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Dating Of The Turin Shroad Was Incorrect

April 02, 2002

The researchers were allowed a single chance to examine the Turin Shroud. On April 21, 1988 a small piece, its square being about 7 square centimeters, was cut off from the Shroud under the supervision of Cardinal Anastacio Ballestrero, the Archbishop of Turin, and the invited experts. The sample was divided into smaller fragments, which were sent for analyses to the Laboratories of Radiocarbon Analyses of the Arizona University (USA), Oxford University (Great Britain) and the Zurich Federal Polytechnic Institute (Switzerland). Having processed and averaged the analyses results, the scientists came to the conclusion that the Shroud was made within the period of 1260 - 1390. Nevertheless, Russian scientists are confident that the dating was incorrect. They believe that the western experts have disregarded the complicated history of the Shroud when determining its age.
        
In 1532 the fire broke out in the church of Chambery, where the Shroud was kept. The sacred relic was damaged in the fire - the edges of the Shroud got charred. Later the Shroud was carefully cleaned from dirt and soot and the burned spots were patched. In the 16th century only one method of cloth restoration was at the disposal of medieval specialists. They used to take tatters and wipe the cloth under restoration by hot oil (namely, olive oil, linseed-oil or nut oil). Then the restorers cleaned the cloth with wet fabric, the whole process being repeated over and over again. Russian scientists assume that the Holy Shroud was processed after the fire in this particular way, and the 16th century carbon inevitably penetrated the Shroud cloth, this fact misled the radiocarbon dating in 1988.
        
However, there is another assumption that the Shroud of Turin was processed by vegetable oil. Some documents testify that in 1508 the Shroud was boiled in the linseed-oil to prove its authenticity. Naturally, such processing caused `rejuvenation` of the carbonic content of the cloth, and the preparation of the Shroud cloth fragments for radiocarbon dating employed by the western scientists failed to remove completely the dried linseed-oil from the Shroud cloth.
        
Russian experts carried out calculations and experiments with a variety of linen fabric samples. According to the Russian scientists, the Holy Shroud produced at the beginning of A.D. could have been `rejuvenated` by 1300 years due to penetration of as little as 5-7% of vegetable oil into its cloth, the oil penetration could have possibly happened during the earlier restorations and authenticity tests. It is worth noting that the dry cloth retains no visible traces of oiling.
        
The conclusions of the Russian researchers have confirmed the opinion shared by a lot of western specialists, who believe that the Shroud of Turin should not be studied as an ordinary object, since it has a complicated and incompletely investigated history. Accurate dating requires the development of a unique research program based on the universal expertise.

Informnauka (Informscience) Agency