Turin Shroud Older Than Thought [View All]

By Rossella Lorenzi, Discovery News

Jan. 25, 2005 — The Shroud of Turin, the piece of linen long believed to have been wrapped around Jesus's body after the crucifixion, is much older than the date suggested by radiocarbon tests, according to new microchemical research.

Published in the current issue of Thermochimica Acta, a chemistry peer- reviewed scientific journal, the study dismisses the results of the 1988 carbon-14 dating.

At that time, three reputable laboratories in Oxford, Zurich and Tucson, Ariz., concluded that the cloth on which the smudged outline of the body of a man is indelibly impressed, was a medieval fake dating from 1260 to 1390, and not the burial cloth wrapped around the body of Christ.

"As unlikely as it seems, the sample used to test the age of the shroud in 1988 was taken from a rewoven area of the shroud. Indeed, the patch was very carefully made. The yarn has the same twist as the main part of the cloth, and it was stained to match the color," Raymond Rogers, a retired chemist from Los Alamos National Laboratories and former member of the STURP team of American scientists that examined the Shroud in 1978, told Discovery News.

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http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20050124/shroud.html

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It's interesting, at the very least. Although I am a Christian, I've always been wary about those who try to "prove" the divinity of Christ. I've always thought that you were supposed to have faith.

That having been said, it does raise some fascinating questions. The article states the Shroud is anywhere from 1300 to 3000 years old. It certainly puts it in the timeframe, anyway...

Regardless of what you believe about the divinity (or even historical existence) of Christ, you must admit the article is interesting. I wonder if we'll ever figure out just what the Shroud is...

Later,