© Stephen E. Jones[1]
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This is the "Editorial and Contents," part #1 of the July 2016 issue of my Shroud of Turin News. Following this editorial, I will add excerpts from Shroud-related July 2016 news articles (if any) in separate posts, linked back to this post, with the articles' words in bold to distinguish them from mine. Click on a link below to go to that article. Articles not yet linked are planned to be commented on in this issue.
Contents:
Editorial.
Editorial. Rex Morgan's Shroud News: My scanning and word-processing of issues of Rex Morgan's Shroud News and emailing them to Barrie Schwortz for him to convert to PDF and add to his online Shroud News archive, continued in July up to issue #54, August 1989. Issues in that archive are still only up to #50, December 1988. Here is an extract from the cover of that issue No. 54. The caption
[Above (enlarge): Extract from the cover of Rex Morgan's Shroud News, issue #54, August 1989.]
is: "Crusader period painting of Christ in the Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem: Another copy from the Shroud?" The photo was taken by the late archaeologist, Eugenia Nitowski (1947-2007) (aka Sr Damian of the Cross). This previously unknown to me icon of Christ, dates from c. 1130 and 1169, and has by my count at least 10 Vignon Markings (nos. 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 & 15 - especially no. 8 "enlarged left
[Above (enlarge): The Vignon markings: (1) Transverse streak across forehead, (2) three-sided `square' between brows, (3) V shape at bridge of nose, (4) second V within marking 2, (5) raised right eyebrow, (6) accentuated left cheek, (7) accentuated right cheek, (8) enlarged left nostril, (9) accentuated line between nose and upper lip, (10) heavy line under lower lip, (11) hairless area between lower lip and beard, (12) forked beard, (13) transverse line across throat, (14) heavily accentuated owlish eyes, (15) two strands of hair." [2].]
nostril"), and therefore it is indeed "Another copy from the Shroud"! There are photos of it online (e.g. "Jesus Christ Image on Pillar of Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem") but they are not high quality. I have asked Rex Morgan if he has the original photograph and he is going to check. I emailed Ian Wilson to ask if he knows anything about it and although they are his Shroud News copies that I am scanning, he said he had overlooked the significance of that icon, but he agrees that it is significant. Indeed it is very significant! Here is an icon on a pillar in the Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem, which has at least 10 of the 15 Vignon Marking oddities, which are also found on the Shroud, and therefore it is beyond reasonable doubt this icon was based on the Shroud. Yet the icon is securely dated between 91 and 130 years before the earliest 1260 radiocarbon dating of the Shroud as "mediaeval ... AD 1260-1390"! So this is yet another of the "lot of other evidence that" Oxford radiocarbon dating laboratory's Prof. Christopher Ramsey, who was involved in the 1988 dating and was a signatory to the 1989 Nature article admitted, "suggests [to put it mildly] ... that the Shroud is older than the radiocarbon dates allow" (my emphasis):
"There is a lot of other evidence that suggests to many that the Shroud is older than the radiocarbon dates allow and so further research is certainly needed. It is important that we continue to test the accuracy of the original radiocarbon tests as we are already doing. It is equally important that experts assess and reinterpret some of the other evidence. Only by doing this will people be able to arrive at a coherent history of the Shroud which takes into account and explains all of the available scientific and historical information."[3]I emailed the Bethlehem Visitor Information Center asking if it had, or knew where there was, a better quality photograph of this icon, but they haven't yet replied. If any reader has, or knows where there is, a better quality photograph of that icon, please let me know in a comment below this post.
Topic index: In July I began my new "The Shroud of Turin blog topics" series, which replaces my "Topic index: The Shroud of Turin blog," my "Turin Shroud Encyclopedia" and my "Turin Shroud Dictionary," all of which proved too time-consuming.
Posts: In July, I blogged only 5 new posts (latest uppermost): "The 1260-1390 radiocarbon date of the Turin Shroud was the result of a computer hacking #9"; "5 minutes with ... The earliest painted representation of the Turin Shroud," Shroud of Turin News, June 2016; "Chronology of the Turin Shroud: AD 30 - present: First century"; "No paint, etc. #15: The man on the Shroud: The evidence is overwhelming that the Turin Shroud is authentic!"; and "Editorial and Contents": Shroud of Turin News, June 2016.
My radiocarbon dating hacker theory: As can be seen above, in July I started part #9 of my "The 1260-1390 radiocarbon date of the Turin Shroud was the result of a computer hacking" series, which was about the Soviet Union's motive to discredit the Shroud by accepting Timothy W. Linick's alleged offer to guarantee by hacking that the Shroud would radiocarbon-date to shortly before it first appeared in undisputed history at Lirey, France in c.1355.
Updates. There were no updates to my posts in the background in July.
Pageviews: At midnight on 31 July, Google Analytics [below (enlarge)] gave this blog's "Pageviews all time history" as 567,373 and "Pageviews last month" as 22,208. It also gave the most viewed posts for the month as: "Editorial and Contents," Shroud of Turin News, June 2016. Jul 10, 2016 - 188; No paint, etc. #15: The man on the Shroud: The evidence is overwhelming that the Turin Shroud is authentic!. Jul 11, 2016 - 118; Chronology of the Turin Shroud: AD 30 - present. Jul 24, 2016 - 102; "5 minutes with ... The earliest painted representation of the Turin Shroud," Shroud of Turin News, June 2016. Jul 26, 2016 - 60; and "New Study: The Shroud of Turin and the Sudarium of Oviedo Covered the Same Person," Shroud of Turin News, May 2016. Jun 24, 2016 - 57. As can be seen in the graph above, there was a huge jump in the number of pageviews on or about 21st July and then it continued on a higher plateau. The number of pageviews in June was 8,461 but it jumped to 22,208 in July, an increase of 13,747 or 162% (although June was a low PageView month). Most of this increase seems to be coming from Russian viewers but not of any particular post. Part of the explanation for this sudden jump in pageviews of my blog may be due to it rising in Google's PageRank and thus attracting more `passing trade'?
Notes:
1. This post is copyright. Permission is granted to extract or quote from any part of it (but not the whole post), provided the extract or quote includes a reference citing my name, its subject heading, its date, and a hyperlink back to it. [return]
2. Wilson, I., 1978, "The Turin Shroud," Book Club Associates: London, p.82e. [return]
3. Ramsey, C.B., 2008, "Shroud of Turin," Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, 23 March, Version 152, Issued 16 June 2015. [return]
Posted: 4 August 2016. Updated: 15 September 2018.
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