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Evidence ID: HIS-EV52
Evidence: Linen Details Not Easily Producible by Forger
Summary: The formation of the image on the Shroud of Turin is difficult to explain by natural causes. The likely explanation is that the image resulted from exposure to intense radiation that scorched the linen. Forging the image by means of a heated relief have been ruled out by most scholars. Further, the manner in which the body was removed from the linen is also a mystery. The absence of human tissue on the shroud strongly suggests the body exited the linen shortly after burial. Lastly, the presence of pollen grains and plant images on the linen endemic to the Middle East strongly suggest the burial linen originated in the region around Jerusalem according to leading botanists and palynologists.
Description: The linen which bears the image of a crucified victim is itself shrouded in mystery. After many thorough investigations by researchers with the latest technologies, many details surrounding the origin and nature of the linen are unresolved. The researchers determined that the origin and nature of the shroud cannot be easily explained by fraudulent and natural processes.
One of the key unresolved problems is how did the image on the victim get imprinted on the shroud? There have been many theories offered and experiments performed throughout the scientific investigation of the Shroud of Turin [REF-HAB03]. To date, no one has been able to satisfactorily explain how the image was imprinted even with the latest technologies available today. Further, no one has been able to successfully reproduce an image on a linen that is characteristically identical to the image on the Shroud of Turin.
The most likely theory is that the image of the victim was imprinted on the Shroud of Turin using heat and radiation [REF-JPJ01]. Essentially, the image was imprinted or transferred to the linen by the process commonly known as scorching.
A bas-relief (heated statue) was ruled out as the method of scorching the shroud. According to Thibault Heimburger [REF-THR01], a forger would not have been able to create an image with a uniform pale-yellow color found on the Shroud of Turin using a heated bas-relief. Either the scorching would have produced a wide color distribution at high temperatures or no color at low temperatures.
In Thibault Heimburger's paper titled "The Turin Shroud Body Image: The Scorch Hypothesis Revisited", he cites:
Consequently, in theory, in order to obtain an image resembling the Turin Shroud image, a forger would have to use a bas-relief, to heat it uniformly in a narrow range of low temperature, to apply it firmly on all parts of the bas-relief and to control the contact pressure and the contact-time.
The 'signature' of a scorch that is found in all kind of scorches, even in very light and light scorches: even at the lowest temperature, some protruding burned fibers are observed and many small opaque brown to dark burned pieces of fibers are easily found everywhere in the sticky-tape experiments. This was not the case for the direct observations with the microscope on the Shroud in 1978 or on the sticky-tapes.
Further, scorching could not have produced an image with the 3D properties found on the Shroud of Turin. Pressure would have had to be carefully applied with uniform pressure to achieve these 3D properties. This method of forgery is highly improbable given the 3D accuracy of the Shroud of Turin.
The most likely method of scorching was from some type of radiation. Since all forms of radiation were discovered in the 19th and 20th centuries, it is impossible for a forger to imprint the image using radiation in the fourteenth century.
This leads to the conclusion that the image on the shroud was formed by ultraviolet or some other form of radiation emitted by Jesus' body during his resurrection. This may have coincided with the earthquake that occurred on the first day of the week when the women returned to the tomb and found the stone rolled away (Matthew 28:2-4).
No decomposed human tissue was found on the linen. This suggests that the body exited the shroud shortly after burial. However, remnants of iron-oxide from blood were found on portions of the shroud where there was a high concentration of blood. Further, the body was probably not wrapped because many of the blood stains and clots were still intact on the shroud.
According to Luke 23:53 and John 19:40, Jesus was wrapped in a linen shroud and laid in an empty tomb. Because it was the Day of Preparation (beginning of the Sabbath), they only partially embalmed Jesus body with spices. According to Luke 24:1 and Mark 16:1, the women returned on the first day of the next week to complete the embalming of Jesus body with the spices they prepared. We can assume that Jesus' body was minimally wrapped on the Day of Preparation to make the final embalming process easier on the first day of the week. This would imply that the linen was simply laid around the back and front of Jesus' to cover the body. In so doing, the original spices would have been minimally disturbed and could have been reused in the final embalming process.
According to John 20:5-9, the linen shroud was "lying there" separate from the folded facial cloth. This implies that the linen was not folded and collapsed on the stone after the body exited the shroud. By making special mention of these details (vv. 5-6), John wants to make us aware that Peter was surprised the linen was not folded like the face cloth. It seems that Jesus when he vacated the tomb left evidence that would cause his disciples and us to question how he exited the shroud without disturbing the linen. Dr. John Jackson developed the Cloth Collapse Theory [REF-JPJ02] that best explains how the linen came to rest on the stone.
Botanical evidence indicates that the linen originated in Jerusalem. Dr. Avinoam Danin from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem discovered pollen grains and plant images on the Shroud of Turin that were abundant in the Jerusalem area during the time of Jesus [REF-DAN03], [REF-DAN03], [REF-DAN03]. This strongly suggests that the linen was exposed to these grains and plants during a first century burial and could not have been introduced in a fourteenth century forgery.
According to Dr. Avinoam Danin [REF-DAN03],
Dr. Uri Baruch, palynologist with the Israel Antiquities Authority analyzed most of Dr. Max Frei's 1973 sticky tape pollen specimens and ten of the twenty-five 1978 sticky tapes (taken from the Shroud of Turin). He examined 165 pollen grains, of which 45 (or 27.3%) were Gundelia tournefortii. ... The images of the plant and the presence of so many of its pollen grains on the Shroud prove that blooming plants were placed on the Shroud, as the pollen grains could not have been deposited by wind. Gundelia tournefortii blooms in Israel from February (in the semi-desert warm parts) to May (in Jerusalem), hence testifying the time these plants could have been placed on the Shroud. Gundelia tournefortii grows only in the Near East; therefore, the Shroud could have come only from the Near East (February through May).
The imprint of leaf and flower patterns from Chrysanthemum coronarium, Gundelia tournefortii, Pistacia lentiscus and Zygophyllum dumosum Boiss were also found on the Shroud of Turin [REF-DAN03]. These plants are endemic to Israel, Jordan, and the Sinai regions. The northern most region in which many of these plants are found, specifically Zygophyllum, is Jericho and the Jordan River just north and east of Jerusalem where Jesus was buried.
These pollen grains and plant images were likely posited on the victim's body during the burial process. They are laid on the victim in a wreath-like arrangement around his head as illustrated in the above image.
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