The Shroud of Turin

... where it all began.

Yeah, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, "Hey, wasn't Turin that guy in that Tolkien book who banged his sister and had a talking sword?" And the answer is... no. That guy had an accent on the "u" in his name. Clearly a different thing altogether.

So I want to get on to the good stuff ASAP, but I couldn't do it in good conscience without starting off with the Mother of All Holy Sightings. As we know, everything on Wikipedia is absolute, indisputable truth, and so I quote:



The Shroud of Turin (or Turin Shroud) is an ancient linen cloth bearing the image of a man who appears to have been physically traumatized in a manner consistent with crucifixion. It is presently kept in the royal chapel of the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist in Turin, Italy. Some believe it is the cloth that covered Jesus of Nazareth when he was placed in his tomb and that his image was somehow recorded on its fibers at or near the time of his proclaimed resurrection. Skeptics contend the shroud is a medieval hoax or forgery — or even a devotional work of artistic verisimilitude. It is the subject of intense debate among some scientists, believers, historians and writers, regarding where, when and how the shroud and its images were created.

Arguments and evidence cited against a miraculous origin of the shroud images include a letter from a medieval bishop to the Avignon pope claiming personal knowledge that the image was cleverly painted to gain money from pilgrims; radiocarbon tests in 1988 that yielded a medieval timeframe for the cloth's fabrication; and analysis of the image by microscopist Walter McCrone, who concluded ordinary pigments were used.

Arguments and evidence cited for the shroud being something other than a medieval forgery include textile and material analysis pointing to a 1st-century origin; the unusual properties of the image itself which some claim could not have been produced by any image forming technique known before the 19th century; objective indications that the 1988 radiocarbon dating was invalid due to erroneous sampling; and repeated peer-reviewed analyses of the image mode which strongly contradict McCrone's assertions.

The first photograph taken of the Shroud:




Photograph of the face, and its negative:



Read more here: Shroud of Turn at Wikipedia.

Happily shroud-less,
Your Humble Blogmistress