UPDATING RECENT STUDIES ON THE SHROUD OF TURIN

The Shroud of Turin, a linen cloth alleged to be the burial shroud of Christ, has been precisely radiodated to the 14 th century. Nevertheless, its status remains controversial. Is the radiodate accurate? Are the blood images seen on the cloth derived from contact of the cloth with a wounded human body? Is it a painting? If not a painting, what is the mechanism of its formation? Some of the latest research attempting to resolve these matters is presented and reviewed. The Shroud of Turin can be unequivocally historically traced to the mid-14 th century. 1 Because it was alleged at that time to be the authentic burial cloth of Christ, it has always been an object of controversy. This 4.3 x 1.1 m linen cloth bears both complete head-to-head, frontal and dorsal, straw colored, "negative" body images of a crucified man with blood colored wounds and scourge marks in accordance with Biblical description of the Crucifixion. The body images are bracketed the entire length of the cloth by parallel burn and scorch marks from fire damage incurred in 1532. Waterstains from extinguishing this fire are also evident, as are patched areas from repairs carried out in 1534 prior to the entire cloth being stitched to a backing cloth (see note p. 86) to support the damaged original. There is a continuous seam along one side of the cloth producing a "side" strip with rectangular pieces of missing cloth at both ends of this strip. The main body of the cloth adjacent to these missing cloth areas shows selvage edges indicative of repair. There is no historic record of why or when this repair and seam were applied to the original cloth. In 1978 a group of investigators, Shroud of Turin Research Project (STURP), carried out several on-site investigations of the Shroud at its repository in Turin and also took several sticky tape samples from designated areas of the cloth for further off-site studies. This work and the subsequent research has been summarized in several publications. 2, 4 STURP's major conclusions were that the Shroud was not a painting, the body image chromophore was an oxidation product of the cellulose of the linen fibers comprising the cloth, and the blood images were blood-derived materials produced from contact of the cloth with a wounded human body. A microscopical investigation of the STURP sticky tape samples by an independent investigator came to the opposite conclusion that the Shroud was a painting with the body images composed of iron oxide in a gelatin protein