• For full details of graphics available/in preparation, see Menu -> Planners
News Sport
Turin Shroud timeline infographic
GN17476EN
EN

RELIGION

Study finds Turin shroud as old as Jesus

January 28, 2005 - New research shows that the Turin Shroud, dismissed as a medieval fake after carbon-14 dating studies in 1988, could actually date back to the time of Christ. A study published in the latest issue of the journal Thermochimica Acta by chemist Dr. Raymond Rogers of the University of California's Los Alamos Laboratory in New Mexico, suggests it is between 1,300 and 3,000 years old. Rogers says pyrolysis-mass spectrometry and microchemical tests show the material used in the radiocarbon analysis was cut from a medieval patch woven into the shroud to repair fire damage in 1534.

New research shows that the Turin Shroud, dismissed as a medieval fake after scientific studies in 1988, could actually date back to the time of Christ.

The relic, which bears the faint image of a blood-covered man, is believed by many to be the burial cloth used to wrap Jesus Christ after his crucifixion.

A study published in the latest issue of the journal Thermochimica Acta by chemist Raymond Rogers of the University of California’s Los Alamos Laboratory in New Mexico, suggests it is between 1,300 and 3,000 years old.

The age of the burial cloth has been disputed for decades. In 1988, analysis using carbon-14 dating techniques concluded it was a medieval fake, originating from some time between 1260 and 1390.

Rogers says pyrolysis-mass spectrometry and microchemical tests show the material used in the radiocarbon analysis was cut from a medieval patch woven into the shroud to repair fire damage.

“The radiocarbon sample has completely different chemical properties than the main part of the shroud relic,” said Rogers. This was responsible for an invalid date being assigned to the original shroud cloth, he argues.

Rogers analysed and compared the 1988 sample with other samples from the famous cloth. Analysis showed the radiocarbon sample was dyed using technology that began to appear in Italy about the time the Crusaders’ last bastion fell to the Turks in AD 1291.

Tests also revealed the presence of a chemical called vanillin in the radiocarbon sample, but not the rest of the shroud.

Vanillin is produced by the thermal decomposition of lignin, a chemical compound found in plant material such as flax. Levels of vanillin in material such as linen fall over time.

“The fact that vanillin cannot be detected in the lignin on shroud fibres, Dead Sea scrolls linen and other very old linens indicates that the shroud is quite old,” Rogers says.

The research backs a study by Israeli scientists who found pollen and casts of plants which at the time solely existed in the Middle East.

Sources
PUBLISHED: 28/1/2005; STORY: Graphic News; PICTURES: Associated Press
Advertisement