Whether you consider it authentic or not, the origins of the Shroud Of Turin are not easily explained away… new data complicates that question still further.
New testing has provided better answers about the age of Christ’s alleged graveclothes. Anyone backing the notion of a Medieval Forgery will need to go back to the drawing board.
Until now, experts arrived at conflicting conclusions on the likelihood of its possibility. Those who believed its reality pointed to evidence in the material itself, being flax grown from the Middle East. Those who considered it a forgery pointed to a 1988 radiocarbon study that placed it in the 1300s.
For a while, evidence seemed to be pointing us to a timeline that would place its origins in the Medieval era. A newer technique has challenged confidence in that theory, as have specific contamination concerns of the 1988 results.
For the new study, scientists at Italy’s Institute of Crystallography of the National Research Council conducted a recent study using wide-angle X-ray scattering (WAXS).
The technique measures the natural aging of flax cellulose and converts it to time since manufacture.
The team studied eight small samples of fabric from the Shroud of Turin, putting them under an X-ray to uncover tiny details of the linen’s structure and cellulose patterns.
Cellulose is made up of long chains of sugar molecules linked together that break over time, showing how long a garment or cloth has been around.
To date the shroud, the team used specific aging parameters, including temperature and humidity, which cause significant breakdown of cellulose.
Based on the amount of breakdown, the team determined that the shroud of Turin was likely kept at temperatures at about 72.5 degrees Fahrenheit and a relative humidity of around 55 percent for about 13 centuries before it arrived in Europe.
If it had been kept in different conditions, the aging would be different.
Researchers then compared the cellulose breakdown in the shroud to other linens found in Israel that date back to the first century.
‘The data profiles were fully compatible with analogous measurements obtained on a linen sample whose dating, according to historical records, is 55-74 AD, found at Masada, Israel [Herod’s famous fortress built on a limestone bedrock overlooking the Dead Sea],’ reads the study published in the journal Heritage.
The team also compared the shroud with samples from linens manufactured between 1260 and 1390 AD, finding none were a match. — DailyMail
This, by itself won’t tell us if it’s authentic or not.
But it sure could make the debate more interesting.
Check out ClashRadio for more wit and wisdom from ClashDaily’s Big Dawg. While you’re at it, here’s his latest book:
Much of the Left loathes masculinity and they love to paint Jesus as a non-offensive bearded woman who endorses their agenda. This book blows that nonsense all to hell. From the stonking laptop of bestselling author, Doug Giles, comes a new book that focuses on Jesus’ overt masculine traits like no other books have heretofore. It’s informative, bold, hilarious, and scary. Giles has concluded, after many years of scouring the scripture that, If Masculinity Is ‘Toxic’, Call Jesus Radioactive.
