"1898 Secondo Pia photographed the Shroud and found that the image seemed to be a negative image since his negative glass plates showed a positive image". 1931 Giuseppe Enrie, a professional photographer took new photographs of the Shroud. His negatives confirmed what Secondo Pia had discovered more than 30 years earlier. 1955 Monsignor Guilio Ricci studied the Sudarium of Oviedo, believed to be the face cloth used on Jesus before his burial, and discovered striking similarities of blood stain patterns on the Sudarium with those on the Shroud. Dr Alan Whanger, using the Polarized Image Overlay technique, and Thomas Vuke, using computerized analysis has confirmed the similar patterns. 1973 (And 1978) Swiss criminologist Dr. Max Frei took particle samples from the Shroud by rubbing transparent sticky tape into the surface of the cloth. Frei identified 58 different pollens, many which established that the cloth had been in the Jerusalem area as well as parts of the Middle East which include Constantinople and Edessa. 1976 Research physicists Dr. John Jackson and Dr. Eric Jumper discovered that the Shroud image produced a 3-dimensional image when analyzed with the Interpretation Systems VP-8 Image Analyzer at the Sandia Scientific Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Normal photographs and works of art do not produce this effect. 1978 A team of over forty scientists, the Shroud of Turin Research Project (STURP) conducted a comprehensive investigation of the Shroud. Detailed photographs were taken, particulate matter was collected using sticky tape and detailed scientific observations and analysis about the Shroud were extensively documented. This material has been the basis for much of the subsequent research on the Shroud. 1988 A small sample of the Shroud's linen fabric was tested using carbon 14 dating methods. The conclusions of the tests suggest that the linen was produced between 1260 and 1390 CE. These tests have since been questioned on the several grounds. 1994 Dr. Dimitri Kouzenetsov and Dr. A. Ivanov proposed that biofractionalization in flax as well as the fire of 1532 could have altered the carbon 14 testing results significantly. 1995 Dr. Kouzenetsov demonstrated through experiments that a fire such as the one in 1532 would, in fact, modify the carbon 14 to carbon 12 ratio in the Shroud's fabric. He calculated that the change in radioactive carbon showed that the Shroud's linen could have indeed originated in the first century CE. 1995 Dr. Mattingly and Dr. Garza-Valdez found a bioplastic coating on some fibers which could alter the carbon 14 testing results".

Images of coins, minted by Pontius Pilot for use in Palestine, have been identified over both eyes. In 1978, scientists, including Dr. John P. Jackson and Dr. Eric J. Jumper, while working with NASA's VP-8 3-D Image Analyzer, discovered what appeared to be raised button-like shapes over each eye.

About 1980, the late Rev. Francis Filas, S.J., of Loyola University in Chicago and Michael Marx, an expert in classical coins, examined the area over the right eye and detected patterns of what appeared to be the letters UCAI (from TIBERIOU CAISARUS) and a lituus design (an auger's staff). Father Filas concluded that this was a lituus lepton coin minted by Pontius Pilate between 29 and 32 CE. Over the left eye, Father Filas also identified what he believed to be a Juolia lepton with a distinctive sheaf of barley design. The Juolia lepton was only struck in 29 CE in honor of Tiberius Caesar's wife, Julia.

Subsequent computerized image enhancement analysis at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University's Spatial Data Analysis Laboratory supports, though cautiously, the existence of the lituus lepton over the right eye and an outline of a coin over the left eye.

Using an independent method, the Polarized Image Overlay Technique, Dr. Alan Whanger, of Duke University, identified both coins. Dr. Alan found 74 points of congruence with an existing lituus lepton and 73 points with a Juolia lepton".

Over the years a number of natural cause theories have been advanced to try to explain how the image was created. These included: The body produced a vapor or chemical gas that imprinted the image on the cloth: This theory was first advanced by Paul Vignon who also established the pattern of markings found on the Shroud and early depictions of Jesus in art. Given the right mixture of sweat, bodily vapors, and burial spices a brownish stain can be produced on linen. Several other scientists pursued this theory further. As was discovered, gases in such a scenario would diffuse and run throughout the linen fibers. Any image would be very distorted and fail to meet the criteria of 3 dimensionality. The image is produced by some contact mechanism: As with a vapor theory, this mechanism requires a chemical reaction to cause a chemical change in the fabric. There are several problems, however. Even more so than with a vapor mechanism, is the problem of distortion because of the roundness of body parts, especially the face. Nor can the resulting image satisfy the 3-dimensionality criteria. The dorsal (backside) view would be more saturated because of the weight of the body and certain recessed parts of body would not be visible because they would fail to touch the cloth. The Volkinger Effect: One contact theory that seemed to hold so promise was proposed by Dr. Jean Volkinger, a member of the French Academy of Science. He discovered that certain plant leaves produce images when pressed between the pages of books for over 100 years. The images are very detailed and do provide 3-dimension characteristics. The characteristic of the image is dehydration and oxidation in the same way as the Shroud image was formed. The process, however, is very slow and we know from the forensic evidence that the image of the man on the Shroud shows no sign of decay. It is, in fact, still in rigor mortis. There is no known parallel for such an image of a person, even among thousands of burial Shrouds from ancient tombs. Heat Scorch: To many researchers, the image seemed much like a scorch. Scorching produced by heat results in dehydration and oxidation of linen fibers and darkens the linen in very much the same way as the image on the Shroud. But scorched linen fluoresces under ultraviolet light (because of chemical by-products) and the image of the man on the Shroud does not. (The burns from the 1532 fire do fluoresce as would be expected.) Significantly, what can possibly explain a body producing enough heat to scorch a piece of linen or a statue producing the precise level of heat needed? Heat simply cannot produce the level of detail found in the Shroud since it disperses in all directions. X-Ray: Giles Carter, a Shroud researcher has suggested the possibility that the body emitted x-rays. There is some indication of x-ray imagery in the area of the mouth and the fingers on the hands. Dr. Alan Whanger has identified teeth and carpal bones in the hands. But as Dr. Alan Adler has noted, whereas it makes sense chemically and physically, it is biologically bizarre. Anyone with that much radiation in them would have been dead long before being crucified, according to Adler".

-- Barb e. (Suesuesbeo9@cs.com), June 05, 2002

Answers

There was also analysis of spores and polin on the shroud. The polin and spores only exist in the area where jesus was crucified. They do not naturaly occur anywhere else. The fire messes with the carbon dating since carbon shows signs of decay, heating an object in a fire and its subsequent burn marks would make carbon dating difficult. Most carbon dating of dig sites is done above and below such areas to make estimates since actual burned material would leave a sku'd dating. So why are we discussing this here in the aeon forum and not the carbon dating forum? Peter, what's your background on carbon dating and its relation to the shroud and its subsequent relation to Aeon's repeated deaths. :)

-- tom (tom@aeon-flux.com), June 06, 2002.

but we'd expect the carbon from the fire to make it "older" rather than "younger." As far as the pollen are concerned...

"It is claimed that the cloth has some pollen [pdf format] and images on it that are of plants found only in the Dead Sea region of Israel. Avinoam Danin, a botanist from Hebrew University of Jerusalem claims he has identified pollen from the tumbleweed Gundelia tournefortii and a bean caper on the shroud. He claims this combination is found only around Jerusalem. Some believers think the crown of thorns was made of this type of tumbleweed. However, Danin did not examine the shroud itself. His sample of pollens originated with Max Frei who tape-lifted pollen samples from the shroud. Frei's pollens have been controversial from the beginning. Frei, who once pronounced the forged "Hitler Diaries" to be genuine, probably introduced the pollens himself or was duped and innocently picked up pollens another pious fraud had introduced (Nickell, Shafersman)."

The little fact that there is no blood on the shroud further complicates things... Why paint a death shroud, after all?

skye

-- skye (skyknyt@aol.com), June 07, 2002.