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Is the Turin Shroud genuine after all? From beyond the grave, a startling new claim
SourceIs the Turin Shroud genuine after all? From beyond the grave, a startling new claim
To believers it is the burial cloth of Jesus Christ, miraculously marked with his image.
But the Turin shroud was widely dismissed as a hoax in 1988 when scientific tests found it could not be more than 1,000 years old.
Now one of the scientists who first studied 12 foot-long sheet has spoken - from beyond the grave - of how he came to believe that it could be genuine.
A video made shortly before Raymond Rogers died in 2005 has been discovered, in which the U.S. chemist reveals his own tests show the relic to be much older - dating back to between 1,300 and 3,000 years ago.
Dr Rogers said: 'I don't believe in miracles that defy the laws of nature. After the 1988 investigation I'd given up on the shroud.
'But now I am coming to the conclusion that it has a very good chance of being the piece of cloth that was used to bury the historic Jesus.'
He was on the 1978 team that carried out the first in-depth scientific study of the shroud, which examined its underside for the first time in 400 years. After the 1988 carbon dating Dr Rogers was adamant that the robe was nothing more than a medieval hoax.
But speaking shortly before his death from cancer in 2005, Dr Rogers described how he compared the scrap tested in 1988 with other bits of the cloth.
He found the 1988 sample was a patch of material woven in to repair the shroud after it was damaged by fire.
Chemical tests showed that the postage stamp-sized sample contained cotton and had been dyed to match the main shroud, which is made of linen.
The shroud has been damaged in several fires since it was first discovered in France in 1357 and it is thought to have been repaired by nuns.
Dr Rogers said: 'The cotton fibres were fairly heavily coated with dye, suggesting they were changed to match the linen during a repair.
'I concluded that area of the shroud was manipulated by someone with great skill.
'It consisted of different materials than were used in the shroud itself, so the age we produced was inaccurate. We're darned sure that part of the cloth was not the original shroud of Turin cloth.
'The radiocarbon sample has completely different chemical properties from the main part of the shroud relic.'
The 1988 study was coordinated by the British Museum and involved scientists from Oxford University, the U.S. and Switzerland.
The three institutions worked independently but each concluded the sheet dated to between 1260 and 1390.
Even the then cardinal of Turin conceded the relic was a hoax, as did Dr Rogers.
On video he admitted it was 'embarrassing' to have come to agree with those who had vigorously defended its authenticity.
Last week, evidence was published that the shroud had been secretly guarded by the Knights Templar following the sacking of Byzantium, now Istanbul, in 1204, until it resurfaced in Lirey, France, 150 years later.
The cloth is kept in the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist in Turin and will be next publicly displayed in 2010.
Dr Rogers's video will be broadcast tomorrow in The Turin Shroud: New Evidence at 8pm on the Discovery Channel.
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Originally Posted by Loki
That is one of my major reservations about religion, and probably the main reason why there are so many religions and sects.
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