This is the continuation of Capter 14 from the book 'And did those feet' which locates the tomb of Jesus and Joseph of Arimathea.
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With an ordinary optical microscope, it can be seen that most of the thread fibres have extraneous deposits that cover their surface. These coatings may be composed of micro-organisms (bacteria and fungi) and non-cellular heterogeneous materials. It would seem that the colouring that formed the image is mostly organic in nature and was deposited as exo-polymers by the evaporated cedar oil and by bacteria that invaded the textile fibres over time by being in solution for a minimum of six hundred years and probably some of these fibres were later affected by Fungi as it was removed from the body and put aside in the tomb.
The reason for giving this date when the ‘doubled fasciola’ might have been removed from Jesus’ body, is due to Melkin’s description of the Shroud. Unless it was unwrapped from Jesus’s body, he would not know that there was an outline beneath the body and this resinous coating must have had time to dry before smudging occurred. It would seem that Melkin could have been responsible for removing it and leaving it folded in the vault still covered in oil as it steadily evaporated. This would explain the slight imprint of the face on the rear side of the shroud as it would have been folded as it was when covering the body. The first fold evident in the middle and as the resinous oil evaporated, the imprint from the microbial detritus opposite, left a faint impression. This imprint would of course be more pronounced if the first fold that doubled the cloth was eventually placed at the bottom of the rest of the folded shroud. This would have meant that this area would have remained soaked longer being underneath, as over the years the oil gradually evaporated and dried this bottom layer was soaked and weighted giving rise to the faint facial imprint. There is also reason for Melkin removing the shroud as it was noted that the nose and knee area show signs of dirt and this might have been caused by the gradual evaporation from the Grail ark over the six centuries while dust from the tin vault gradually soiled the exposed protruding areas. Alternatively though,these two areas could have protruded at times above the surface of the oil where there may have been floating debris initially.
The Shroud has been expertly reviewed by many scientists and since 1988 have produced carbon 14 results that conclude the shroud to be from the fourteenth century, but they have not taken into account the microbial residue that pervades much of the textile structure and how it got there. It is these bacterial infestations that form part of the superficial coatings and it is the density of deposit that actually define the image.
It is not only scientists but archaeologists and scholars, who are naturally sceptical about any relic purporting to be older than they can establish without an historical footprint. In medieval Europe, fake relics abounded, but none that can defy modern science and withstand such scrutiny as the shroud has undergone. Scientists have been struggling with how the image on the Shroud was formed, and how old the linen cloth is, for the past forty years. It would appear that their answers depend more on the prejudices of the scientists than they do on the scientific data itself, if the mode of manufacture is factored into the resulting conclusions.
The official statement from the Shroud of Turin Research Project (SRuRP) at the end of their extensive analysis says: "We can conclude for now that the Shroud image is that of a real human form of a scourged, crucified man. It is not the product of an artist. The bloodstains are composed of haemoglobin and also give a positive test for serum albumin. The image is an ongoing mystery and until further chemical studies are made, perhaps by this group of scientists, or perhaps by some scientists in the future, the problem remains unsolved."
Well those futuristic scientists stated that the cloth is medieval because they could not isolate a fibril of the shroud without impregnation of microbial carbon deposits that gives an erroneous C14 date for the cloth.
The Turin Shroud is not the product of an artist and exhibits no apparent brush strokes, and it exhibits no evidence of layering which shows that the image was formed as part of one process. In recent tests on samples, they found micro-colonial black Fungi and Bacteria. Some of these formed filamentous structures that surrounded the fibres, or pervaded their internal structure. the individual fibres of the cloth are surrounded by a bioplastic coating and this bioplastic coating will have been formed from ‘terpenes’ that constitute the resinous cedar oil.
It is significant to note that the biopolymer coating can in certain samples make up the most substantial portion of the fibril being tested and if a liquid medium had been considered this would have provided a good starting point from which to conduct scientific analysis. The pervasiveness of a now evaporated fine oil that has formed into a resinous film over and through the fibrils is the cause for the Shrouds opaque colour. The oils capacity when as a liquid, to transfer micro-bacterial material to the core of the flax sample would assuredly alter any Carbon 14 data, even with the most rigorous cleaning process. The cleaning process used by radiocarbon labs was duplicated by one lot of experts even increasing the strength of the regular cleaning solution. This process had absolutely no effect on the bio-polymeric coating but instead dissolved some of the flax cellulose which goes to show the resilience of this resinous residue and how the cloth itself cannot be accurately dated by this method . This resulted in less C14 being obtained from the shroud itself and even more from the contaminating bio-plastic varnish, thus not really measuring the age of the cloth. The particles of residual bacteria that were suspended in the solution has been the cause of the darkened colouration that forms the outline image as it settled in place and became part of the bio-plastic varnish as it encrusted with differing quantities of residue that forms the shading of the image.
The anaerobic bacteria deposits in the coating obtained some of their sustenance from carbon dioxide and they would have introduced additional carbon 14 to the cloth giving an erroneous date for the fibrils. Science needs to prove conclusively the C.14 date of the cloth alone without contamination to prove the Shroud is 2000 years old. After all unless one can isolate a pure fibril one is not going to get a accurate Carbon 14 result for that fibril. As all fibrils are contaminated with the plastic residue from the oil which also have locked in microbial residue one can dismiss the C. 14 results as indeterminate for the cloths date.
The main stumbling block to any scientific analysis is a preconception and since the Shroud has no history as a religious relic prior to 1357AD this might have a bearing on the results that have been produced so far. How the tests are conducted or how the results might be viewed are always more conclusive given a viable explanation. The results of Shroud testing would of course be more accurate if a credible theory were put forward to which the results could be married. As we now know the provenance of the shroud and the fact that it was submerged in oil in a dark sarcophagus for at least 600 years, and possibly rested in there until December the 25th 1307 before it saw daylight; we can be sure the next analysis will be more circumspect.
If one was still to believe that the Shroud had not come from the vault on Burgh Island and the negative image of Jesus had not been formed over time in a solution; it would take an incredibly adept artist to create the shroud with the amount of scrutiny that has been afforded to it. Apart from the fact that the Shroud has no historical footprint before 1350, the other main reason put forward for it being a fake is that some critics say that one cannot drape a three-dimensional object with a piece of cloth and get the same proportions. This is fairly obvious but the shroud does not present us with a wrapped image, but the image is shaded to give three dimensional representation. The hair each side of the face is exactly as one would expect of a cloth gently suspended in oil over the top of the body. It gives the correct representation on the reverse as representive of a back and legs where parts of the body do not touch the cloth. The main contention is that the 7-8” as measured from ear to ear across the face becoming 11-12” as measured on cloth wrapped around the face from ear to ear. Apart from the hair of which the volume was of an unknown quantity, the three dimensional quality is given by shading and the argument that the shroud if it were genuine, could only have been formed as a wrapped cloth is erroneous. This argument assumes it was touching all parts of the body which we know it was not, as it was formed in a fluid while being suspended.
The clever way that the shroud is said to have been formed by chemical reaction by a ‘camera obscura’ would leave chemical residue which is not detected. This is quite a ridiculous theory as the image is made up from the coloration of particles that have been encrusted in dried cedar oil residue and this encapsulated the blood particles beneath this outer layer of the fibril. A difficult result to match from a ‘camera obscura’ method! The fact that Leonardo da Vinci is implicated as the fraudster is also quite preposterous as he was not born when it was first shown and not even he would think about incorporating pollen grains from the dead sea area and including the imprint of flowers. What needs to be understood about Leonardo is he detested religion and those that peddled it but he understood Jesus’ divinity and this is exemplified in his paintings, but he would not deign to forge such a sacred object. The forger theory still persists based upon the dates of the C.14 results but it is this date parameter of 1260-1390 given by science that has forced this conclusion.
A forger would have to have knowledge to paint the bloodstains before applying the image material because at the microscopic level, the cedar residue and anaerobic micro-bacterial residue that it leaves, cover the blood stains in the fibres. The obvious reason for this is that the blood soaked into the shroud by capillary action before the microbial deposit and encrustation of the resin occurred. Research has shown that there is no underlying image present under the blood spots and the blood shows under UV light a serum-separation which is visible as a halo. This is comprised of a serum retraction ring of albumin around the solid parts of the blood and this is typical for post-mortem blood. This halo is not visible with the naked eye and this reaction was not known until recently, so a forger would have had to use a dead body.
A hoaxer would have to have an amazing talent to give the three dimensional effect and also have the ability to think in negative. The Shroud was obviously formed in the Grail Ark by the laying down of detritus entrapped in the fibres of the shroud as it was suspended in Cedar oil. The Shrouds suspension as it settled over the face can clearly be seen on a ‘V.P 8 Analizer’ computer image. Not only would our clever artist be painting this image with some unknown micro-bacterial medium using an unknown technique, he would have to stand back 20 or 30 feet away to check his work in order to construct the ghost like image that is barely perceptible in the positive on the ivory coloured cloth. Not only would he have to overcome working at a distance if working in the conventional artistic approach but he would have to match anatomically both sides exactly. Those who contest that the body is not anatomically correct should understand the the body of Jesus underwent the most horrendous abuse that would have caused swelling. Who except Melkin had ever stated that Jesus’ shroud was doubled over his head in one piece, because to fabricate this match is difficult without a body, but the forger would have to know of Melkin’s description. This basically would need a crucified victim to carry out the plot and would seem a bit excessive for a one off hoax and if this were the intention why construct it in barely perceptible negative and on a ‘doubled fasciola’, if no-one else knew of this description.
Photograph by G. Enrie, 1933
Figure48 Showing on the left the Sepia coloured shroud impregnated with Cedar oil residue giving a Negative image as a positive product and on the right the photographic image, the positive of the naturally formed negative.
Not only would this supposed artistic genius have to have forensic knowledge of blood flow patterns to match blood flow from the wrists at 65° from vertical, which concurs with the crucifixion position of the arms, but we would have to accept that our artistic forger is a pathologist and took into account the lesser secondary smaller blood flow angle that would have been created as Jesus tried to pull himself up to alleviate his breathing difficulty.
Someone who is able to reconstruct the position of the arms in such a way as to place them where they would have to account for gravity and direction of the blood flow that are seen on the shroud, would have to have a genuine crucified victim. Our forger would also have to show the blood flows with genuine group AB blood confirmed by the presence of porphyrins, bile pigments and serum albumin. This is obviously a ludicrous assumption as an artistic endeavour, as the artist would have had to deny forensic science the ability to uncover his method, which is why no artistic method has been found. Realistically if Melkin is the only person who has mentioned this doubled cloth and no-one has ever understood his meaning of ‘Duo fassula’, would it not be simpler to do a one sided image if one was just aiming at artistic intent. Basically, it would be pointless to match an unknown description of a doubled shroud and therefore this adds credibility to the Shroud as genuine. The Shroud is quite simply not a fake but the real burial cloth of Jesus and not some medieval custom Crucifixion for the sake of a hoax. How could a hoaxer know to match Melkin’s description of something that actually existed and was recorded in an obscure British puzzle.
For the sceptic, the Shroud will remain a fake until science can confirm our proposed method of manufacture and then undoubtedly the concurring carbon 14 results will follow. The proof that it is the genuine death shroud of Jesus will only come when its previously unknown history is established at the unveiling of the tomb.
How could any artist have the foresight to duplicate abrasion marks on the knee and compression marks on the shoulders to coincide with the carrying of the cross to Cavalry. Did he really go into such ‘minutae’ to overcome 21st century scrutiny, to consider duping any investigator into thinking that the man portrayed had carried a heavy weight following the scourging? From the image on the Shroud we can see signs of beating about the face, swelling under the eye and clumps of his beard having been ripped from Jesus’ face, which shows incredible attention to detail for any medieval forger.
In all medieval representations of Jesus on the cross, the nails go through the hands, yet in the Shroud they go through the wrists which concurs with modern archaeological findings of crucified victims from that area, during that Roman period. Even if the fraudulent artist did not have his own crucified victim, he would even have to possess knowledge that Jesus’s thumbs needed to rotate inwards, because the nail had passed through the Median nerve and because of this there is what seems to be a thumb shadow on the shroud that has led some investigators to think that the image must convey some x-ray qualities.This just shows that there was no detritus in solution where the thumb under the palm was resting. There is too much detail for the supposed artist to consider without being uncovered if this were in anyway a fraudulent endeavour. The chance of an artist not only creating but matching an anatomically correct outline of a man on a shroud with no uncovered artistic method is too improbable under modern scientific scrutiny. The fact that the same piece of cloth is said to have existed by Melkin in the Dark ages with the body of that same man that science dictates that it pretends to portray and was witnessed to be in a tomb that no-one knew existed, seems more than a little coincidental. The many scientists will concur that this is the shroud when the body that formed the image is unveiled and matches anatomically, but not to have one scientist propose that it was formed in a liquid seems astounding for the most investigated article on earth. How else could one get the fibrils covered with the encrusted residue to give the overall sepia colouration.
There has been considerable speculation that the image of the Shroud was somehow painted because of traces of Iron oxide used in many artistic pigments, but there seems to be no correlation between concentrations of iron oxide particles and the varying densities of the image and would more likely be explained by the oxidisation of the spearhead or crucifixion nails that may have been enclosed within the Grail Ark. What really negated the pigment theory was that during scientific chemical analysis, it was discovered that unlike artist’s pigment which contains iron oxide often mixed with nickel, cobalt and manganese, the iron oxide examined on the shroud was nearly pure and widespread over the samples as opposed to being more concentrated on the image. This tends to indicate it was dispersed while in solution from metallic objects within the Grail Ark.
Again if this were a fake, the supposed artist seems to have had amazing palynological knowledge to match plant spores and microscopic pollen, but to incorporate not only flowers into the shroud that are only indigenous to the region of the Dead Sea, seems too full of foresight to stay ahead of scientific analysis. The flowers that were placed into the Grail Ark by those closest to Jesus that have left their imprint on the shroud, seems to be a bold move by the artistic hoaxer straying from the orthodox script of the Gospel accounts.
Zygophyllum dumosum Boiss, one identified plant imprint on the shroud grows only in Israel, Jordan, and Sinai; its appearance helps to definitively limit the shroud’s place of origin as these flowers would have been placed in the Grail ark before the oil and before the Ark was sealed before starting its journey westward. Pollen grains from Gundelia tournefortii also found on the Shroud particularly found in the arid areas of Syria, Palestine and Jordan seem conclusively to evidence its area of origin and this locale was surely not known for its scientifically verifiable fabrication of religious relics.
Faint imprints of indigenous flowers were found around the head area on the cloth and were placed over Jesus’ body by Mary Magdalene and others that loved him and had witnessed his cruel murder. The shroud is a physical record of the most heinous travesty of Justice and those that loved him were not going to witness any further abuse of this innocent man and so removed the body from Jerusalem.
The Flowers remained within the oil to eventually leave their imprint and microscopic pollen grains found embedded in the cloth were from plants endemic to regions around the Dead Sea. Many of the air-born pollen grains would have been deposited before the oil was added to the Ark. Is it unlikely that a forger would know that this could all be scientifically discovered 700 years after the supposed hoax. The shroud contains pollen grains from 58 species of plants, 17 indigenous to Europe where the artefact has been for 7 centuries since Geoffrey De Charney removed the Shroud from the vault. The majority are indigenous plants to the Holy land some exclusively, to the area of the Dead Sea, including, Artemisia herba-alba, Onosma syriacum and Nyoscyamus aureus but when pollen is found from the plants indigenous to Devon that we can see in figure 40,37 and 34 that blossom around June when the Grail ark was probably delivered, then the sceptic will have his proof of the provenance of the Shroud.
Our artistic genius painted an anatomically and photographically precise human image in photographic negative and all of this, centuries before the science of photography was developed and just to complicate the issue decided to portray both sides anatomically perfect. He then would have had to use micro bacterial deposits with the correct quantities to create the
shading in the appropriate areas in a medium combined with a poly-saccharide caramel to express himself.
The Shroud is the burial cloth of Jesus and with all findings from modern three dimensional computer analyses, biochemistry, medicine, forensic pathology, anatomy and botany, a potential fabricator had to know enough of the effects of crucifixion on the body to avoid detection by all the efforts of modern science. One can scarcely imagine in the early 1300’s an artist who would contemplate waiting until the advent of photography before the full effect of his artistic brilliance would be discovered as this would be modesty in the extreme.
The artistic fabricator also took chances supposedly painting Jesus as a nude. Medieval paintings never depict a nude Jesus as it was accounted sacrilegious and even today, the image of a totally naked Christ would be unacceptable to the very market the supposed fraud is aiming at. On the other hand, a nude body of Jesus conforms to genuine Roman crucifixions as archaeological evidence has shown.
Our Genius fraudster would have to know that Gundelia tournefortii blooms in Israel from February to May around Jerusalem to coincide with these being present at Easter time when the plants were placed on the Shroud just before Jesus’ Grail Ark was transported toward the port of embarkation in Tyre or Sidon. Easter, when Jesus is recorded to have been murdered is a moveable feast day, and the date of Easter is the first Sunday after the full moon i.e. the Paschal Full Moon, following the northern hemisphere's vernal equinox. This is thought to be on March 21 even though the equinox occurs, astronomically on March 20 in most years and the "Full Moon" is not necessarily the astronomically correct date. So the date of Easter differs a whole cycle between March 22 and April 25. Therefore, the brilliance of our fictitious artist would need to be acquainted with the blooming dates for the 30 species he has included to incorporate into the Shroud, in total contradiction to the gospel writers account in which Myrr was said to have been applied to Jesus.
Any medieval artist would have placed the nail marks on the hands if he were fabricating an image of the crucified Jesus just to agree with popular portrayal. This placement of the nail in the wrist depicted on the Shroud goes against medieval artistic convention, as the nails were depicted by every other artist as piercing the hands. Instead the Shroud represents the actual practical position where the nails must be inserted in order for a body to hang on a cross without ripping through the fingers. One wrist bears a large round wound from the piercing spike, the other wrist wound being covered by the top hand but we can assume that the lower one is identical. There is a sign of a wound consistent with an upward gouge in the side penetrating into the thoracic cavity. This Medieval forger’s ability to follow the Gospel account is unrelenting as he also supposedly imitates small punctures around the forehead and scalp from the crown of thorns and scores of linear wounds from a Roman ‘flagrum’ on the torso and legs. Also there is the evidence on the Shroud of swelling around the face from severe beatings and large puncture wounds in the feet as if pierced by a single large spike. What a sacrifice to knowingly endure such atrocities for the sake of mankind! Jesus knew the profound meaning of the Paschal lamb that would ensure the Jews ‘Coming out of Egypt’.
Evidently, it is more fantastic to think that the Shroud could be a fake than to accept that it is the genuine grave cloth from Jesus’s body. If one does come to this conclusion, it is interesting to note however, how accurately the Gospel accounts of events endured at the passion of Jesus, coincide with wounds that have left their imprint on the Shroud. One can really see how brutal the treatment of Jesus was and all because he had understood the Law and the purport of the prophets more perfectly than the religious leaders of that time. One can barely contemplate St. Paul pursuing Jesus’ followers and being a part of the same atrocities, all in the name of religion. What a miraculous conversion he had, but the sad outcome of which was another religion due to contrived eschatology. Formalized religion must cease, but the prophets must be understood in the correct context before the Abrahamic religions no longer find offensive the true purport of the Divine plan. In the future, will witnesses be allowed to be treated with such brutality, as the priest class of religious teachers condoned such violence to Jesus? –The chief priests, self-professed leaders from all the dead religions, which prevent their adherent’s entrance to Heaven and from perceiving the truth behind the divine plan, which is plainly set forth by the prophets.
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