13th-12th centuries: Shroud's 1260-1390 radiocarbon date is against the preponderance of the evidence (1): Steps in the development of my radiocarbon dating of the Turin Shroud hacker theory #8

Copyright © Stephen E. Jones[1]

This is part #8, "Shroud's 1260-1390 radiocarbon date is against the preponderance of the evidence (1)," in my "Steps in the development of my radiocarbon dating of the Turin Shroud hacker theory" series. For more information about this series see part #1, "Hacking an explanation & Index." References "[A]", etc., will be to that part of my original post. Emphases are mine unless otherwise indicated.

[Index] [Previous: "Dr Jull's and Prof. Ramsey's prompt, misleading and false replies" #7] [Next: "VT-100 terminal to a DEC mini-computer, Timothy Linick and Karl Koch" #9]

Continuing with tracing the steps in the development of my radiocarbon dating of the Shroud hacker theory in my early 2014 posts: "Were the radiocarbon dating laboratories duped by a computer hacker? (1)," "(2)," "(3)," "Summary," "My replies to Dr. Timothy Jull and Prof. Christopher Ramsey," and now "Were the radiocarbon dating laboratories duped by a computer hacker?: Revised #1".

The Shroud was radiocarbon dated to 1260-1390 = 1325 ±65 On 13 October 1988 it was announced by the British Museum's Dr M. Tite, Oxford's Prof. E. Hall and Dr R. Hedges at a press conference in the British Museum, London, and simultaneously in Turin by Archbishop Ballestrero, that three radiocarbon dating laboratories, Arizona, Zurich and Oxford, had radiocarbon-dated the Shroud of Turin as 1260-1390!"(See part #6)[2]. Then on 16 February 1989 the science journal Nature reported that:

"... samples from the Shroud of Turin have been dated by accelerator mass spectrometry in laboratories at Arizona, Oxford and Zurich ... The results provide conclusive evidence that the linen of the Shroud of Turin is mediaeval ... AD 1260-1390"[3].

The midpoint of 1206-1390 is 1325 ±65 years[4], which is only ~30

[Above (enlarge): Pilgrim's badge[5] from the first undisputed exposition of the Shroud at Lirey, France in c.1355[6].]

years before the Shroud was first exhibited in undisputed history at Lirey, France in c. 1355[7].[A]

Against the preponderance of the evidence (1) This was against the preponderance of the evidence[8], including historical evidence (see following in reverse chronological order) that the Shroud existed many centuries before 1260, the earliest possible radiocarbon date[9].

c. 1225 Around 1225 the frescoes in the 12th century[10] chapel of the Holy Sepulchre in Winchester Cathedral, England, were repainted[11]. In the deposition scene of Jesus having been taken down from the

[Above (enlarge): Deposition fresco in Holy Sepulchre Chapel, Winchester Cathedral[12]. Note the double body length shroud about to be placed over Jesus, in a fresco painted in at least 1225, 35 years before the earliest 1260 radiocarbon date of the Shroud!]

cross by Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, the unknown artist painted behind St John and Nicodemus a fourth man carrying a double-length shroud, intended to go over Jesus's head, body and down to his feet, exactly as the Shroud does[13].[B]

c. 1212 Gervase of Tilbury (c.1150–c.1228), a widely travelled thirteenth century, English born but Rome-educated[14], canon lawyer, statesman and writer[15], referring in his Otia Imperialia which was written between 1210 and 1214[16], to the story of the cloth upon which Jesus had impressed an image of His face and sent it to King Abgar V of Edessa, added that:

"... it is handed down from archives of ancient authority that the Lord prostrated himself full length on most white linen, and so by divine power the most beautiful likeness not only of the face, but also of the whole body of the Lord was impressed upon the cloth"[17].

This is one of a number (see Ordericus Vitalis below) of altered versions of the Abgar story which substituted for the miracle of Jesus' pressing his face onto a cloth to explain Jesus' face on the Image of Edessa, a scenario by which Jesus laid his whole body upon a cloth in order to produce a likeness of his whole body[18]. It is so self-evidently preposterous that Jesus would have in life (let alone publicly!) laid His naked body on a cloth to imprint His image on it[19], that this can only be an early 13th century reference to the Shroud, nearly a half-century before the earliest radiocarbon date of 1260, and mentioned in archives which were "ancient"[20] even then![C]

1203: French crusader knight Robert de Clari, a chronicler of the Fourth Crusade (1202–4)[21], wrote in his 1204 diary The Conquest of Constantinople[22] what he saw in Constantinople in late 1203:

"... there was another church which was called My Lady Saint Mary of Blachernae, where was kept the sheet [sydoines] in which Our Lord had been wrapped, which every Friday rose up straight, so that one could clearly see the figure [figure] of Our Lord on it; and no one, neither Greek nor French, knew what became of this sheet after the city was taken"[23].

The word sydoines is Old French for the Greek word sindon, a linen sheet, used in the Gospels for Jesus' burial shroud (Mt 27:59; Mk 15:46; Lk 23:53), and the word figure is Old French for "bodily form"[24]. So in 1203 there existed in Constantinople a linen shroud with an imprint of Christ's body on it, over a half-century before the earliest radiocarbon date, 1260[25]. But then it would be the "sindon which God wore," mentioned in a letter of of 958 by Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (r. 913-959) as already in the imperial relic collection[see "958"], over 300 years before the earliest 1260 radiocarbon date of the Shroud[26]![D]

1201-1204: The Holy Face of Laon (French: "Sainte Face de Laon"[27]) is a glazed panel painted presumably at Constantinople between 1201 and 1204[28], or even in the second half of the 12th

[Above (enlarge): "Icon of the Holy Face (Mandylion) of Laon. Purchased in 1249 in Bari (Italy) by Jacques Pantaleon, later to become Pope Urban"[29].]

century (e.g. c.1167-1198[30]). In 1249, Jacques Pantaleon (1195–1264), then Archdeacon of Laon[31], and later to become Pope Urban IV (r.1261–1264)[32], gave the icon to his sister Sibylle, the abbess of a nearby convent at Montreuil-en-Thierache[33]. It is now kept in the Cathedral of Laon, Picardy, France[34]. The icon is actually a copy of the Image of Edessa or Mandylion[35], as its background has a trellis pattern[36] like other depictions of the Image. It also shows a brown monochrome, rigidly front facing, disembodied head of Jesus on cloth, strongly reminiscent of the Shroud[37]. This icon corresponds more closely to the face on the Shroud than any other[38], having 13 of the 15 Vignon markings (see part #2)[39]. It also bears an inscription in ancient slavonic: OBRAZ GOSPODIN NA UBRUSJE "the portrait of the Lord on the cloth"[40], which must mean that the artist worked directly from the Shroud[41], which was in Constantinople between 944 and 1204[42]. But since the Sainte Face dates from the beginning of the thirteenth century (or even from the end of the 12th century), and it is a copy of the Shroud image, then the Shroud must date from well before 1200[43]. This cannot be reconciled with the 1260-1390 radiocarbon dating[44].[E]

1201: Nicholas Mesarites, the Keeper[45] of Constantinople's Pharos Chapel relic collection, in 1201 wrote:

"In this chapel Christ rises again, and the sindon with the burial linens is the clear proof ... The burial sindon of Christ: this is of linen, of cheap and easily obtainable material, still smelling fragrant of myrrh, defying decay, because it wrapped the mysterious [aperilepton], naked dead body after the Passion"[46].

The Greek word aperilepton means "un-outlined"[47], "uncircumscribed"[48] or "indefinable"[49] (Greek a = "not" + peri = "around" + "lepton" = "thin"[50]), and is a unique descriptor of the image on the Shroud which has no outline[51]. Moreover, Mesarites stated that Christ's body was naked but except for the Pray Codex (see below) not until the fourteenth century, and then only rarely, was Christ's body depicted as naked[52]. These two unique descriptors of the Shroud, "un-outlined" and "naked," which were also descriptors of Jesus' image on a "sindon" (shroud) in Constantinople's relic collection in 1201, are further evidence that the Shroud was already in Constantinople at the very beginning of the thirteenth century[53], nearly 60 years before the earliest 1260 radiocarbon date of the Shroud![F]

1192-95 The Hungarian Pray Manuscript, or Codex, is dated 1192-95[54], having been made at the Benedictine monastery of Boldva in Hungary between those years[55]. Hungary was then ruled by King

[Above (enlarge): "The Pray Codex, 1192-95:

"The Codex Pray, Pray Codex or The Hungarian Pray Manuscript is a collection of medieval manuscripts. In 1813 it was named after György Pray, who discovered it in 1770. It is the first known example of continuous prose text in Hungarian. The Codex is kept in the National Széchényi Library of Budapest. One of the most prominent documents within the Codex (f. 154a) is the Funeral Sermon and Prayer ... It is an old handwritten Hungarian text dating to 1192-1195. Its importance of the Funeral Sermon comes from that it is the oldest surviving Hungarian, and Uralic, text ... One of the five illustrations within the Codex shows the burial of Jesus. ... the display shows remarkable similarities with the Shroud of Turin: that Jesus is shown entirely naked with the arms on the pelvis, just like in the body image of the Shroud of Turin; that the thumbs on this image appear to be retracted, with only four fingers visible on each hand, thus matching detail on the Turin Shroud; that the supposed fabric shows a herringbone pattern, identical to the weaving pattern of the Shroud of Turin; and that the four tiny circles on the lower image, which appear to form a letter L, `perfectly reproduce four apparent "poker holes" on the Turin Shroud', which likewise appear to form a letter L. The Codex Pray illustration may [sic does] serve as evidence for the existence of the Shroud of Turin prior to 1260–1390 AD, the alleged fabrication date established in the radiocarbon 14 dating of the Shroud of Turin in 1988 ..."[56].]

Bela III (c.1148–1196), who had spent six years (1163–1169) as a young man in the imperial court at Constantinople[57]. So during Bela's reign there were strong cultural links between Constantinople and Hungary[58]. The codex contains four pen and ink drawings (see my 11Jan10) pertaining to the death of Jesus[59]. The first panel depicts the Crucifixion; the second shows the descent from the Cross; the third panel is divided into two, the top section showing the body of Jesus laid out on a cloth for burial, and the lower section depicting the arrival of the holy women on Easter morn who find an angel at the empty tomb; and the fourth panel is that of the glorified Christ[60]. Of particular relevance to the Shroud is the third drawing with two scenes, one above the other, of the deposition of Jesus' body from the cross and His entombment[61]. Together they share the following eight features in common with Shroud: 1. Jesus' wrists are crossed, right over left, at the groin; 2. He is naked; 3. there is a red mark over Christ's right eyebrow where the reversed `3' bloodstain is on the Shroud; 4. Christ's hands lack thumbs; 5. His burial sheet is long and bi-fold; 6. He has a sarcophagus with crosses and zigzags imitating the herringbone weave of the Shroud; 7. the sarcophagus has angular blood flows matching those on the arms of the man on the Shroud; and 8. there are two sets of tiny circles which match the sets of L-shaped `poker holes' on the Shroud[62]. These eight correspondences between those drawings in the Pray Codex and the Shroud are together conclusive proof that the 12th century artist of the Pray Codex had seen the Shroud[63] in 1192-95, at least 65 years before the earliest 1260 radiocarbon date[64]. So the Pray codex `poker holes' are the final nail in the coffin of the carbon-dating result[65]. In 1993 Nobel prize-winning geneticist Jérôme Lejeune (1926-1994) was granted a rare private viewing of the Pray codex in Budapest[65a]. In an interview a month later he said:

"But the most extraordinary image of all is to be found in the lower foreground of the image: an angel is pointing out the Shroud to the pious women who had come to the tomb with perfumed oils on Easter morning. Well, in that design the four `L'-shaped holes are perfectly visible, the holes the Turin Shroud still has today. And they can even be seen, perfectly superimposable, on the back of the cloth, which is also represented in the design. It is absolutely unthinkable that a painter could design, without ever having seen it, an image showing holes of the same size and in the same place (and which are the result of the rather anomalous folds of the cloth so that the holes can be superimposed one on the other) as the holes that the Turin Shroud still has today. In short, the Turin Shroud existed before 1192. This is a definitive historic certainty. There can be no further discussion on the point ... There is no doubt about it. The Carbon 14 dating by the three laboratories does not give the age of the Shroud of Turin. Their dating (1260-1390) is in disaccord with the historic certainty that between 1100 and 1200 a painter saw all the details of the Shroud today kept in Turin, including the burn holes which are not at all interesting from the artistic point of view"[65b].

So the Pray Codex alone proves beyond reasonable doubt that the Shroud of Turin is the Shroud of Constantinople and therefore existed from at least 944 [see "944b"], more than three centuries before the earliest 1260 radiocarbon date[66]![G]

1181 A champlevé enamel panel which forms part of the altar in the Klosterneuberg monastery, near Vienna, completed in 1181 by Nicholas of Verdun (1130–1205)[67]. As can be seen below, Jesus is being

[Above (enlarge): Entombment of Jesus, 1181, by Nicholas of Verdun, Klosterneuburg Abbey, Vienna[68].]

wrapped in a long burial shroud, with His hands crossed over His loins, right over left, awkwardly at the wrists, exactly as on the Shroud[69]! Yet this was 79 years before the earliest 1260 radiocarbon date of the Shroud![H]

1171: Chronicler William of Tyre (c.1130–1186), as Archbishop of Tyre[70], accompanied a state visit of King Amaury I, aka. Amalric I, (r. 1163-1174) of Jerusalem to Emperor Manuel I Comnenus (1118–1180) in Constantinople[71]. William recorded his party being shown "the most precious evidences of the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ" including "the shroud" [sindon][72]. However William did not mention an image on the shroud, but this can be explained either by him only seeing its reliquary within which was the folded cloth[73] or the light being too dim for him to distinguish the Shroud's faint image. [I]

c. 1150 The Christ Pantocrator ("Ruler of all"[74]) mosaic in the apse of Cefalu Cathedral, Sicily[75] is among the most recent of many such

[Above: (enlarge): Christ Pantocrator, Cefalu Cathedral, Sicily[76].

"... if the radiocarbon dating is to be believed, there should be no evidence of our Shroud [before 1260]. The year 1260 was the earliest possible date for the Shroud's existence by radiocarbon dating's calculations. Yet artistic likenesses of Jesus originating well before 1260 can be seen to have an often striking affinity with the face on the Shroud ... Purely by way of example we may cite from the twelfth century the huge Christ Pantocrator mosaic that dominates the apse of the Norman Byzantine church at Cefalu, Sicily ..."[77].]

works in the Byzantine tradition,which depict a Shroud-like, long-haired, fork-bearded, front-facing likeness of Christ[80]. But at c.1150 it is still over a century before the earliest 1260 radiocarbon date of the Shroud[81]. It has 14 out of 15 Vignon markings (see Revised #2)[82], including a triangle between the nose and the eyebrows, concave cheeks, asymmetrical and pronounced cheekbones, each found on the Shroud, and a double tuft of hair where the reversed `3' bloodstain is on the Shroud[83]. This means the artist was working from the face on the Shroud, copying each feature carefully, even though he did not understand what some of them were, for example the open, staring eyes are actually closed in photographic negative on the Shroud[84].[J]

c. 1150 A Christ Pantocrator fresco, dating back to the twelfth century, in the rupestrian (cave) Church of St. Nicholas in Casalrotto, Italy[85].

[Above (enlarge): Christ Pantocrator centre panel of fresco between Mary and John the Baptist (see here), in the twelfth century cave church in Casalrotto, Italy[86].]

Jesus' face is Shroud-like, rigidly forward-facing with Vignon markings including a forked beard, open staring eyes, a wisp of hair where the reversed `3' bloodstain is in the Shroud, and a triangle between the nose and the eyebrows[87].[K]

1140 "The Song of the Voyage of Charlemagne to Jerusalem" (known

[Above: The front cover of a 1965 French reprint of the poem, "Le Voyage de Charlemagne à Jérusalem et à Constantinople"[88]:

"Le Pèlerinage de Charlemagne or Voyage de Charlemagne à Jérusalem et à Constantinople (Pilgrimage of Charlemagne or Charlemagne's Voyage to Jerusalem and Constantinople) is an Old French chanson de geste (epic poem) dealing with a fictional expedition by Charlemagne and his knights. The oldest known written version was probably composed around 1140"[89].]

by various names in French, including "Chanson du Voyage de Charlemagne à Jerusalem"[90] and "Le Pèlerinage de Charlemagne"[91]), is an Old French epic poem about a fictional expedition by Emperor Charlemagne the Great (c.742-814) and his knights, composed around 1140[92]. But although imaginary it bears historical testimony to the existence of the Shroud, in that it reflects the accounts given by pilgrims at that time[93]. In it the Emperor asks the Patriarch of Jerusalem if he has any relics to show him, and the Patriarch replies:

"I shall show you such relics that there are not better under the sky: of the Shroud of Jesus which He had on His head, when He was laid and stretched in the tomb ..."[94].

While this contains an inaccuracy in that the Shroud was not in Jerusalem in Charlemagne's time (c.742-814) but continuously in Edessa from 544 to 944[see "544" and "944b"], the word "Shroud" is the Old French equivalent of "sindon"[95], the Greek word used in the Gospels for Jesus' burial shroud (see above). Also the pilgrim French Bishop Arculf had reported seeing a shroud in Jerusalem in c.670, but this cannot have been the Shroud [see "670a"]. So The Voyage of Charlemagne evidently reflects these mistaken pilgrims' reports of a shroud in Jerusalem in the Early Middle Ages. Moreover this Old French word for sindon, presumably is the same sydoines used by Robert de Clari over 60 years later (see above). So this is evidence that in 1140, well over a century before the earliest 1260 radiocarbon date of the Shroud, it was common knowledge that the burial sindon of Jesus existed, upon which He had been laid stretched out in the tomb, and which had then covered His head![L]

c.1130-1140 An English-born Norman monk[96] Ordericus Vitalis (1075 - c.1142), in his History of the Church (Historia Ecclesiastica), written by 1140[97], when he came to the 1098 capture of Edessa in the First Crusade (1095-1099)[98], Ordericus updated the Abgar V story, that:

"Abgar the ruler reigned at Edessa; the Lord Jesus sent him a sacred letter and a beautiful linen cloth he had wiped the sweat from his face with. The image of the Saviour was miraculously imprinted on to it and shines out, displaying the form and size of the Lord's body to all who look on it"[99].

A cloth which displays "the form and size of the Lord's body" is clearly a full-length sheet, not a mere towel as in the original Abgar story[100]. As with Gervase of Tilbury (see above) about 80 years later, this is one of a number of altered version of the Abgar story which substituted for Jesus' imprinting his face onto a cloth, Jesus laying his whole body upon a cloth in order to produce an image of his whole figure[101]. In attempting to update the Abgar story with the new information that the Edessa cloth has not only an image of Jesus' face, but also of His whole body, Ordericus contradicted himself, since Jesus' pressing His face to a cloth would not thereby imprint His whole body onto that cloth[102]. Since Ordericus' History was widely read throughout France and England, this may be the earliest generally known reference to the Shroud in Western Europe[103].[M]

Pre-1130 Vatican Library codex (Vati. Lib. Codex 5696, fol. 35)[104] has an update of a sermon of Pope Stephen III (c.720-772), originally delivered in 769[105]. The original 8th century sermon mentioned only the Edessa towel with a miraculous image of Jesus' face imprinted on it [see "769"][106]. But sometime before 1130[107] an unknown copyist had interpolated into Pope Stephen's sermon, additional sayings of Jesus to King Abgar V of Edessa:

"For this same mediator between God and men [Jesus], in order that in all things and in every way he might satisfy this king [Abgar] spread out his entire body on a linen cloth that was white as snow. On this cloth, marvellous as it is to see or even hear such a thing, the glorious image of the Lord's face, and the length of his entire and most noble body, has been divinely transferred ..."[italics Wilson's]. [108]

The early twelfth century copyist had new information that in Constantinople the image of Edessa was now known to be not only of Jesus' face but also a "white linen" sheet upon which "the length" of Jesus' "entire body" had been "divinely transferred" [109]! Again this can only be the Shroud in Constantinople, at least 130 years before its earliest 1260 radiocarbon date! [N]

Continued in the next part #9 of this series.

Notes
1. This post is copyright. I grant permission 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 title, its date, and a hyperlink back to this page. [return]
2. Wilson, I., 1998, "The Blood and the Shroud: New Evidence that the World's Most Sacred Relic is Real," Simon & Schuster: New York NY, p.7 & pl.3b; Wilson, I., 2010, "The Shroud: The 2000-Year-Old Mystery Solved," Bantam Press: London, p.308. [return]
3. Damon, P.E., et al., 1989, "Radiocarbon Dating of the Shroud of Turin," Nature, Vol. 337, 16 February, pp.611-615, 611. [return]
4. McCrone, W.C., 1999, "Judgment Day for the Shroud of Turin," Prometheus Books: Amherst NY, pp.1,141,178,246; Wilson, 1998, p.7. [return]
5. Latendresse, M., 2012, "A Souvenir from Lirey," Sindonology.org. [return]
6. Wilson, 2010, pp.221-222. [return]
7. Ibid. [return]
8. Iannone, J.C., 1998, "The Mystery of the Shroud of Turin: New Scientific Evidence," St Pauls: Staten Island NY, pp.67, 165, 190; Meacham, W., 2005, "The Rape of the Turin Shroud: How Christianity's Most Precious Relic was Wrongly Condemned and Violated," Lulu Press: Morrisville NC, pp.110-111; Tribbe, F.C., 2006, "Portrait of Jesus: The Illustrated Story of the Shroud of Turin," Paragon House Publishers: St. Paul MN, Second edition, pp.172-173. [return]
9. Wilson, I., 1991, "Holy Faces, Secret Places: The Quest for Jesus' True Likeness," Doubleday: London, p.3; Wilson, I., 1996, "Jesus: The Evidence," [1984], Weidenfeld & Nicolson: London, Revised, p.134; Wilson, 1998, pp.125, 141; Wilson, I. & Schwortz, B., 2000, "The Turin Shroud: The Illustrated Evidence," Michael O'Mara Books: London, p.113; Wilson, 2010, p.108. [return]
10. Wilson, I., 1979, "The Shroud of Turin: The Burial Cloth of Jesus?," [1978], Image Books: New York NY, Revised edition, p.160; Wilson, 1991, p.152; Wilson, I., 1994, "News From Home and Abroad," BSTS Newsletter, No. 38, August/September, p.5; "Medieval wall paintings," Winchester Cathedral, n.d. [return]
11. Wilson, 1998, p.139. [return]
12. "Reflecting back on this week of poems of the Passion," The Pocket Scroll blog, 19 April 2014. [return]
13. Wilson, 1979, p.160; Wilson, 1998, p.139. [return]
14. Wilson, 1998, p.139. [return]
15. "Gervase of Tilbury," Wikipedia, 19 November 2016. [return]
16. "Otia Imperialia," Wikipedia, 18 June 2017. [return]
17. Green, M., 1969, "Enshrouded in Silence: In search of the First Millennium of the Holy Shroud," Ampleforth Journal, Vol. 74, No. 3, Autumn, pp.319-345; Wilcox, R.K., 1977, "Shroud," Macmillan: New York NY, p.95; Wilson, 1979, p.159; Drews, R., 1984, "In Search of the Shroud of Turin: New Light on Its History and Origins," Rowman & Littlefield: Lanham MD, p.48; Wilson, 1991, p.153; Wilson, 1998, pp.139, 144, 255n20; Guscin, M., 2009, "The Image of Edessa," Brill: Leiden, Netherlands & Boston MA, pp.206-207. [return]
18. Scavone, D.C., "The History of the Turin Shroud to the 14th C.," in Berard, A., ed., 1991, "History, Science, Theology and the Shroud," Symposium Proceedings, St. Louis Missouri, June 22-23, 1991, The Man in the Shroud Committee of Amarillo, Texas: Amarillo TX, pp.171-204, 195. [return]
19. Wilson, 1979, p.159; Wilson, 1998, p.144. [return]
20. Scavone, D.C., 1989a, "The Shroud of Turin: Opposing Viewpoints," Greenhaven Press: San Diego CA, p.89. [return]
21. Guerrera, V., 2001, "The Shroud of Turin: A Case for Authenticity," TAN: Rockford IL, p.8; Fanti, G. & Malfi, P., 2015, "The Shroud of Turin: First Century after Christ!," Pan Stanford: Singapore, pp.57-58. [return]
22. Iannone, 1998, p.126; Guerrera, 2001, p.8; Fanti & Malfi, 2015, p.57. [return]
23. Adams, F.O., 1982, "Sindon: A Layman's Guide to the Shroud of Turin," Synergy Books: Tempe AZ, p.71; Iannone, 1998, pp.126-127; Antonacci, M., 2000, "Resurrection of the Shroud: New Scientific, Medical, and Archeological Evidence," M. Evans & Co: New York NY, pp.122-123; de Wesselow, T., 2012, "The Sign: The Shroud of Turin and the Secret of the Resurrection," Viking: London, p.175. [return]
24. Iannone, 1998, p.127; de Wesselow, 2012, pp.175-176; Fanti & Malfi, 2015, pp.57-58. [return]
25. Wilson, 1991, pp.156-157; de Wesselow, 2012, p.176. [return]
26. de Wesselow, 2012, pp.177-178. [return]
27. Currer-Briggs, N., 1984, "The Holy Grail and the Shroud of Christ: The Quest Renewed," ARA Publications: Maulden UK, p.158; Currer-Briggs, N., 1988a, "The Shroud and the Grail: A Modern Quest for the True Grail," St. Martin's Press: New York NY, p.45. [return]
28. Wuenschel, E.A., 1954, "Self-Portrait of Christ: The Holy Shroud of Turin," Holy Shroud Guild: Esopus NY, Third printing, 1961, pp.58-59. [return]
29. "File:Icône Sainte Face Laon 150808.jpg, Wikimedia Commons, 13 September 2008. Translated from French by Google. [return]
30. de Riedmatten, P., 2008, "The Holy Face of Laon," BSTS Newsletter, No. 68, December. [return]
31. Currer-Briggs, 1984, p.21. [return]
32. "Pope Urban IV," Wikipedia, 21 August 2016. [return]
33. Currer-Briggs, 1988a, p.45; Wilson, 1991, pp.47, 78. [return]
34. Wilson, I., 1986, "The Evidence of the Shroud," Guild Publishing: London, p.110F. [return]
35. Wilson, 1991, p.78. [return]
36. Currer-Briggs, 1984, p.60; Currer-Briggs, 1988a, p.158; Wilson, 1991, p.136; Antonacci, 2000, p.131. [return]
37. Wilson, 1979, pp.114-115; Wilson, 1998, pp.150-151. [return]
38. Currer-Briggs, N., 1995, "Shroud Mafia: The Creation of a Relic?," Book Guild: Sussex UK, p.56. [return]
39. Currer-Briggs, 1988a, p.58. [return]
40. Wilcox, 1977, p.97; Wilson, I., 1983, "Some Recent Society Meetings," BSTS Newsletter, No. 6, September/December, p.13; Currer-Briggs, 1984, p.21; Currer-Briggs, 1988a, p.157; Currer-Briggs, N., 1988b, "Dating the Shroud - A Personal View," BSTS Newsletter No. 20, October, pp.16-17; Wilson, 1991, p.47; Currer-Briggs, 1995, p.205; Oxley, M., 2010, "The Challenge of the Shroud: History, Science and the Shroud of Turin," AuthorHouse: Milton Keynes UK, p.108. [return]
41. Wuenschel, 1954, pp.58-59; Currer-Briggs, 1988a, p.158; Oxley, 2010, p.108. [return]
42. Wilson, 1991, p.78. [return]
43. Currer-Briggs, 1995, p.56. [return]
44. Currer-Briggs, 1995, pp.56-57]. [return]
45. Wilson, 1979, pp.167, 257; Adams, 1982, p.71; Scavone, 1991, p.195; Scavone, 1989a, p.89; Wilson, 1991, p.155; Wilson, 1998, pp.145, 272; Ruffin, C.B., 1999, "The Shroud of Turin: The Most Up-To-Date Analysis of All the Facts Regarding the Church's Controversial Relic," Our Sunday Visitor: Huntington IN, p.58; Antonacci, 2000, p.123; Guerrera, 2001, p.7; Tribbe, 2006, pp.25, 29; Oxley, 2010, p.40; Wilson, 2010, p.185; de Wesselow, 2012, p.176. [return]
46. Wilson, 1979, pp.167-168, 257; Scavone, 1989a, p.89; Scavone, 1989b, pp.320-321; Wilson, 1991, p.155; Wilson, 1998, p.145; Wilson, 2010, p.185; de Wesselow, 2012, p.176. [return]
47. Wilson, 1991, p.155; Wilson, 1998, p.145; de Wesselow, 2012, p.176. [return]
48. Scavone, 1989b, p.321; Wilson, 1991, p.155; Wilson, 1998, p.272. [return]
49. Scavone, 1989a, p.89. [return]
50. Liddell, H.G. & Scott, R., 1871, "A Lexicon: Abridged from Liddell and Scott's Greek-English Lexicon," Clarendon Press: Oxford, Reprinted 1935, pp.1, 545, 410. [return]
51. Wilson, 1991, p.155; Wilson, 1998, p.145; de Wesselow, 2012, pp.176-177, 181. [return]
52. de Wesselow, 2012, p.176, 380n11. [return]
53. de Wesselow, 2012, p.177. [return]
54. Berkovits, I., 1969, "Illuminated Manuscripts in Hungary, XI-XVI Centuries," Horn, Z., transl., West, A., rev., Irish University Press: Shannon, Ireland, p.19; Wilson, 1979, p.160; "Pray Codex," Wikipedia, 12 April 2017. [return]
55. Wilson, 1991, p.151. [return]
56. "Pray Codex," Wikipedia, 12 April 2017. [return]
57. de Wesselow, 2012, p.178. [return]
58. de Wesselow, 2012, p.178. [return]
59. Guerrera, 2001, p.104. [return]
60. Guerrera, 2001, p.104. [return]
61. Berkovits, 1969, p.19; Wilson & Schwortz, 2000, p.115. [return]
62. Wilson, 1986, p.114; Petrosillo, O. & Marinelli, E., 1996, "The Enigma of the Shroud: A Challenge to Science," Scerri, L.J., transl., Publishers Enterprises Group: Malta, pp.163-164; Maloney, P.C., 1998, "Researching the Shroud of Turin: 1898 to the Present: A Brief Survey of Findings and Views," in Minor, M., Adler, A.D. & Piczek, I., eds., 2002, "The Shroud of Turin: Unraveling the Mystery: Proceedings of the 1998 Dallas Symposium," Alexander Books: Alexander NC, p.33; Wilson, 1998, pp.146-147; Scavone, D.C., "Greek Epitaphoi and Other Evidence for the Shroud in Constantinople up to 1204," in Walsh, B., ed., 2000, "Proceedings of the 1999 Shroud of Turin International Research Conference, Richmond, Virginia," Magisterium Press: Glen Allen VA, pp.196-211, 196-197; Wilson & Schwortz, 2000, p.116; Guerrera, 2001, pp.104-105; Scavone, D.C., "Underscoring the Highly Significant Historical Research of the Shroud," in Tribbe, 2006, p.xxvi; Oxley, 2010, pp.37-38; Wilson, 2010, pp.183-184, 300; de Wesselow, 2012, pp.178-181. [return]
63. Wilson, 1998, p.147; Scavone, 2000, pp.196-197; Guerrera, 2001, p.106; Whiting, B., 2006, "The Shroud Story," Harbour Publishing: Strathfield NSW, Australia, pp.92; Oxley, 2010, p.38; de Wesselow, 2012, p.181. [return]
64. Iannone, 1998, p.154; Wilson & Schwortz, 2000, p.115; Marino, J.G., 2011, "Wrapped up in the Shroud: Chronicle of a Passion," Cradle Press: St. Louis MO, p.53. [return]
65. Guerrera, 2001, p.106; de Wesselow, 2012, p.183. [return]
65a. Lejeune, J., in Pacl, S.M., 1993, "All those carbon 14 errors," 30 Days, No 9, 1993, in Shroud News, No 80, December, pp.3-8, 6. [return]
65b. Lejeune, 1993, p.6-7. [return]
66. de Wesselow, 2012, pp.178, 183. [return]
67. Wilson, 2010, p.182. [return]
68. Wilson, I., 2008, "II: Nicholas of Verdun: Scene of the Entombment, from the Verdun altar in the monastery of Klosterneuburg, near Vienna," British Society for the Turin Shroud Newsletter, No. 67, June. [return]
69. Wilson, 2010, pp.182-183. [return]
70. "William of Tyre," Wikipedia, 19 June 2017. [return]
71. Wilson, 1979, p.165; Iannone, 1998, pp.120-121; Wilson, 1998, p.271; Guerrera, 2001, p.6; Tribbe, 2006, p.25; de Wesselow, 2012, p.177. [return]
72. Wilson, 1979, pp.165-166; Scavone, 1989b, p.321; Iannone, 1998, p.121; Wilson, 1998, p.271; Tribbe, 2006, p.25; de Wesselow, 2012, p.177. [return]
73. Bulst, W., 1957, "The Shroud of Turin," McKenna, S. & Galvin, J.J., transl., Bruce Publishing Co: Milwaukee WI, p.8. [return]
74. Ruffin, 1999, p.110; Zodhiates, S., 1992, "The Complete Word Study Dictionary: New Testament," AMG Publishers: Chattanooga TN, Third printing, 1994, pp.1093-1094. [return]
75. Wilson, 1979, p.102; Maher, R.W., 1986, "Science, History, and the Shroud of Turin," Vantage Press: New York NY, p.82; Wilson, 1998, p.141; Antonacci, 2000, p.126. [return]
76. "File:Master of Cefalu 001 Christ Pantocrator adjusted.JPG," Wikipedia, 15 June 2010. [return]
77. Wilson, 1998, p.141. [return]
80. Wilson, 1986, p.105; Wilson, 1998, p.141. [return]
81. Wilson, 1986, p.104. [return]
82. Wilson, 1979, p.105; Maher, 1986, p.82. [return]
83. Petrosillo & Marinelli, 1996, p.193. [return]
84. Wilson, 1979, p.105. [return]
85. Petrosillo & Marinelli, 1996, p.193. [return]
86. Martino Miali, 2014, "Mottolo (Taranto). Church of St. Nicholas: fresco depicting Christ Almighty between Our Lady and St. John the Baptist. Photo by Martino Miali," Bridge Puglia & USA. [return]
87. Petrosillo & Marinelli, 1996, p.193. [return]
88. Aebischer, P., 1965., "Le voyage de Charlemagne à Jérusalem et à Constantinople," Librairie Droz: Amazon.com. [return]
89. "Le Pèlerinage de CharlemagneLe Pèlerinage de Charlemagne," Wikipedia, 29 February 2016. [return]
90. Beecher, P.A., 1928, "The Holy Shroud: Reply to the Rev. Herbert Thurston, S.J.," M.H. Gill & Son: Dublin, p.147. [return]
91. "Le Pèlerinage de Charlemagne," Wikipedia, 27 February 2013. [return]
92. Ibid. [return]
93. Beecher, 1928, p.147. [return]
94. Ibid. [return]
95. Adams, 1982, p.17. [return]
96. Wilson, 1998, pp.144, 270. [return]
97. Adams, 1982, p.26; Ruffin, 1999, p.58; "Orderic Vitalis: The Historia Ecclesiastica," Wikipedia, 25 June 2017. [return]
98. Scavone, 1989a, p.89. [return]
99. Wilcox, 1977, p.95; Adams, 1982, p.26; Drews, 1984, p.47; Wilson, 1986, p.114; Wilson, 1991, pp.152-153; Wilson, 1998, pp.144, 270; Ruffin, 1999, p.58; Wilson, 2010, p.176. [return]
100. Iannone, 1998, p.120. [return]
101. Scavone, 1991, p.195. [return]
102. Guscin, 2009, p.206. [return]
103. Currer-Briggs, 1984, p.21. [return]
104. Wilson, 1979, p.257. [return]
105. Scavone, 1989a, p.88; Scavone, 1989b, p.318. [return]
106. Scavone, 1989a, p.88; Scavone, 1989b, p.318. [return]
107. Wilson, 1979, p.158; Adams, 1982, p.26; Scavone, 1989b, p.318; Wilson, 1991, p.152. [return]
108. Wilcox, 1977, p.97; Wilson, 1991, p.152. See also Wilson, 1979, p.158, 257; Adams, 1982, p.26. [return]
109. Scavone, 1989a, p.89. [return]

Posted: 21 June 2017. Updated: 11 March 2022.

6 May 1987: On this day 30 years ago in the radiocarbon dating of the Turin Shroud

© Stephen E. Jones[1]

This is "6 May 1987," being part #3, of my series, "On this day 30 years ago in the radiocarbon dating of the Turin Shroud." For more information about this series, see part #1, Index. As explained in part #1, the first few significant days 30 years ago have already passed but I will catch up and thereafter publish each day's post as near to its 30th anniversary as possible. Emphases are mine unless otherwise indicated.

[Index #1] [Previous: 27Apr87] [Next: 15Jun87 #4]

6 May 1987 As we saw in the previous post (27Apr87), Prof. Harry Gove (1922-2009) [Below [2].], Director of Rochester New York's radiocarbon dating laboratory, a co-inventor of AMS radiocarbon dating, and the unofficial leader of the Shroud radiocarbon dating laboratories, had read in the 27 April 1987 issue of the Italian newspaper La Stampa, that Prof. Luigi Gonella (1930–2007), the scientific adviser to the Archbishop of Turin, had said that the Shroud's radiocarbon dating "would be made in two or three laboratories by two research methods"[3]. Gove found it "troublesome ... that the number of laboratories would be reduced from the original seven to two or three and ... the carbon-14 tests would be just one of a whole vast panoply of tests presumably carried out by STURP"[4]. These changes caused Gove "great concern" and he "decided that we would have to try to do something about this as quickly as possible"[5].

On 6 May 1987, Gove sent a telegram with a letter to follow "to the senior representatives of the six other radiocarbon laboratories and to the British Museum":

"I composed a telegram to be sent to the senior representatives of the six other radiocarbon laboratories and to the British Museum which went as follows: `I propose to hand-deliver the following letter to Professor Chagas [Carlos Chagas Filho (1910–2000)], President of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences] when he is in New York on May 16 or 17, so I would appreciate a quick response. In my view, Gonella and STURP are being deliberately mischievous concerning carbon dating. If the Turin workshop agreement is not followed to the letter, I am no longer willing to be involved. Please approve this letter' ... The telegram was sent on 6 May 1987"[6].

The text of the letter was as follows:

"Dear Professor Chagas: A meeting was held at the Pillar and Post Inn in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Canada the site of the 4th International Symposium on Accelerator Mass Spectrometry on Thursday, 30 April 1987 concerning radiocarbon dating of the Turin Shroud. Present were representatives of the 5 AMS laboratories who will be involved in the measurements, all of whom with the exception of the representative of Oxford were present at the Turin workshop. Since this international meeting concerned accelerator mass spectrometry, AMS, there were no delegates present from the 2 counter laboratories at Harwell and Brookhaven. As a result of the meeting, the undersigned wished to reaffirm their strong, continuing support for the conclusions and procedural steps agreed to by the delegates to the Turin workshop of September 29 to 1 October and in particular: (a) all seven laboratories must be involved in the tests; (b) Madame Flury-Lemberg of the Abegg-Stiftung must be responsible for the selection and actual removal of the material from the shroud; (c) representatives of all seven laboratories should be present at the actual sample removal; (d) a representative of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, the British Museum and the Archbishopric of Turin will supervise the shroud samples from the time of removal to the time of their delivery, also with a dummy sample and control samples to a representative of each of the seven laboratories. We emphasize the above because of a report in the 27 April 1987 issue of La Stampa, the Turin newspaper, attributed to Professor Luigi Gonella, that the carbon-14 measurements will be carried out in two or three laboratories. That so directly contravenes the Turin workshop agreement that it could severely jeopardize the carbon dating enterprise. The people present at the Niagara-on-the-Lake meeting were S L Brignall, Rochester, C R Bronk, Oxford, P E Damon, Arizona, D J Donahue, Arizona, J C Duplessy, Gif-sur-Yvette, H E Gove, Rochester and W Woelfli, ETH Zurich"[7].

Behind Gove's "If the Turin workshop agreement is not followed to the letter, I am no longer willing to be involved" and his demand that "all seven laboratories must be involved in the tests" was his realisation that if the laboratories were to be reduced from seven to two or three, because of his clashes with Gonella, his laboratory Rochester had no chance of being selected:

"Some laboratories had, therefore, been eliminated. But which ones? In Rochester there was Gove: his clash with Gonella did not leave him with any chance. Harbottle had upset Ballestrero's consultant by alluding, in his talk, to the basic agreement of the preparatory work of 1986 at the meeting of the American Chemical Society. Zurich was in a critical situation because of its error of 1000 years in the preliminary test. Harwell had received negative publicity over the conflicting dates in the case of the Lindow Man. It was evident that there were conflicts of interests. Amongst other considerations Hall was a member of the council of administration of the British Museum"[8].

Gove received permission from the heads of only five of the seven laboratories (the two dissenters were the non-AMS laboratories at Harwell and Brookhaven) to send his letter to Chagas, and of the heads of the five AMS laboratories which did permit Gove to use their names, two (Hall of Oxford and Wolfli of Zurich), later changed their minds:

"On 7 May Jean-Claude Duplessy phoned me from Gif-sur-Yvette. He entirely agreed with the contents of the proposed letter to Chagas, he was concerned about complications that may be caused by STURP and repeated that he had serious reservations about them. Later that same day, Hall phoned from Oxford. He said that he was worried that the letter might complicate matters. He thought Chagas favoured only two or three laboratories being involved. I said it was my impression that Turin was by-passing Chagas and that this letter might strengthen his hand. Chagas had never expressed a preference for any less than the agreed upon number of seven laboratories. Hall thought that if a decision were made to reduce the number it would mean starting again. He agreed to sign the letter. It seemed to me Hall clearly opposed the idea of a reduction in the number of laboratories. He later changed his mind. About an hour later, Donahue phoned from Arizona. He said he was in complete agreement with the letter and so was Damon. The next day, 8 May, I got a bitnet message from Woelfli in Zurich in which he stated that he fully agreed with all the points made in my letter to Professor Chagas and that he would be glad to sign it. He stated categorically that he was not willing to be involved if the Turin workshop agreement were not followed to the letter. He also changed his mind later on. On 11 May I sent the letter to Professor Chagas. It was signed by the heads of the five AMS laboratories who had given me permission to submit it"[9].

Continued in the next part #4 of this series.

Notes
1. This post is copyright. I grant permission to quote from any part of this post (but not the whole post), provided it includes a reference citing my name, its subject heading, its date, and a hyperlink back to this page. [return].
2. "Dr. Harry Gove Co-developer, Accelerator Mass Spectrometry," El carbono 14, por Manuel Carreira, Sabana Santa, 2013. [return]
3. Gove, H.E., 1996, "Relic, Icon or Hoax?: Carbon Dating the Turin Shroud," Institute of Physics Publishing: Bristol UK, pp.186-187. [return]
4. Gove, 1996, p.187. [return]
5. Ibid. [return]
6. Gove, 1996, pp.187, 188. [return]
7. Gove, 1996, pp.187-188. [return]
8. Petrosillo, O. & Marinelli, E., 1996, "The Enigma of the Shroud: A Challenge to Science," Scerri, L.J., transl., Publishers Enterprises Group: Malta, pp.37-38. [return]
9. Gove, 1996, pp.188-189. [return]

Posted: 19 June 2017. Updated: 2 January 2021.

Real human blood #23: The man on the Shroud: The evidence is overwhelming that the Turin Shroud is Jesus' burial sheet!

REAL HUMAN BLOOD #23

Copyright © Stephen E. Jones[1]

This is part #23, "The man on the Shroud: Real human blood," of my series, "The evidence is overwhelming that the Turin Shroud is Jesus' burial sheet!" For more information about this series, see the "Main index #1" and "The man on the Shroud #8." See also "2.5. The bloodstains." Emphases are mine unless otherwise indicated.

[Main index #1] [Previous: X-rays #22] [Next: Blood clots intact #24]

---

2. The man on the Shroud #8
15. Real human blood #23

Introduction The blood of the man on the Shroud is real human blood[2].

[Above (enlarge): "Close-up of a blood area on the Shroud, as photographed using the portable photomicroscope"[3].

"As for the `blood' [sic] stains, according to John H. Heller's and Alan D. Adler's studies these derived from genuine clotted wounds, and they pass eleven different diagnostic tests, enabling them to be pronounced to be true blood in any court of law. Blood constituents such as proteins, albumen, haem products, and the bile pigment bilirubin (on which Adler is an acknowledged expert) can all be determined to be present. One remarkable feature noted by Adler is that where blood occurs in the same region as body image, the cloth fibres lack body image characteristics below the bloodstain, suggesting that the blood was on the cloth before the body image-making process began[4]. That is hardly the way any artist might be expected to work"[5].]

Real blood The bloodstains of the man on the Shroud are real blood[6]. Table 5 below summarizes the tests employed by Adler

[Above (enlarge)[7]: Table 5: Summary of tests by Adler and Heller which confirmed that the blood on the Shroud was real blood[8]. At the public final meeting of STURP in New London, Connecticut in October 1981, after explaining each item in this table, Adler, who had "already published close to a hundred articles on his blood research; forty-odd concerned porphyrins"[9], concluded:

"That means that the red stuff on the Shroud is emphatically, and without any reservation, nothing else but B-L-O-O-D!"[10]]

and Heller between 1979 and 1981[11] which confirmed that the blood on the Shroud was real blood[12]. STURP in its 1981 final report concluded that the blood on the Shroud was real blood[13].

Clotted blood The bloodstains are clotted blood[14] in that they are thickened on the edges[15]. As blood dries it forms a scab and contracts, thickening the edge of the scab and exuding serum onto the surface and edges of the contracting clot[16].

Serum halos The border of every bloodstain under ultraviolet light shows a typical yellowish fluorescence of a serum exudate ring or halo around a scab as expected for blood clot retraction[17]. These serum halos confirm that the Shroud's bloodstains are real blood[18].

Serum albumin is the most abundant blood plasma protein and is produced in the liver[19]. These serum haloes above tested positive for serum albumin and they also gave a positive immuno-chemical test with albumin serum[20]. Positive serum albumin tests were also found in areas adjacent to the blood, for example the lance wound area[21].

Distinction between arterial and venous bloodflows The distinction between arterial and venous blood flows is evident in some

[Above (enlarge): Distinction between venous blood in the reversed `3' or epsilon bloodstain, which is correctly from the frontal vein "V", and arterial blood which is from the frontal branch of the superficial temple artery "Al" on the forehead.[22].]

bloodstains on the man's forehead[23]. Venous blood appears darker and thicker because it flows more slowly than arterial blood[24]. The large reversed `3' or epsilon-shaped blood clot on the man's forehead is an example of a large venous blood flow[25].The distinction between arterial and venous blood was not even discovered until 1593 by Andrea Cesalpino (c. 1524-1603)[26], more than 230 years after the Shroud first appeared in undisputed history at Lirey, France in c.1355[27]!

Distinction between premortem and and postmortem blood The bloodflows on and from the man on the Shroud can be distinguished as antemortem or premortem (before death) and postmortem (after death)[28]. For example, the bloodflows on the face are all premortem, as shown by computer mapping which found that all streams of blood on the face flow down the face and none of them flow toward the back of the neck or head[29]! This means the man on the Shroud died on the cross in an upright position and then the blood in his head had drained down internally while he was still on the cross[30]. Examples of postmortem bloodflows include the spear wound in the side[31], the pool of blood across the small of the back from that spear wound[32] [Right (enlarge)[33].], and the trickle of blood from the right foot after the removal of the nail[34]. These had oozed with gravity and showed no sign of force from a pumping heart[35].

Blood on face out of stereoregister with image The blood marks on the man's face are not in stereoregister with the image of his face[36]. In 1986 Dr Gilbert Lavoie was looking at a life-size positive

[Above (enlarge): Fig. 1, Shroud face, positive image (left), and Fig. 3, cutouts of the blood marks on the face and hair of the Shroud (right)[37].

[Below (enlarge): Fig. 4, cutouts of the blood marks above right draped over a man's face (left), and Fig. 5, `blood' marks painted on the man's face through the cutouts[38].]

photograph of the Shroud face (Fig. 1), when it occurred to him that the blood was a little too far out on either side of the face[39]. To test this he asked his daughters to outline on tracing paper the blood marks on the forehead and hair, trace the position of the eyes and nose, make a cutout of the tracing, remove the paper within the outlined blood marks, and make holes at the eyes large enough to see through[40]. When Lavoie placed the tracing paper with its blood mark cutouts over his face, aligning the eyes and nose with his own, and looked through the eye slits in a mirror, it confirmed that the blood in the hair is actually on the sides of the face[41]! Lavoie then visually reproduced this by painting through the blood mark cutouts onto the face of a bearded man volunteer (see Fig. 1, 3, 4 and 5 above)[42]. This means that the blood on the Shroud and the body image were caused by two different processes separated in space and time[43]! The blood marks have been transferred to the cloth by direct contact with clots from wounds, while the body image has been projected onto the cloth by a non-contact type of radiation[44]! This is explained by STURP's John P. Jackson's "cloth collapse theory" where the body became "mechanically transparent"[45], and the cloth fell through the space where the body was, flattening out due to air resistance[46].

Bilirubin A test for the presence of proteins in the Shroud man's blood returned an extraordinarily high bilirubin count[47]. In traumatic shock, as would be experienced under flogging and crucifixion, the liver converts hemoglobin from burst red cells into bilirubin, which remains in the blood clots and gives them a red to orange colour[48]. Sceptics had long criticised the Shroud's blood for being too red, pointing out that aged blood normally turns black[49]. But the red colour of the Shroud's blood supports the forensic conclusion that the blood was from someone who suffered a traumatic death as depicted in the body images[50], which Jesus of Nazareth did[51]!

Human blood In 1980 an ultraviolet microspectrophotometric study of blood particles from STURP's Shroud sticky tapes, found that the near UV peak for albumin bound bilirubin is consistent with a primate origin, and therefore supporting the identification of a human source for the blood marks[52]. In 1983 Dr Pierluigi Baima-Bollone (1937-), Professor of Legal Medicine at the University of Turin[53], by means of fluorescent antigen-antibody reactions, confirmed that the Shroud blood is indeed human blood[54]. Then in 1983[55] and at the 1984 Italian National Shroud Congress, Professors Baima-Bollone and Agostino Gaglio reported that they had confirmed the identification of the blood group AB in Shroud bloodstains[56] and that they had discovered human red blood corpuscles on the Shroud, using a scanning electron microscope[57]. They also showed that they had verified the presence of human epidermis (skin) cells in the area of the nail wound in the feet by an immuno-histo-chemical process[58].

Crucifixion The bloodstains on the Shroud are consistent with that of a man who had been beaten and then died in the position of crucifixion[59], as described in the Gospels of Christ's crucifixion[60]. The V-shaped blood flows on the arms[61] shows they were in an elevated and extended position at the time the wounds were

[Above (enlarge): The angle of the arms at crucifixion, deducible from the Shroud by determining the path of the blood flows in following the course of gravity. The main angle appears to have been 65 degrees, but there is evidence that at some stages the forearms were at 55 degrees, indicating that the man of the Shroud sought to raise himself [to breathe-see below]; probably continually, during crucifixion"[62].]

bleeding[63]. Dr Gilbert Lavoie found by experiments in the clotting of blood and its transfer onto a linen cloth that to produce bloodstains like the Shroud's, the blood needed to clot in a vertical position, and it needed to be transferred to the cloth within two hours[64]!

Blood and water On the man's right side there is a large blood-

[Above (enlarge)[65]: Large bloodstain on the man's right side, showing the wound (circled in red) which caused it and which matches a Roman lance. Dark and light areas within the stain correspond to the "blood and water" that the Apostle John witnessed flow from the dead Jesus on the cross when He was pierced in the side by a Roman soldier's spear thrust (John 19:33-34). The light coloured area on the right is the new backing cloth to which areas burnt in the 1532 fire were sewn on to, as part of the 2002 restoration.]

stain[66], comprising blood from the heart[67] and watery fluid from the heart's pericardial sac[68] and the pleural (lung) cavity[69]. Near the top of the stain can be seen the wound which caused it (see above circled in red)[70], and which matches a Roman lancea[71], the very weapon that John's gospel records was thrust into Jesus' side[72] (see below), inserted etween the between the fifth and sixth ribs[73]. A Roman lance thrust upward into that ribcage region would have pierced the right atrium (auricle) of the heart[74], which fills with blood upon death[75]. This corresponds with the eyewitness (Jn 19:35) testimony of the Apostle John[76] in John 19:33-34[77]:

"But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water."

As the above passage implies, it was standard practice for Roman crucifixion squads to break the legs of crucifixion victims with an iron club (called crurifragium)[78], to hasten their death by not being able to push up with their legs to exhale[79]. That the flow of "blood and water" from Jesus' lanced heart was rare (if not unique) is evident in that the Apostle John recorded it and later referred to it in one of his letters (1Jn 5:6). Moreover, Christian apologists of the second and third centuries, a time of frequent public crucifixions which only ended in AD 337 when they were abolished by Emperor Constantine the Great, argued that the flow of blood and water from Jesus' side was a miracle[80]. This argument would only work if their contemporaries were unaware of it having happened in any other crucifixions. That the same rare (if not unique)[81] flow of blood and watery fluid is found on the Shroud[82] is further proof beyond reasonable doubt (given the problems of the forgery theory - see future below) that the Shroud of Turin is the very burial sheet of Jesus[83]!

Sudarium of Oviedo The bloodstains on the Sudarium of Oviedo are a mixture of blood and watery fluid[84], produced not by a spear in the side but by blood and lung fluid issuing from its crucifixion victim's nose when he was taken down from his cross[85]. This is consistent with the medical findings that the man of the Shroud's lungs would have filled with fluid caused by the scourging and is compatible with the Apostle John's eyewitness account (see above) that when Jesus' side was pierced by a Roman soldier's lance "immediately there came out blood and water" (Jn 19:34)[86]. This blood and watery lung fluid found on both the Shroud and the Sudarium of Oviedo are among the many similarities which indicate, in Adler's words, "that these two cloths were in contact with the same wounded body"[87]. And therefore that the Sudarium of Oviedo is "the face cloth [Greek soudarion], which had been on Jesus' head" (Jn 20:7)[88]!

Problems for the forgery theory (see previous three: #20, #21 and #22). No known artist has ever used blood to depict blood. Heller, who had been a Professor of Internal Medicine at Yale asked several professors of art history at Yale and Harvard if they knew of any artist, fourteenth century or earlier, who had used blood to paint blood and their answer was uniformly negative[89]. Reasons why artists would not use blood to depict blood include: artists sought permanent colors and blood was not long-lasting[90]; and normal blood quickly turns dark, due to the cause of its red colour, hemoglobin, being oxidised in air and becoming methemoglobin, which is bluish-brown in color[91] No artist has ever depicted Jesus's wounds with clotted blood but only with free-flowing blood[92]. Since the bloodstains on the Shroud are real, human, clotted blood, its artist/forger would have had to have a supply of traumatic clotted blood exudates from a human and then painted them in a forensically correct manner as they are on the Shroud[93]. He would have needed to take that clotted blood exudate within a 20-minute period after the clotting had begun[94]. He then would have had to paint it on the cloth with the thousands of blood serum edges, which are only clearly visible in ultraviolet light, and with all the other forensic precision that is characteristic of the blood on the Shroud[95]. Since the serum exudate rings are only obviously evident under ultraviolet a medieval or earlier forger would not only require a knowledge of the physiology of clot retraction, but would also have produced images of serum rings that are only obviously evident under ultraviolet light[96]. But in the 1350s when the Shroud first appeared in undisputed history, no one had the medical knowledge of the details of blood clotting[97]. Adler pointed out:

"The presence of these serum rings makes the notion of a forger painting in the blood images with the correct chemical composition before the image forming process [see "No image under blood" #25] and properly out of stereoregister virtually impossible"[98].

He therefore concluded:

"I believe most reasonable people would conclude that it is simply impossible that an artist could have produced the blood imprints on the Shroud of Turin. Rather, it is logical to conclude, from the nature and characteristics of the bloodstains on the Shroud, that the cloth once enfolded the body of a severely beaten and crucified human being"[99]!

Continued in part #24 of this series.

Notes
1. This post is copyright. I grant permission to quote from any part of this post (but not the whole post), provided it includes a reference citing my name, its subject heading, its date and a hyperlink back to this post. [return]
2. Bulst, W., 1986, "Some Considerations on the Genesis of the Body Image on the Turin Shroud," Shroud Spectrum International, No. 19, June, pp.2-14, 2, 4,5; Morgan, R., 1988, "World Reaction to Carbon Dating a Farce," October, Shroud News, No 49, pp.3-18, 3; Minor, M., 1990, "Shroud of Turin Manuscript Discovered By Texas Member," [originally "A Lawyer Argues for Authenticity of the Shroud of Turin"], The Manuscript Society News, Vol. XI, No. 4, Fall, pp.117-122, 122; Iannone, J.C., 1998,"The Mystery of the Shroud of Turin: New Scientific Evidence," St Pauls: Staten Island NY, p.178; McDonnell, D.J., 2003, "The Great Holy Shroud Dating Fraud of 1988," 4 November; Oxley, M., 2010, "The Challenge of the Shroud: History, Science and the Shroud of Turin," AuthorHouse: Milton Keynes UK, p.238. [return]
3. Wilson, I. & Schwortz, B., 2000, "The Turin Shroud: The Illustrated Evidence," Michael O'Mara Books: London, p.75. [return]
4. Adler, A.D., "Chemical and Physical Characteristics of the Blood Stains," in Scannerini, S. & Savarino, P., eds, 2000, "The Turin Shroud: Past, Present and Future," International scientific symposium, Turin, 2-5 March 2000," Effatà: Cantalupa, pp.219-233, 228. [return]
5. Wilson & Schwortz, 2000, p.75. [return]
6. Heller, J.H. & Adler, A.D., 1981, "A Chemical Investigation of the Shroud of Turin," in Adler, A.D. & Crispino, D., ed., 2002, "The Orphaned Manuscript: A Gathering of Publications on the Shroud of Turin," Effatà Editrice: Cantalupa, Italy, pp.34-57, 41, 47. [return]
7. Heller & Adler, 1981, p.52. [return]
8. Heller, J.H., 1983, "Report on the Shroud of Turin," Houghton Mifflin Co: Boston MA, pp.215-216; Antonacci, M., 2000, "Resurrection of the Shroud: New Scientific, Medical, and Archeological Evidence," M. Evans & Co: New York NY, p.25. [return]
9. Crispino, D., "Foreword," in Adler & Crispino, 2002, p.v-ix, v. [return]
10. Heller, 1983, p.216. [return]
11. Heller, 1983, pp.122, 132, 213. [return]
12. Heller & Adler, 1981, p.52; Heller, 1983, pp.215-216. [return]
13. Antonacci, 2000, p.25. [return]
14. Barbet, P., 1953, "A Doctor at Calvary," [1950], Earl of Wicklow, transl., Image Books: Garden City NY, Reprinted, 1963, p.28; Antonacci, 2000, p.28. [return]
15. Adler, A.D., 2000c, "Chemical and Physical Aspects of the Sindonic Images," in Adler & Crispino, 2002, pp.10-27, 12. [return]
16. Adler, 2000c, p.12. [return]
17. Adler, 2000c, p.14. [return]
18. Antonacci, 2000, p.28. [return]
19. "Albumin: Serum albumin," Wikipedia, 16 April 2017. [return]
20. Adler, A.D., 1986, "The Origin and Nature of Blood on the Turin Shroud," in Adler & Crispino, 2002, pp.59-66, 60. [return]
21. Heller & Adler, 1981, p.41. [return]
22. Rodante, S., 1981, "The Coronation of Thorns in the Light of the Shroud," Shroud Spectrum International, No. 1, December, pp.4-24, 19; Antonacci, 2000, p.26. [return]
23. Borkan, 1995, p.26; Antonacci, 2000, p.25. [return]
24. Antonacci, 2000, p.25. [return]
25. Ibid. [return]
26. Rodante, 1981, p.19; Borkan, 1995, p.26; Iannone, 1998, p.67; Antonacci, 2000, p.26; Tribbe, F.C., 2006, "Portrait of Jesus: The Illustrated Story of the Shroud of Turin," [1983], Paragon House Publishers: St. Paul MN, Second edition, p.99. [return]
27. Antonacci, 2000, p.26. [return]
28. Meacham, W., 1983, "The Authentication of the Turin Shroud: An Issue in Archaeological Epistemology," Current Anthropology, Vol. 24, No. 3, June, pp.283-311, 294; Tribbe, 2006, p.101. [return]
29. Tribbe, 2006, p.101. [return]
30. Tribbe, 2006, p.101. [return]
31. Heller, 1983, pp.3, 138, 217; Meacham, 1983, p.292; Stevenson, K.E. & Habermas, G.R., 1990, "The Shroud and the Controversy," Thomas Nelson Publishers: Nashville TN, p.113; Bucklin, R., 1997, "An Autopsy on the Man of the Shroud," Third International Scientific Symposium on the Shroud of Turin, Nice, France, 12 May; Wilson, I., 1998, "The Blood and the Shroud: New Evidence that the World's Most Sacred Relic is Real," Simon & Schuster: New York NY, p.38; Antonacci, 2000, pp.29, 120; Oxley, 2010, p.175; de Wesselow, T., 2012, "The Sign: The Shroud of Turin and the Secret of the Resurrection," Viking: London, p.130. [return]
32. Heller, 1983, pp.3, 217; Wilson, I., 1986, "The Evidence of the Shroud," Guild Publishing: London, p.26; Jackson, J.P., 1991, "An Unconventional Hypothesis to Explain all Image Characteristics Found on the Shroud Image," in Berard, A., ed., 1991, "History, Science, Theology and the Shroud," Symposium Proceedings, St. Louis Missouri, June 22-23, The Man in the Shroud Committee of Amarillo, Texas: Amarillo TX, 1991, pp.325-344, 328; Borkan, M., 1995, "Ecce Homo?: Science and the Authenticity of the Turin Shroud," Vertices, Duke University, Vol. X, No. 2, Winter, pp.18-51, 26-27, 43, 46; Wilson, 1998, p.38; Wilson & Schwortz, 2000, p.64; de Wesselow, 2012, p.130. [return]
33. Extract from Latendresse, M., 2010, "Shroud Scope: Durante 2002: Horizontal" (rotated right 90°), Sindonology.org. [return]
34. Wilson, I., 1979, "The Shroud of Turin: The Burial Cloth of Jesus?," [1978], Image Books: New York NY, Revised edition, pp.73-74; O'Rahilly, A. & Gaughan, J.A., ed., 1985, "The Crucified," Kingdom Books: Dublin, p.134; Jackson, 1991, p.328; Borkan, 1995, pp.24, 43; Wilson, 1998, p.38; Antonacci, 2000, pp.21-22; de Wesselow, 2012, p.130. [return]
35. Tribbe, 2006, p.101. [return]
36. Adler, A.D., 1999, "The Nature of the Body Images on the Shroud of Turin," in Adler & Crispino, 2002, pp.103-112, 104; Adler, A.D., 2000a, "The Shroud Fabric and the Body Image: Chemical and Physical Characteristics," in Adler & Crispino, 2002, pp.113-127, 113, 118, 123; Adler, A.D., 2000b, "Chemical and Physical Characteristics of the Bloodstains," in Adler & Crispino, 2002, pp.129-138, 129, 133; Adler, 2000c, pp.18-19. [return]
37. Lavoie, G.R., 1998, "Unlocking the Secrets of the Shroud," Thomas More: Allen TX, pp.104, 106. [return]
38. Lavoie, 1998, pp.106, 108. [return]
39. Lavoie, 1998, p.104; Lavoie, G.R., 2000, "Resurrected: Tangible Evidence That Jesus Rose from the Dead," 1998], Thomas More: Allen TX, p.112. [return]
40. Lavoie, 1998, p.104; Lavoie, 2000, p.112. [return]
41. Lavoie, 1998, pp.104-107; Wilson, 1998, p.39; Lavoie, 2000, pp.113-114. [return]
42. Lavoie, 1998, pp.105-106; Wilson, 1998, p.39; Lavoie, 2000, pp.112-113. [return]
43. Lavoie, G.R., Lavoie, B.B. & Adler, A.D., 1986, "The Blood on the Turin Shroud: Part III: The Blood on the Face," in Adler & Crispino, 2002, pp.63-66, 64-65; Lavoie, 1998, pp.109, 111; Wilson, 1998, p.39; Lavoie, 2000, pp.119-113; Adler, 2000c, p.18. [return]
44. Wilson, 1998, p.39; Adler, 1999, p.104; Adler, 2000b, pp.129, 133; Adler, 2000c, pp.18-19; Adler, 2000c, p.19. [return]
45. Jackson, J.P., 1990, "Is the Image on the Shroud Due to a Process Heretofore Unknown to Modern Science?," Shroud Spectrum International, No. 34, March, pp.3-29, 11-12, 22; Jackson, 1991, p.339; Wilson & Schwortz, 2000, pp.128-129; Oxley, 2010, pp.240-241. [return]
46. Jackson, 1991, pp.338-339; Bennett, J., 2001, "Sacred Blood, Sacred Image: The Sudarium of Oviedo: New Evidence for the Authenticity of the Shroud of Turin," Ignatius Press: San Francisco CA, p.166. [return]
47. Adler, 1986, p.61; Adler, 2000c, p.21. [return]
48. Adler, 2000b, p.134; Adler, 2000c, p.21; Antonacci, 2000, p.29. [return]
49. Dutton, D., 1984, "Requiem for the Shroud of Turin," Michigan Quarterly Review 23, pp.243-55; Bennetta, W.J., 1988, "Soiled Linen," BASIS, December; Nickell, J., 1993, "Looking for a Miracle: Weeping Icons, Relics, Stigmata, Visions & Healing Cures," Prometheus Books: Buffalo NY, pp.26, 29, Nickell, J., 1987, "Inquest on the Shroud of Turin," [1983], Prometheus Books: Buffalo NY, Revised, Reprinted, 2000, pp.68, 128, 132, 144; Wilson, 1998, p.31; Nickell, J., 2005, "Voice of Reason: The Truth Behind the Shroud of Turin," Livescience , 18 March; Nickell, J., 2007, "Relics of the Christ," The University Press of Kentucky: Lexington KY, pp.140, 174. [return]
50. Adler, 2000c, p.21. [return]
51. Adler, 2000b, p.129. [return]
52. Adler, 2000c, p.24. [return]
53. Meacham, 1983, p.307; Iannone, 1998, p.87; Ruffin, C.B., 1999, "The Shroud of Turin: The Most Up-To-Date Analysis of All the Facts Regarding the Church's Controversial Relic," Our Sunday Visitor: Huntington IN, p.95. [return]
54. Meacham, 1983, p.288; Baima-Bollone, P. & Zaca, S., 1998, "The Shroud Under the Microscope: Forensic Examination," Neame, A., transl., St Pauls: London, p.21. [return]
55. Baima Bollone, P., Jorio, M. & Massaro, A.L., 1983, "Identification of the Group of the Traces of Human Blood on the Shroud," Shroud Spectrum International, No. 6, March, pp.2-6, 6. [return]
56. Marinelli, E., 1985, "Italian National Shroud Congress 1984," Shroud News, No. 27, February, pp.6-9, 8; Baima-Bollone & Zaca, 1998, p.22. [return]
57. Ibid; Ibid. [return]
58. Ibid; Ibid. [return]
59. Heller, J.H. & Adler, A.D., 1980, "Blood on the Shroud of Turin," in Adler & Crispino, pp.29-33, 29; Heller & Adler, 1981, p.52; Lavoie, et al., 1986, p.64; Adler, 2000c, p.12. [return]
60. Heller & Adler, 1981, p.34; Adler, A.D., 1996, "Updating Recent Studies on the Shroud of Turin," in Adler & Crispino, 2002, pp.81-86, 81; Adler, 1999, p.104; Adler, 2000b, pp.129, 131; Adler, 2000c, pp.13, 25. [return]
61. Habermas, G.R., 1984, "Ancient Evidence for the Life of Jesus," Thomas Nelson: Nashville TN, p.159. [return]
62. Wilson, I., 1978, "The Turin Shroud," Book Club Associates: London, p.50L; Meacham, 1983, p.285. [return]
63. Adler, 2000c, p.12. [return]
64. Adler, 1986, pp.59-60. [return]
65. Extract from Latendresse, M., 2010, "Shroud Scope: Durante 2002: Vertical," Sindonology.org. [return]
66. Borkan, 1995, p.26. [return]
67. Antonacci, 2000, p.31. [return]
68. Bucklin, R., 1970, "The Legal and Medical Aspects of the Trial and Death of Christ," Medicine, Science and the Law, January; Bucklin, R., 1982, "The Shroud of Turin: Viewpoint of a Forensic Pathologist," Shroud Spectrum International, No. 5, December, pp.3-10, 8-9; Iannone, 1998, p.63; Antonacci, 2000, p.31. [return]
69. Bucklin, 1970; Bucklin, 1982, pp.8-9; Antonacci, 2000, p.31; Oxley, 2010, p.167. [return]
70. Heller, 1983, p.138; Borkan, 1995, p.26; Iannone, 1998, p.62; Wilson, 1998, pp.37, 42; de Wesselow, 2012, p.144. [return]
71. Meacham, 1983, p.290; Borkan, 1995, p.26; Wilson, 1998, p.42; Antonacci, 2000, p.31. [return]
72.Wilson, 1998, p.42. [return]
73. Morgan, R.H., 1980, "Perpetual Miracle: Secrets of the Holy Shroud of Turin by an Eye Witness," Runciman Press: Manly NSW, Australia, p.93; Borkan, 1995, p.26; Antonacci, 2000, p.31; Guerrera, V., 2001, "The Shroud of Turin: A Case for Authenticity," TAN: Rockford IL, p.40. [return]
74. Brent, P. & Rolfe, D., 1978, "The Silent Witness: The Mysteries of the Turin Shroud Revealed," Futura Publications: London, p.47; Morgan, 1980, p.93; Antonacci, 2000, p.31; Oxley, 2010, p.167. [return]
75. Brent & Rolfe, 1978, p.47; Antonacci, 2000, p.31; Oxley, 2010, p.167. [return]
76. Bulst, W., 1957, "The Shroud of Turin," McKenna, S. & Galvin, J.J., transl., Bruce Publishing Co: Milwaukee WI, p.106; Hoare, R., 1978, "Testimony of the Shroud," St. Martin's Press: New York NY, p.41. [return]
77. Bulst, 1957, p.106; Iannone, 1998, pp.60, 63; Antonacci, 2000, p.120; Guerrera, 2001, p.39. [return]
78. Barbet, 1953, p.84; Borkan, 1995, p.26; Iannone, 1998, p.60. [return]
79. Barbet, 1953, p.85; Borkan, 1995, p.26; Iannone, 1998, pp.60, 62; Antonacci, 2000, p.31. [return]
80. Meacham, 1983, p.292; Ruffin, 1999, p.49; Antonacci, 2000, p.120. [return]
81. Reference(s) to be provided. [return]
82. Bulst, 1957, p.106; Borkan, 1995, p.26; Antonacci, 2000, p.120. [return]
83. Guerrera, 2001, p.40. [return]
84. Bennett, 2001, p.166. [return]
85. Wilson & Schwortz, 2000, p.78; Whiting, B., 2006, "The Shroud Story," Harbour Publishing: Strathfield NSW, Australia, pp.326-327. [return]
86. Wilson & Schwortz, 2000, p.78. [return]
87. Adler, 1996, p.83; Wilson & Schwortz, 2000, p.78. [return]
88. Whanger, A.D. & M.W., "A Quantitative Optical Technique for Analyzing and Authenticating the Images on the Shroud of Turin," in Berard, 1991, pp.303-324, 312-313; Danin, A., Whanger, A.D., Baruch, U. & Whanger, M., 1999, "Flora of the Shroud of Turin," Missouri Botanical Garden Press: St. Louis MO, p.11; Bennett, 2001, pp.144-146, 152. [return]
89. Heller, 1983, p.142. [return]
90. Heller, 1983, p.142. [return]
91. Antonacci, 2000, p.29; "Methemoglobin," Wikipedia, 11 June 2017. [return]
92. Barbet, 1953, p.28; Adler, 1986, pp.59-60. [return]
93. Adler, 2000c, pp.21-22. [return]
94. Adler, 1996, p.62. [return]
95. Ibid. [return]
96. Adler, 2000c, p.14. [return]
97. Adler, 2000c, p.21. [return]
98. Adler, 2000b, p.129. [return]
99. Adler, 1996, p.62. [return]

Posted 3 June 2017. Updated 7 November 2024.