SiTU MUSEUM OF MYSTERIES

THE SHROUD OF TURIN

The image on the shroud is much clearer in black-and-white negative than in its natural sepia color, and this negative image was first observed in 1898 on the reverse photographic plate of amateur photographer Secondo Pia, who was allowed to photograph it while it was being exhibited. A variety of methods have been proposed for the formation of the image, but the actual method used has not yet been conclusively identified. Despite numerous investigations and tests, the status of the Shroud of Turin remains murky, and the nature of the image and how it was fixed on the cloth remains puzzling.[11] The shroud continues to be both intensely studied and controversial.[12][5][13]

Many christian believers accept the authenticity of the Shroud. This linen was used during Christs funeral and his dead body made an imprint, still unexplained.

To end a lot of debate the Church decided to cut of some small parts of the cloth. The fragments were send to different laboratories for carbon-dating. This a globally accepted method to date organic matter. One problem: the determined matter is burned in the process.

The results were anonymous. The cloth was about 800 years old, woven around 1100 ad. If this was correct, the cloth was not the shroud of Jesus.

X-ray survey show us a male person, whose face looks like the face you see in Byzantine Art from that period. His crucifixion-wounds are clearly to be seen, so are blood-patterns as a result from the torture.

But the image gives us other information. If this was Jesus, he was over 1.80 meters tall, which is considerable larger, as the average Jew (20 – 30 centimeters).

Strangely enough, nowhere in the Bible and other scriptures nothing is said about the extreme height of the Messiah. An explosive argument in the debate, that is still going on.

The Turin-clergy is back to “things as usual”. At certain moments they show the shroud to the pilgrims, who worship it as “the Shroud of Jesus Christ”.