Turin Shroud confirmed as a fake: French science magazine
Tue Jun 21,2005
PARIS (AFP) - A French magazine said it had carried out experiments
that proved the Shroud of Turin, believed by some Christians to be
their religion's holiest relic, was a fake.
"A mediaeval technique helped us to make a Shroud," Science et Vie
(Science and Life) said in its July issue.
The Shroud is claimed by its defenders to be the cloth in which the
body of Jesus Christ was wrapped after his crucifixion.
It bears the faint image of a blood-covered man with holes in his hand
and wounds in his body and head, the apparent result of being
crucified, stabbed by a Roman spear and forced to wear a crown of
thorns.
In 1988, scientists carried out carbon-14 dating of the delicate linen
cloth and concluded that the material was made some time between 1260
and 1390. Their study prompted the then archbishop of Turin, where the
Shroud is stored, to admit that the garment was a hoax. But the debate
sharply revived in January this year.
Drawing on a method previously used by skeptics to attack authenticity
claims about the Shroud, Science et Vie got an artist to do a
bas-relief -- a sculpture that stands out from the surrounding
background -- of a Christ-like face.
A scientist then laid out a damp linen sheet over the bas-relief and
let it dry, so that the thin cloth was moulded onto the face.
Using cotton wool, he then carefully dabbed ferric oxide, mixed with
gelatine, onto the cloth to make blood-like marks. When the cloth was
turned inside-out, the reversed marks resulted in the famous image of
the crucified Christ.
Gelatine, an animal by-product rich in collagen, was frequently used
by Middle Age painters as a fixative to bind pigments to canvas or
wood.
The imprinted image turned out to be wash-resistant, impervious to
temperatures of 250 C (482 F) and was undamaged by exposure to a range
of harsh chemicals, including bisulphite which, without the help of
the gelatine, would normally have degraded ferric oxide to the
compound ferrous oxide.
The experiments, said Science et Vie, answer several claims made by
the pro-Shroud camp, which says the marks could not have been painted
onto the cloth.
For one thing, the Shroud's defenders argue, photographic negatives
and scanners show that the image could only have derived from a
three-dimensional object, given the width of the face, the prominent
cheekbones and nose.
In addition, they say, there are no signs of any brushmarks. And, they
argue, no pigments could have endured centuries of exposure to heat,
light and smoke.
For Jacques di Costanzo, of Marseille University Hospital, southern
France, who carried out the experiments, the mediaeval forger must
have also used a bas-relief, a sculpture or cadaver to get the 3-D
imprint.
The faker used a cloth rather than a brush to make the marks, and used
gelatine to keep the rusty blood-like images permanently fixed and
bright for selling in the booming market for religious relics.
To test his hypothesis, di Costanzo used ferric oxide, but no
gelatine, to make other imprints, but the marks all disappeared when
the cloth was washed or exposed to the test chemicals.
He also daubed the bas-relief with an ammoniac compound designed to
represent human sweat and also with cream of aloe, a plant that was
used as an embalming aid by Jews at the time of Christ.
He then placed the cloth over it for 36 hours -- the approximate time
that Christ was buried before rising again -- but this time, there was
not a single mark on it.
"It's obviously easier to make a fake shroud than a real one," Science
et Vie report drily.
The first documented evidence of the Shroud dates back to 1357, when
it surfaced at a church at Lirey, near the eastern French town of
Troyes. In 1390, Pope Clement VII declared that it was not the true
shroud but could be used as a representation of it, provided the
faithful be told that it was not genuine.
In January this year, a US chemist, Raymond Rogers, said the
radiocarbon samples for the 1988 study were taken from a piece that
had been sewn into the fabric by nuns who repaired the Shroud after it
was damaged in a church blaze in 1532.
Rogers said that his analysis of other samples, based on levels of a
chemical called vanillin that results from the decomposition of flax
and other plants, showed the Shroud could be "between 1,300 and 3,000
years old
+
"As democracy is perfected, the office of president
represents, more and more closely, the inner soul
of the people. On some great and glorious day the
plain folks of the land will reach their heart's
desire at last and the White House will be adorned
by a downright moron." --- H.L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)
"Ignorance is an evil weed, which dictators may cultivate among their
dupes, but which no democracy can afford among its citizens."
- William H. Beveridge, 1944
"The power of accurate observation is called cynicism
by those who have not got it." - G. B. Shaw
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