© Stephen E. Jones[1]
[Previous: February 2020] [Next: April 2020]
This is the March 2020 issue of my Shroud of Turin News. I have listed below linked news article(s) about the Shroud in March as a service to readers, without necessarily endorsing any of them. My comments (if any) are bold in square brackets. Any emphases are mine unless otherwise indicated.
News:
• "Shroud of Turin: Interview with World’s Leading Expert Who Happens To Be Jewish, Townhall, 8 March 2020, Myra Kahn Adams ...
[Above (enlarge): "Barrie Schwortz, STURP Documenting Photographer, makes large-format photographs of the Shroud during the 1978 scientific examination of the cloth."]
Barrie M. Schwortz is the founder of Shroud.com. Since 1996 it has been the leading Shroud of Turin website ... The following interview was conducted by phone from Schwortz’s Colorado home on March 3, 2020. Myra Adams: After thousands of presentations about the Shroud of Turin, what is the question you are asked most often? Barrie Schwortz: Because I was the documenting photographer for the STURP team, I am most often asked, `What do I believe formed the image on the Shroud?' ... In the end, STURP could not answer the question, but the scientists determined what it was not — not a painting, not a scorch, not made photographically. We know of no mechanism that could create an image with those same chemical and physical properties, and no one in the past 42 years has recreated such an image ... MA: How do you explain the Shroud to fellow Jews? BS: Interestingly, I rarely, if ever, have the opportunity to explain the Shroud to fellow Jews because fellow Jews are not interested in the Shroud. The only Jews I have met who have expressed a strong interest in the Shroud are Messianic Jews, such as you, Myra. These are Jews who have accepted Jesus as the Messiah ... MA: Do you believe that the Shroud is currently experiencing a renaissance with renewed interest? If so, why? BS: ... But most importantly, since the 1988 radiocarbon dating tests [infamously dating the Shroud from between 1260 and 1390], there have been four peer-reviewed scientific articles challenging those results. Now, many people are `coming back' to the Shroud because they realize that the carbon dating conclusions were not valid. It has taken over 30 years for that to occur, but due to mounting evidence, it is widely accepted that the radiocarbon dating was flawed." It is indeed now "widely accepted that the [Shroud's] radiocarbon dating was flawed." But sindonology cannot explain why it was flawed. That is, not until it accepts my Revised Hacker Theory [see 29May19, 02Sep19 & 14Feb20].
• "Advances in Engineering Features : Analysis of UV Photographs of the Shroud of Turin," Press release, SBWire, Ottawa, ON, 16 March 2020 ... The Shroud of Turin is a length of linen cloth bearing the negative image of a crucified man on it. Many believe that this cloth is Christ's burial shroud consequently, attracting much research from both historians and scientists ... one study radiocarbon dated the Shroud to have originated between 1260-1390, while a more recent study using more advanced techniques dated the shroud to between 200 BC and 372AD – the time of Jesus Christ [see 02Apr13]. Even though there are valid statistical questions about the radiocarbon dating results, the very large discrepancy between the medieval radiocarbon dates and the first century appears very likely to be due to some other cause than contamination hence calling for further studies. [Yes! Again, see my Revised Hacker Theory at 14Feb20] Indeed, the fact that recent studies have placed the Shroud in Christ's time is vital. In as much as this is important, certainty of the same would highly be welcome. In a recent publication featured in Advances in Engineering and selected as a key scientific article, Professor Thomas McAvoy from the Institute for Systems Research at University of Maryland carefully analyzed recently published UV photographs of the Shroud. He specifically focused on analyzing 22 of the UV photos that [Vernon D.] Miller took in 1978. This exciting work is currently published in the research journal, Applied Optics ... McAvoy ... reported that the Shroud exhibited very unique UV fluorescence intensity properties, where it fluoresced more on its right side than its
[Above (enlarge): "Contour plot of Shroud UV fluorescence intensity"[2]. This photo is of a scorched area from the 1532 fire nearest the spear in the side wound. See below.]
[Above (original)[3]. Top right frontal part of the Shroud corresponding to the UV photograph above.]
left side. In addition, where comparisons could be made, the Shroud was seen to fluoresce more on its dorsal side than its frontal side, and fluorescence was stronger near the center of the image on the Shroud than near the head or feet. Moreover, fluorescence was stronger near the center of the image on the Shroud than near the image of the head or feet. The center of the image on the Shroud also fluoresced more than the sides of the Shroud near it ... the author posed a very important question, 'What could account for the unique UV fluorescence intensity properties of the Shroud?' that ought to be addressed ... " According to Wikipedia, "Fluorescence is the emission of light by a substance that has absorbed light or other electromagnetic radiation And because the scorches and burns from the 1532 fire fluoresce under ultraviolet light, but the image does not[4] , presumably if there is
[Right (enlarge)[5]: The cavity in the wall of the Sainte Chapelle, Chambéry where the Shroud's casket was in the 1532 fire behind an iron grille.]
more intense ultraviolet fluorescence on the right side of the Shroud that was due to its closer proximity to the radiant heat of the 1532 fire, e.g. closer to the burning interior of the Sainte Chapelle, Chambéry (see above).
• "Scholar presents tantalizing evidence of the Shroud of Turin," Uinta County Herald, 17 March 2020, Jonathan Lange, Dr. Cheryl White [Left (original)[6].] drew a crowd of 134 people to the Laramie County Public Library in Cheyenne ... to hear a presentation on the Shroud of Turin from one of the world’s top Shroud historians ... The STURP project was happening while Cheryl White was in college. It captured her attention and set her feet on a life-long journey of `sindonology' (study of the Shroud). However, in 1988, that journey was redirected by a press conference held at the British Museum in London. There, on Oct. 13, scientists announced that Carbon 14 analysis dated the cloth between 1260 and 1390 A.D. ... White ... did shift her focus to the question of how an unknown medieval artist could produce the amazing detail both of blood stains and a photographic negative imprinted on a non-photosensitive medium (linen) ... Not only is there no historical record of any technique that could produce the type of image found on the Shroud, neither is there any known artist skilled enough to make that image anatomically perfect. More than that, Shroud historians were aware of The Hungarian Pray Manuscript that has an undisputed date before 1195. In the pages of this manuscript, are several illustrations that clearly depict the Shroud. How could an object from the mid-14th century be illustrated in a late-12th-century manuscript? Even the earliest date of the C-14 analysis could not solve this riddle. Beginning in 2003 the C-14 dating was increasingly challenged on scientific grounds. Then, last year a paper was published in the journal `Archaeometry' that examined newly acquired raw data from the 1988 study. This data decisively undercut confidence in the medieval dating of the Shroud." Indeed it does! And what's more the radiocarbon dating laboratory leaders, Arizona's Prof. Timothy Jull and Oxford's Prof. Christopher Ramsey, who were involved in the 1988 radiocarbon dating of the Shroud, by their `body language' show that they know that its claim that, "the linen of the Shroud of Turin is mediaeval ... AD 1260-1390" is false! See for example my "Open letter to Professor Christopher Ramsey" of 4 October 2018, which I sent both as an email and posted a copy by snail mail to Prof. Ramsey, but he never responded.
Editorial
Posts: In March I blogged 6 new posts (latest uppermost):
"Coronavirus pandemic and the Shroud of Turin," - 28th "Chronology of the Turin Shroud: Sixteenth century (2)," - 13th "Colour: The Shroud of Turin: The Burial Sheet of Jesus! #11," - 11th; "News and Editorial," Shroud of Turin News, February 2020," - 10th; "A linen cloth: The Shroud of Turin: The Burial Sheet of Jesus! #10," - 4th & "News and Editorial," Shroud of Turin News, January 2020," - 3rd.
Pageviews: At midnight on 31 March 2020, Google Analytics [Below (enlarge)] gave this blog's "Pageviews all time history" as 1,159,677:
This compares with 1,036,720 at the same time in March 2019. That is 122,957 pageviews over the year, or an average of ~337 pageviews per day.
Google Analytics also gave the most viewed posts for March 2020 (highest uppermost) as: Problems of the Turin Shroud forgery theory: Index A-F," Jan 20, 2016 - 214; "Chronology of the Turin Shroud: AD 30 to the present: 1st century and Index" Jul 24, 2016 - 132; "Problems of the Turin Shroud forgery theory: Index G-M," Apr 2, 2016 - 129; "The Turin Shroud is a fake ... and it's one of 40': Antonio Lombatti`," Jun 15, 2012 - 72 & "The Pray Manuscript (or Codex)," Jan 11, 2010 - 63.
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. McEvoy, T., 2019, "Analysis of UV photographs of the Shroud of Turin," Advances in Engineering, 2020. [return]
3. Extract from Latendresse, M., 2010, "Shroud Scope: Durante 2002 Vertical," Sindonology.org. [return]
4. Case, T.W., 1996, "The Shroud of Turin and the C-14 Dating Fiasco," White Horse Press: Cincinnati OH, pp.14-15; Adler, A.D., 1999, "The Nature of the Body Images on the Shroud of Turin," in Adler, A.D. & Crispino, D., ed., "The Orphaned Manuscript: A Gathering of Publications on the Shroud of Turin," Effatà Editrice: Cantalupa, Italy, 2002, pp.103-112, 104; Antonacci, M., 2000, "Resurrection of the Shroud: New Scientific, Medical, and Archeological Evidence," M. Evans & Co: New York NY, p.88; Tribbe, F.C., 2006, "Portrait of Jesus: The Illustrated Story of the Shroud of Turin," Paragon House Publishers: St. Paul MN, Second edition, pp.142, 148. [return]
5. Moretto, G., 1999, "The Shroud: A Guide," Paulist Press: Mahwah NJ, p.19. [return]
6. "Science, Theology and the Turin Shroud," International Shroud Conference, Redeemer University College, Ancaster, Ontario, Canada, August 14-17, 2019. [return]
Posted: 15 April 2020. Updated: 23 May 2020.
Posts
2 comments:
Stephen, did you hear about the rediscovery of Terre de Chaux Medieval mural paintings, near St Hippolyte du Doubs, in 1997? It pictures the shroud being revered as the Edessa image by De Charny and her second husband. Very little known information apart from a mention by I. Wilson and some French publications.
RM>
>
>Stephen, did you hear about the rediscovery of Terre de Chaux Medieval mural paintings, near St Hippolyte du Doubs, in 1997? It pictures the shroud being revered as the Edessa image by De Charny and her second husband. Very little known information apart from a mention by I. Wilson and some French publications.
Thanks, I had heard about them. Wilson mentioned the Terre de Chaux murals in his 2010 book:
"Altogether more interesting for this particular phase of the Shroud's history is a discovery that was made only recently in a [239] neighbouring church at Terres de Chaux, four miles to St Hippolyte's east. In 1997, fragments of decaying nineteenth-century plasterwork fell from the ribbed vaulting in this church and disclosed paintwork hidden beneath. Removal of the plaster revealed an extensive scheme of frescoes depicting instruments of the Passion, datable to the early fifteenth century, that had clearly been plastered over when their condition had deteriorated over time. On the arch to the choir, in very poor condition, came to light a depiction of a knight holding a casket between his hands - almost certainly again our Count Humbert de la Roche with the casket of the Shroud. By far the most interesting find, however, was at the topmost point of the arch separating the choir from the nave: a depiction of a large piece of only partly unrolled cloth bearing the face of Christ, with angels supporting it either side (pl. 29c). Had such a fresco been found anywhere in the Byzantine East it would unhesitatingly have been identified as the Image of Edessa, there being numerous examples with exactly this iconography. Anywhere else in western Europe it would have been taken to be Rome's Veronica cloth, except that the Veronica was rarely if ever depicted as of such a width. But here in Terres de Chaux, created at this particular time, in a region with such close associations to showings of the Shroud, it can hardly be other than our Shroud, depicted, whether intentionally or otherwise, in a form most eerily harking back to its days as the Image of Edessa. And on the other side, the side facing the congregation, is the Annunciation." (Wilson, I., 2010, "The Shroud: The 2000-Year-Old Mystery Solved," Bantam Press: London, pp.238-239).
As the above quote mentions, Wilson has a photo of the arch fresco at plate 29 of his 2010 book.
Wilson's slide presentation at the 2012 Valencia Shroud conference is online at https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/32291802/discovering-more-of-the-shrouds-early-history-shroud-of-turin and slide 47 is the same photo of the arch.
Stephen E. Jones
----------------------------------
MY POLICIES. Comments are moderated. Those I consider off-topic, offensive or sub-standard will not appear. To avoid time-wasting debate, I normally allow only one comment per individual under each one of my posts. I reserve the right to respond to any comment as a separate blog post.
Post a Comment