The Turin Shroud: Testing A New Hypothesis

February 23, 2008

A BBC documentary, to be aired on Easter Sunday, is going to reopen the debate around the dating of the Turin shroud, one of the most controversial relics in Christendom.

Venerated by many Catholics as the proof that Christ was resurrected from the grave, the shroud was dismissed as a brilliant, medieval fake twenty years ago, following radiocarbon dating.

Indeed, in 1988, three reputable laboratories in Oxford, Zurich and Tucson, Arizona, concluded that the cloth on which the smudged outline of the body of a man is indelibly impressed, was a medieval fake dating from 1260 to 1390, and not the burial cloth wrapped around the body of Christ.

Since then, the shroud has been at the centre of increasing debates over the validity of the carbon-14 tests.

The latest claim, based on microchemical tests, suggested that the sample used for the 1988 dating was taken not from the shroud, but from a rewoven area of the linen.

The documentary will investigate “a new hypothesis that could explain how a genuinely old linen could produce a much younger date in certain conditions,” according to a press release by Performance Films, the UK based film production house behind the documentary.

Performance Films said: “Professor Christopher Ramsey of the Oxford Laboratory that did the original C14 test is collaborating on experiments to test the hypothesis. The results of this collaboration will be revealed in the film.” Of course.

Much, much more to come next week. Stay tuned.

Comments

[Rory MacPherson]

If anyone wants to know the secret of the shroud all they have to do is read chapter 609 (pages 668 and 669) of Volume 5 of The Poem of the Man~God by Maria Valtorta. They could save themselves years of useless investigations.
Uraemic toxins were so plentiful that they produced an indelible impression.
Best read for yourself.
Rory