This is part #10, "Vignon markings: Shroud's 1260-1390 radiocarbon date is against the preponderance of the evidence (2)," 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: "VT-100 terminal to a DEC mini-computer, Timothy Linick and Karl Koch" #9] [Next: "12th-11th centuries: Shroud's 1260-1390 radiocarbon date is against the preponderance of the evidence (3)" #11]
Continuing with tracing the steps in the development of my radiocarbon dating of the Shroud hacker theory in my early 2014 posts (last three): "Were the radiocarbon dating laboratories duped by a computer hacker?: Revised #1," "Were the radiocarbon dating laboratories duped by a computer hacker?: Further to my replies to Dr. Timothy Jull and Prof. Christopher Ramsey" and now "Were the radiocarbon dating laboratories duped by a computer hacker?: Revised #2 (Vignon markings)".
[Above (enlarge) The Vignon markings:
"The Vignon markings-how Byzantine artists created a living likeness from the Shroud image. (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].
This post (originally "... Revised #2") continues from my previous "... against the preponderance of the evidence (1)... #8" (originally Revised #1) post, which presented historical evidence for the Shroud's existence in the 13th and 12th centuries [see also "Chronology ... 12th century"] ... The purpose of documenting all this historical evidence of the Shroud's existence from the 13th to the 1st century is to prove, beyond any reasonable doubt, that the 1988 radiocarbon date of the Shroud as "mediaeval ... AD 1260-1390" had to be wrong.
And then [since the evidence is overwhelming that the Shroud is authentic] the key questions would be (and are):
- "How could a 1st century cloth (absent fraud) carbon-date to the 13th-14th century?"; and
- "How could the midpoint of that date range, 1325 ±65[3], `just happen' (absent fraud) to be a mere ~30 years before the Shroud's first appearance in undisputed history at Lirey, France, in c.1355"?
Given that the leader of the Shroud carbon-dating project, Prof. Harry Gove (1922-2009), pointed out that the improbability of the Shroud being first century, yet its radiocarbon date was "between 1260 and 1390," is "about one in a thousand trillion"[4]), I will document how courts decide, on the basis of high improbability alone, that a scientific fraud must have occurred.
And then, having proved beyond any reasonable doubt that there must have been fraud in carbon-dating the 1st century (or earlier) linen of the Shroud to 1325 ±65, I will re-present the evidence for: 1) the fraud having been perpetrated by computer hacking; and 2) I will tentatively identify the hackers as Timothy W. Linick (1946-89), of Arizona radiocarbon dating laboratory, aided by Karl Koch (1965–89), a self-confessed hacker who had worked for the KGB. [A]
The Vignon markings From the fifth century Jesus began to be consistently depicted in Byzantine Christian art as dark, Jewish, with long hair, a full forked beard, a long nose, large staring eyes, with a rigid front-facing posture[5]. In the 1930s, French biology professor and artist, Paul Vignon (1865-1943), began to study a number of oddities that Byzantine portraits of Christ from the fifth century[6] shared in common[7]. After a painstaking comparison of hundreds of paintings, frescoes and mosaics with the face on the Shroud[8],
[Above (enlarge): Positive photograph of the Shroud face, with Vignon markings numbers 1-15 superimposed[9]. Compare the above sketch showing the 15 Vignon markings with this photograph of the Shroud face, which is what artists looking at the Image of Edessa/Shroud directly would have seen.]
Vignon identified 20 such oddities (reduced by Ian Wilson to a more certain 15 - see below), most of which artistically made no sense, including imperfections in the Shroud's weave, but were repeated slavishly[10] by Byzantine artists from the 5th to the 12th century[11]. Confirmation that the artists were copying the Shroud is evident in that they were trying to make sense of a negative image[12], for example open staring eyes which were actually closed in death[13], of which they could have had no concept, the camera using negative film not having been invented until the 19th century[14]. [B]
Vignon paid particular attention to a topless square (Vignon marking (2) above) on the 8th-century Christ Pantocrator in the catacomb of Pontianus, Rome[15] Artistically it made no sense, yet it appears on 
[Above (enlarge): Bust of Christ Pantocrator from the catacomb of Pontianus, Rome[16]. Note in particular the Vignon marking on this 8th century fresco[17]: "(2) three-sided [topless] `square' between brows." See "c. 710".]
other Byzantine Christ portraits, including the 11th century Christ Pantocrator in the dome of the church at Daphni, near Athens[18],
[Above (enlarge): Christ Pantocrator mosaic in the church at Daphni, Greece[19].]
has 13 of the 15 Vignon markings[20]. Some of them (e.g. the three-sided, or topless square) are stylized having been rendered more naturalistic by a competent artist[21]. The 11th century Pantocrator in the apse of Sant'Angelo in Formis church, near Capua, Italy. This
[Above (enlarge): Extract of Christ's face which is part of a larger 11th century fresco in the church of St. Angelo in Formis, Capua, Italy[22].]
"Christ enthroned" fresco[23] has 14 out of the 15 Vignon markings that are on the Shroud[24], many of which are just incidental blemishes on the cloth[25]. The 10th century Hagia Sophia narthex
[Above (enlarge): Extract from the larger mosaic above the narthex of Constantinople's Hagia Sophia cathedral[26].]
mosaic, and the 11th century "Christ the Merciful" mosaic in
[Above (enlarge): "Christ the Merciful" mosaic (1100-1150) in the Bodemuseum, Berlin[27]. By my count this icon has 12 of the 15 Vignon markings]
Berlin[28].
And at the equivalent point on the Shroud face[, there is exactly the same `topless square' feature where it is merely a flaw in the weave[29] (see below).
[Above (enlarge): Extract from ShroudScope showing outlined in red the `three sided' or `topless square' (Vignon Marking no 2), superimposed on the above 8th century bust of Christ in the catacomb of Pontianus, Rome: Shroud Scope and Wikipedia. As can be seen, on the Shroud this "topless square" is merely a flaw or change in the weave[30], which in fact runs all the way down the Shroud! [C]]
In 1938 Vignon presented his discoveries as an "Iconographic Theory" in his book, "Le Saint Suaire de Turin: Devant La Science, L'archéologie, L'histoire, L'iconographie, La Logique" ("The Shroud of Turin: Before Science, Archeology, History, Iconography, Logic")[31] in which he proposed that the Shroud was known and revered as far back as the fifth century[32]. Historian Ian Wilson reduced Vignon's list of 20 peculiarities down to 15 more certain "Vignon markings"[33] (see above). No one work featured every peculiarity[34], but of the 15 Vignon markings, some have 13 (e.g. the 11th century Pantocrator in the dome of the church of Daphni, Greece [see above]) and even 14 (e.g. the 12th century Cefalu apse mosaic (see below) and the 11th
[Above: (enlarge): Christ Pantocrator, Cefalu Cathedral, Sicily[35]. As can be seen, this mosaic depicts a Shroud-like, long-haired, fork-bearded, front-facing likeness of Christ[36]. It has 14 out of 15 Vignon markings (see above)[37], 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[38]. But at c.1150 it is still over a century before the earliest 1260 radiocarbon date of the Shroud[39]!
century Sant'Angelo in Formis [see above] fresco[40]. Wilson sampled depictions of Christ's face from the sixth, eighth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries and found between eight and fourteen of these Vignon markings features on them, an average of 80 percent incidence[41]! [D]
As Wilson pointed out of the 8th-century Christ Pantocrator in the catacomb of Pontianus, Rome (see above) that:
"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"[42].so is "this topless square on an ... eighth-century fresco" (and on the other pre-1260 portraits of Christ above) conclusive evidence that the Shroud existed in at least the eighth century! That is, six centuries before the earliest 1260 date given to it by radiocarbon dating[43]!
To be continued in the next part #11 of this series.
Notes
1. This post is copyright. I grant permission to quote from any part of it (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. Wilson, I., 1978, "The Turin Shroud," Book Club Associates: London, p.82e. [return]
3. McCrone, W.C., 1999, "Judgment Day for the Shroud of Turin," Prometheus Books: Amherst NY, pp.1,141,178,246; 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; Tribbe, F.C., 2006, "Portrait of Jesus: The Illustrated Story of the Shroud of Turin," Paragon House Publishers: St. Paul MN, Second edition, p.169; de Wesselow, T., 2012, "The Sign: The Shroud of Turin and the Secret of the Resurrection," Viking: London, p.170; Oxley, M., 2010, "The Challenge of the Shroud: History, Science and the Shroud of Turin," AuthorHouse: Milton Keynes UK, p.87. [return]
4. Gove, H.E., 1996, "Relic, Icon or Hoax?: Carbon Dating the Turin Shroud," Institute of Physics Publishing: Bristol UK, p.303. [return]
5. Maher, R.W., 1986, "Science, History, and the Shroud of Turin," Vantage Press: New York NY, p.76. [return]
6. Wuenschel, E.A., 1954, "Self-Portrait of Christ: The Holy Shroud of Turin," Holy Shroud Guild: Esopus NY, Third printing, 1961, p.60. [return]
7. Wilson, I., 1979, "The Shroud of Turin: The Burial Cloth of Jesus Christ?," [1978], Image Books: New York NY, Revised, p.103. [return]
8. Walsh, J.E., 1963, "The Shroud," Random House: New York NY, p.157. [return]
9. Shroud Scope: Durante 2002 Face Only Horizontal (cropped and rotated right 90°). [return]
10. Wuenschel, 1954, p.60. [return]
11. Wilson, 1979, p.104. [return]
12. Wuenschel, 1954, p.58. [return]
13. Wilson, 1979, p.105. [return]
14. Adams, F.O., 1982, "Sindon: A Layman's Guide to the Shroud of Turin," Synergy Books: Tempe AZ, p.82. [return]
15. Wilson, 1979, p.103. [return]
16. "Catacomba di Ponziano," Google Translate, Wikipedia, 25 January 2016. [return]
17. Wilson, I., 1986, "The Evidence of the Shroud," Guild Publishing: London, p.105; 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, 189, 191; Iannone, J.C., 1998, "The Mystery of the Shroud of Turin: New Scientific Evidence," St Pauls: Staten Island NY, p.153. [return]
18. Maher, 1986, p.77. [return]
19. "Daphni Monastery," Wikipedia, 7 May 2017. [return]
20. Maher, 1986, p.77. [return]
21. Wilcox, R.K., 1977, "Shroud," Macmillan: New York NY, p.84; Wilson, 1979, p.104. [return]
22. Wilson, 1986, p.110A. [return]
23. Wilson, 1991, p.47. [return]
24. Wilson, 1979, p.102. [return]
25. Wilson, 1991, p.47. [return]
26. "File:Byzantinischer Mosaizist des 9. Jahrhunderts 001.jpg," Wikimedia Commons, 22 February 2015. [return]
27. Mosaic icon, "Christ the Merciful (1100-1150), in Museum of Byzantine Art, Bode Museum, Berlin, Germany: File:Mosaikikon Bode Berlin 2.jpg, Wikipedia (translated by Google), 3 August 2015. [return]
28. Wilson, 1979, p.104. [return]
29. Wilson, I., 2010, "The Shroud: The 2000-Year-Old Mystery Solved," Bantam Press: London, p.142. [return]
30. Scavone, 1991, p.185; Wilson, I., 1991, "Holy Faces, Secret Places: The Quest for Jesus' True Likeness," Doubleday: London, p.166. [return]
31. Wilson, 1991, pp.161-162. [return]
32. Walsh, 1963, pp.154-157. [return]
33. Wilson, 1979, p.104. [return]
34. Wilson, 1979, p.104. [return]
35. "File:Master of Cefalu 001 Christ Pantocrator adjusted.JPG," Wikipedia, 15 June 2010. [return]
36. Wilson, 1986, p.105; Wilson, 1998, p.141. [return]
37. Wilson, 1979, p.105; Maher, 1986, p.82. [return]
38. Petrosillo & Marinelli, 1996, p.193. [return]
39. Wilson, 1986, p.104. [return]
40. Wilson, 1979, pp.104-105. [return]
41. Antonacci, M., 2000, "Resurrection of the Shroud: New Scientific, Medical, and Archeological Evidence," M. Evans & Co: New York NY, p.128. [return]
42. Wilson, 1991, p.168; Wilson, 2010, p.142. [return]
43. Wilson, 2010, p.142. [return]
Posted: 29 October 2017. Updated: 26 July 2021.
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