This website focuses on the latest
dating challenges of the Shroud of Turin. Although most Christians
consider the Shroud to be the genuine burial cloth of Jesus, the results
of the 1988 c-14 (carbon-14) dating has been puzzling. Firm believers in
the authenticity of the Shroud were confident of a serious dating error
(or incredible oversight in the c-14 dating process). We
dedicate this website to the remembrance Brendan Whiting, who's 2006 book
"The Shroud Story" introduced the world to the most powerful evidence that
the 1988 Shroud c-14 data (dating the Shroud in the 14th Century) was
invalid.
Breaking News: Brendan
Whiting's conclusions were correct!
New Infra-Red Light and Raman
Spectroscopy Dates Shroud Back to the 1st Century
Image Was Produced by Exceptional Radiation Developed
at the Time of the Resurrection
"Today, thanks to a multidisciplinary work
promoted by the University of Padua and lasting fifteen years, the
team led by Giulio Fanti shows that the radiocarbon dating has
been distorted by environmental contamination, and goes right back
to the early death of Jesus that traces of dust, pollen and spores
from the Middle East to direct, that the body has been depicted on
the linen, violence told in the Gospels of the Passion, and the
image was produced by the exceptional radiation developed at the
time of the resurrection. This book, co-written by Fanti and
Saverio Gaeta, is the exciting account of a discovery and the
story of the extraordinary historical events of the most precious
and revered relic of Christianity.
So why all the controversy? The book apparently
documents the recent Shroud testing done by Fanti and his research
team at the University of Padua and reports the results of some
chemical and mechanical tests they performed which they claim
"confirms that the Shroud dates back to the 1st century." A pretty
powerful statement for sure, but that is not the major problem.
You can find a more detailed report about their research on the
Vatican Insider website
(in English). Here is an excerpt from their article:
"The research includes three new tests, two
chemical ones and one mechanical one. The first two were carried
out with an FT-IR system, one using
infra-red light
and the other using
Raman spectroscopy. The third was a multi-parametric
mechanical test based on five different mechanical parameters
linked to the voltage of the wire. The machine used to examine the
Shroud's fibres and test traction, allowed researchers to examine
tiny fibres alongside about twenty samples of cloth dated between
3000 BC and 2000 AD.
"Final results show that the Shroud fibres
examined produced the following dates, all of which are 95%
certain and centuries away from the medieval dating obtained with
Carbon-14 testing in 1988: the dates given to the Shroud after FT-IR
testing, is 300 BC ±400, 200 BC ±500 after Raman testing and 400
AD ±400 after multi-parametric mechanical testing. The average of
all three dates is 33 BC ±250 years".
December 21, 2011 Article: Shroud Of Turin, Jesus'
Proposed Burial Cloth, Is Authentic, Italian Study Suggests
A
series of experiments conducted by Italian researchers
indicate the Shroud of Turin is likely authentic, but the team
has not yet reached a definite conclusion.
Decades of research on Jesus' proposed burial cloth have
revealed an array of conflicting ideas surrounding the
shroud's authenticity. However, researchers from Italy's
National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable
Economic Development believe their findings undermine previous
theories that the shroud was faked in the medieval period, the
Telegraph reports. The new claim seems to be stirring
controversy again, as many point to previous research to the
contrary.
Last
year scientists were able to replicate marks on the cloth
using highly advanced ultraviolet techniques that weren't
available 2,000 years ago -- or during the medieval times, for
that matter. Research in the 1980s suggests the image was
"forged" on the cloth between 1260 and 1390,
but scientists have determined the
hypothesis was based on testing material from a patch likely
used to to repair the cloth after a fire, the BBC
reports. Since the shroud and "all its facets" still cannot be
replicated using today's top-notch technology, researchers
suggest it is impossible that the original image could have
been created in either period. However, scientists are willing
to point out the flaw in their findings. The Vatican
Insider reports: "This inability to repeat (and therefore
falsify) the image on the Shroud makes it impossible to
formulate a reliable hypothesis on how the impression was
made".
The
Huffington Post:
Scientists claim 'Shroud
of Turin' could not have been faked
Like an adept investigative
reporter, author Brendan Whiting closely followed, attended the
fundamental landmark conferences
(including the International Symposium in Dallas in 2005) and wrote on the breakthrough results. Whiting’s
2006 book "The Shroud Story" was the vehicle that introduced many to the
newest, most credible challenge to the 1988 c-14 dating ever, particularly
when the mainstream media was ignoring these discoveries completely. Many Christians are grateful to Whiting
for first knowledge of the recent refuted dating challenge, as well as his
gifted ability to describe the sequences of events in an unambiguous
manner. Whiting died of leukemia in January of 2009. Catholic Weekly
reported on January 11, 2009: "The author of one of the most influential
books on the Shroud of Turin, Brendan Whiting, has died in Sydney, aged
73. His book, The Shroud Story, published in 2006, rebutted scientific
tests carried out in 1988, that interpreted the shroud as a fraud made in
the 14th century. It renewed support for the authenticity of the Shroud on
the persuasive grounds that the tiny samples of cloth taken for chemical
testing were remnants of nearly invisible mending done in the Middle Ages
and that in 2005 further examination of the corner of the cloth from which
samples for testing were taken proved to be different in chemical
composition from the main part of the cloth. It also listed the findings
of an international group of 24 scientists that the Shroud of Turin was
surviving evidence of the crucified Christ and an expert’s assertion that
the material, weave and style of the shroud were from the Dead Sea area,
dating from the first century AD" (1).
Brendan Whiting’s "The Shroud Story" rebuts scientific carbon dating tests
while presenting readers with supported insight into the most recent
compelling explanations. Brendan presents scientific evidence in layman’s
terms
how the fabric edges appear to have been mended in medieval times
via a meticulous re-weaving process. The carbon dated samples were taken
from this very same outside edge, which would accurately reflect the
period of the added material, but not that of the original main Shroud
body. Whiting describes reports of fibers detected from an area of cloth
directly adjoining the tested samples retaining a gum coating not found on
any of the fibers from the main part of the shroud. The identified coating
appeared to be a gum arabic substance. Gum arabic was routinely used
during re-weaving repairs to manage the threads. Furthermore, Whiting
explains how (Shroud of Turin Research Project) STURP Chemist Raymond N. Rogers uncovered cotton fibers
in the tested sample areas of the Shroud cloth, but no cotton fibers in
samples taken from the main part of the shroud during the 1973
examination. These two combined clues (isolated gum arabic as well as
added cotton fabric) strongly indicate that the carbon dated samples were
taken from repair fabric utilized in the re-weave process at a later date.
Whiting said this fact had not been discovered by the coordinators of the
tests because, although the original protocol had called for the chemical
analysis of the samples prior to their destruction during testing, the
three testing laboratories did not perform the analysis. When this
evidence is taken into consideration, the carbon dating cannot reflect the
date of the untested original main Shroud body, only the period of the
tested material added at a later date. Moreover, Rogers found that
the Shroud sample used for radiocarbon dating contain alizarin dye
(utilized by the re-weavers to match the original main cloth), whereas no dye of any form was found
on any part of the original Shroud cloth (2).
Whiting believed the Shroud of Turin to be genuine, in The
Shroud Story he wrote: “Like an epiphany, it seems science has kept
resurrecting evidence that the shroud indeed dates back to the time of
Christ, as if repeatedly defying those who have attempted to condemn it as
a medieval fake” (3).
Scientific
Tests of Shroud Point to Supernatural
Researchers
conclude it was created by UV light unknown in Middle Ages.
Italian
scientists gave the Christian world an unexpected present and set
off an international news sensation by announcing their finding that
the image of the crucified man on the Shroud of Turin was likely
caused by a burst of ultraviolet light that was beyond the technical
capabilities of medieval forgers.
ENEA (National Agency for New
Technology, Energies and Sustainable Economic Development) published
a report after 5 years of research conducted on the Shroud, in which
it was determined that the wattage of UV radiation required to
produce the image cannot be reproduce by even today's technology.
