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S cience Fact or Science Fiction |
The infamous shroud of Turin has been the center of speculation for over 600 years. From the knightly presentations of the artifact to the current scientific analysis, the rectangular cloth has split people into factions of believers and skeptics.
The shroud itself is 14 feet 3 inches (4.34 meters) long and 3 feet 7 inches (1.09 meters) wide and has the basic color of a worn out old sheet. On the shroud is a life size image of a man who has the crucifixion wounds of Jesus- including the punctures from the thorn crown, bloody lashings on his back from the Romans and the holes through the wrists and ankles. Many believe the shroud is the same cloth that Jesus was wrapped in after his death and the resurrection process exerted such energy that his image was imprinted on the cloth.
During the 14th century a knight named Geoffrey de Charny I put the shroud on display in Lirey, France. Roughly 100 years later, in 1453, it was given to Charny's granddaughter Marguerite who presented it to the Duke Louis of Savoy. When the temple the shroud was kept in caught fire in 1532, the people were able to bring it to safety with only a few burn marks. Finally in 1578 it was given to the Turin cathedral, where it is housed even to this day.
Up until the 1890s, scientists didn't really pay attention to the shroud because the image is fairly translucent. Research began to pick up, however, when photographer Secondo Pia took several prints of the shroud and found the negatives strongly show the image of a crucified man. With the pictures, people could finally make out a tall scraggily man between 30 and 40 who had horrendous wounds.
Although the image and basic idea of its background were known, how it reached Europe was still a mystery. Various theories, including the idea proposed by Oxford researcher Ian Wilson that the shroud was actually the mandylion, were suggested and later rejected.
With no way of gaining an understanding of its travels, scientists soon began to date the cloth. In 1989 a team of researchers from Oxford took, with permission from the Catholic Church, several samples to carbon date. Using carbon-14 dating techniques, the teams found the shroud to have originated between 1260 and 1390. This doesn't end the controversy of its creation, though. Dr. Thomas Phillips, from Harvard's High Energy Physics Lab, believes the body in the shroud gave off such powerful energy that it produced bursts of neutrons, disturbing the carbon dating.
If one is to look at the carbon dating as correct, then the shroud's image is not that of Jesus. This has lead to the belief that Leonardo de Vinci actually created the shroud! Working with various tools and substances available in his time, de Vinci could have created the three-dimensional image using a corpse. After carving the body to include the needed wounds produced by a crucifixion, many believe de Vinci placed the image of his own face on the shroud! Several researchers were able to create a similar shroud using objects readily available to de Vinci.
The mystery behind the shroud is not closed. For well over 600 years the shroud has remained a mystery. With present day technology, we may be unable to find it's real origin.