkably revelatory achievement has been made in the course of other studies by Jackson, this time working with Bill Ercoline. As has long been recognized, during whatever image forming process occurred the Shroud must have been draped, as opposed to being flat, over the body it wrapped. This should have caused lateral distortions in the image large enough to exceed natural variations in human anatomy. Ercoline and Jackson determined these, then plotted the actual distortions that would occur with the natural drape of a cloth over a body laid out in the manner indicated on the Shroud. They found good correlation. [Jackson, J.P. & Ercoline, W.R., "The Three-Dimensional Characteristics of the Shroud Image," IEEE 1982 Proceedings of the International Conference on Cybernetics and Society, October 1982] The effect of this research is to demand that if the Shroud is the work of an artist, he took account of the effects of cloth drape among his many other intricate calculations. Super artist, or supernormal event, consistently these have proved the only two alternatives in the midst of all the many facets of Shroud research." (Wilson, I., "The Evidence of the Shroud," Guild Publishing: London, 1986, p.126).

"But there is one example that is almost spectacularly different. Out on the Via Portuense, which runs south-westwards out of Rome, there lies one of Rome's least-known catacombs, the Catacomb of S. Ponziano, or St Pontianus. It goes unmentioned even by the authoritative Blue Guide to Rome, and can only be visited by special permission from the Pontificia Commissione di Archeologia Sacra, the Pontifical Commission of Sacred Archaeology. Importantly, since the whole catacomb was closed down after AD 820, any decoration inside it almost inevitably has to be of an earlier date. On one wall, slightly damaged, but its colours still fresh, is to be seen a very fine fresco ... of Christ Pantocrator iconographically so close to that of the coins of Justinian II that its date is almost certainly the same, the end of the seventh century. But its real feature of interest is the one which lies between Christ's eyebrows, and would be well nigh impossible to convey on anything as small as a coin. This is a sharply delineated topless square ... exactly corresponding in shape and positioning to that so unnatural mark between the eyebrows on the shroud. Now there can be no question of this feature perhaps being the result of some later tampering with the fresco. Not only did Vignon feature it in his book of 1939, thus dating it back at least fifty years, there are many indications that it was the work of the original seventh-century artist. Throughout the work, for instance, the artist used only a very limited range of colours, and it can be seen to have been painted in one of these. Furthermore, it has been created in fresco, thereby having been made integral to the original wall plaster, and can be adjudged as such by any expert. And if this originality is accepted, its significance in relation to the shroud's date is difficult to over-estimate. Just as the viewing of a single footprint on fresh sand provided for Robinson Crusoe the conclusive evidence that there was another human being (later revealed as Man Friday) on his island, so the presence of this topless square on an indisputably seventh/eighth-century fresco virtually demands that the shroud must have been around, somewhere, in some form at this early date. Since that form can have been scarcely other than the `holy face' of Edessa, the shroud's history is effectively established at least as far back as the sixth century, with the Abgar story offering a glimmer of how it may have arrived in Edessa back in the first." (Wilson, I., "Holy Faces, Secret Places: The Quest for Jesus' True Likeness," Doubleday: London, 1991, pp.167-168).

"Yet none of this, of course, means that the Shroud cannot be the work of a `cunning' mediaeval forger. Perhaps, whoever he was, this individual enjoyed such power that he could arrange for a six-foot man, possibly some prisoner, to be crucified in the exact manner of Jesus Christ? Perhaps he was able to obtain authentic ancient weaponry for the carrying out of details such as the scourging? Perhaps, given that Jews were well established throughout Europe during the Middle Ages, he knew the special burial requirements that pertained to those of this religion who had died a bloody death and arranged for an all-enveloping cloth accordingly? Of course, even if he had managed all this, how he managed to get the image onto the cloth still remains unexplained. Also is it not rather incredible that this unknown individual should have gone to so much trouble and effort to deceive in an age in which, as twentieth-century journalists have reminded us [Sheridan, M. & Reeves, P., "Turin Shroud shown to be a fake," Independent, 14 October 1988], a large proportion of the populace would have been very easily duped by a feather of the Archangel Gabriel or a phial of the last breath of St Joseph?" (Wilson, I., "The Blood and the Shroud: New Evidence that the World's Most Sacred Relic is Real," Simon & Schuster: New York NY, 1998, pp.58-60) .

"However, as early as 1984, when he was still in good health, Paul Maloney began corresponding with Dr Avinoam Danin of the A. Silberman Institute for Life Sciences at Jerusalem's Hebrew University about the Frei tapes. Danin is an acknowledged world authority on the flora of Israel, and much to Maloney's surprise and satisfaction, he responded with considerable courtesy and lack of dismissiveness, despite his academic eminence and his unswerving Jewishness. This encouraged Alan Whanger, in company with his wife Mary, to call upon Danin (who in the meantime had become Professor) during a visit to Jerusalem in September 1995. As guests at his home they showed him some of their photographs of the portions of the Shroud on which they `see' flowers, whereupon, after less than twenty seconds' perusal Danin exclaimed `Those are the flowers of Jerusalem!' One `flower' that he had no difficulty perceiving (and with regard to which even I can acknowledge a flower-like shape in the relevant sector of the Shroud), was the very first one that Alan Whanger had identified on the Shroud, the crown chrysanthemum or Chrysanthemum coronarium. Danin further noted, to the side of the man of the Shroud's right cheek, several flowers of rock rose or Cistus creticus. Despite having remained oblivious throughout his life to any flower images on the Shroud, Dr Max Frei found this rose represented among the pollens from a sticky tape, 6bd, taken from the centre of this very same area. Two years later, upon visiting the Whangers at their North Carolina home, Danin observed on a Shroud photograph an image that he regarded as most interesting of all - that of a bouquet of bean caper plants, namely Zygophyllum dumosum. As he has remarked: `During rainy winters this species sprouts leaves whose petioles look like sausages with two leaflets at their head. When summer comes, the leaflets drop and only the petiole is left. The petioles shrink slowly during the summer ... The only species of Zygophyllum that exhibits this behaviour is Zygophyllum dumosum'. [Danin, A., "Pressed Flowers." Eretz Magazine, November/December 1997, p.37] The overwhelmingly important feature of this discovery is that Zygophyllum dumosum grows only in Israel, Jordan and the Sinai. The northernmost extent of its distribution in the world coincides with the line between Jericho and the sea-level sign on the road leading from Jerusalem to Jericho. Westwards it does not reach as far as the Suez Canal, southwards it peters out before St Catherine's Monastery in the Sinai desert, and eastwards it extends no further than the longitude line of the Jordanian capital, Amman. ... Then at last there appeared a circular-shaped pollen grain, quite unmistakable, and large as pollen grains go. As was immediately revealed by cross-comparison with images of pollen grains stored in the Whanger computer, this was Gundelia tournefortii, a plant that Max Frei had already identified on the Shroud, and which Danin had reported as present on the Shroud in abundance pollenwise, and also in image form. ? As Danin sums up, particularly from superimposing the known distribution sites of Gundelia tournefortii, Zygophyllum dumosum and Cistus creticus, together with three further specific pollen types confirmed to be on the Shroud, the very narrow geographical region that all these plants share in common is the mere twenty miles between Hebron and Jerusalem. [Danin, A., "Micro-traces of plants on the Shroud of Turin as geographical markers," in Scannerini, S. & Savarino, P., eds, "The Turin Shroud: Past, Present and Future," International scientific symposium, Turin, 2-5 March 2000," Effatà: Cantalupa, 2000, pp. 495-500] So the conclusion is inescapable, in the very teeth of the radiocarbon dating, that at some time in its history the Turin Shroud positively must have been in the same environs in which Jesus of Nazareth lived and died." (Wilson, I. & Schwortz, B., "The Turin Shroud: The Illustrated Evidence," Michael O'Mara Books: London, 2000, pp.85-86, 88, 92. Italics original).

"Most remarkable of all was the fact that Yves Delage took an active part in the investigation. He was an agnostic with a strong prejudice against anything that savored of the miraculous or the supernatural, but he was also a first-rate scientist of international reputation and a member of the French Academy of Sciences. .... After a year and a half the investigation came to an end with a resounding climax. These hard-headed scientists were convinced of the authenticity of the Shroud. ... They decided to bring their findings before the Academy ... What was still more startling, it was Yves Delage who proposed to put the case before his fellow Academicians. ... It was April 21, 1902 ... The Shroud is not a painting at all, said Delage, either of the fourteenth or of any other century. No matter what the documents in question may say, that hypothesis is absurd. Here is the proof before our eyes-the Shroud itself reproduced with perfect fidelity in these two photographs. They show that the two figures are negatives. The idea of a negative was unknown before the era of photography, and se no artist before that time could even have thought of painting a picture like that on the Shroud. Not only that, but these two figures, though outlined by a rather faint stain on the cloth, are as exact as a negative formed by light on a photographic plate. That is why the positive version reveals such a clear and natural portrait, anatomically correct, with true perspective, and with an aesthetic character that one would never have expected. ... In the hypothesis that this is a painting, continued Delage, you must imagine an artist who conceived the idea of a negative centuries before the invention of photography. Then you must imagine that this incredible genius knew how to place the lights and shades so that the photographic inversion of his hand-designed negative reveals this unrivaled portrait with its haunting, complex expression. The artist himself could not have seen this positive image while he did his work, since he would be doing everything in reverse. And he would have to do everything with perfect precision ... There would, of course, be no conceivable reason why the hypothetical artist should want to do a negative. Presumably, he would be painting for his contemporaries, not for the Academy of Sciences or for the parties of the present dispute; nor could he foresee the invention of photography, the only means that could reverse his negative into a positive. He would be taking infinite pains to conceal forever a masterful portrait in an apparently crude sketch. He would also have used materials and applied a technique unknown before the photograph of the Shroud inspired some clumsy imitations. There is not the slightest trace of any pigments here, nor the least sign of any preparation of the cloth to receive the twofold image. There is nothing but the delicate stain completely absorbed by the fabric, and it is of this stain that that perfect negative is formed. Yes, the painting hypothesis is absurd, no matter what any written documents may say to the contrary. In this conclusion the members of the Academy agreed with Delage. After examining the two glass plates provided by Secondo Pia, they admitted that the images on the Shroud could not be the work of any artist." (Wuenschel, E.A., "Self-Portrait of Christ: The Holy Shroud of Turin," [1954], Holy Shroud Guild: Esopus NY, Third printing, 1961, pp.17-20).