The Shroud of Turin is one of the most studied and hotly debated artifacts in history.
Some believe this is the burial cloth wrapped around Jesus after the crucifixion, its authenticity has divided scholars and scholars for decades.
Although radiocarbon dating in the 1980s pointed to a medieval origin, some researchers have argued that other evidence on the linen, including the bloodstains, tells a different story.
Critics have also wondered why the mysterious image of a crucified man was never mentioned in the Bible when the disciples discovered linen in the empty tomb.
Now a new op-ed has suggested that the image may have been invisible initially and only later arise due to natural aging or exposure to heat.
Immunologist Dr. Kelly Kearse, who has has studied the Shroud extensivelycited experiments showing that low radiation can change linen without immediately discoloring it, leaving an image visible only after the material has aged or heated.
More powerful laser pulses caused immediate staining but damaged or evaporated blood spots, while weaker pulses left the blood largely intact and created a latent image that emerged later.
Kearse argued that this could explain both the Shroud’s apparently intact bloodstains and the Bible’s inability to mention any visible image, although he acknowledged that the theory remains hypothetical.
Critics have also wondered why the mysterious image of a crucified man was never mentioned in the Bible when the disciples discovered linen in the empty tomb.
Some believe that the 4-meter-long Shroud of Turin wrapped Jesus’ body after the crucifixion. bears the faint, blood-stained image of a man with his arms folded in front of him.
The Bible describes linen cloths lying in the empty tomb next to a separate folded washcloth, but makes no mention of an image of Jesus’ face or body.
Researchers have offered several explanations for the formation of the image, including that it was created by an artist, was caused by a natural chemical reaction, or was imprinted by a burst of radiant energy.
The radiant energy hypothesis is popular among some proponents of the Shroud’s authenticity, but scientists have not established that such energy created the image, or identified where it might have come from.
The theory suggests that the image would have formed almost immediately. But if it appeared immediately, why did the Bible never mention an image on the burial cloth?
Skeptics say that omission supports the argument that the Shroud was made centuries later.
That view was reinforced by tests conducted in three laboratories in 1988 that dated the sampled material to between 1260 and 1390.
Some researchers have questioned these results because the samples all came from a small area of the cloth and produced variations that seemed to correspond to the distance from the edge.
The shroud first appeared in France in 1354. The Church has treated it as an object of devotion, but has not officially recognized it as the burial cloth of Jesus. In the photo, the burial cloth was on display in Turin’s cathedral for the first time in twenty years in 1998
They claim that the strip tested may not have represented the entire Shroud.
However, the new paper, published Aug. 12 in the Journal of Historical Archeology & Anthropological Sciences, considered another possibility: The image may have been invisible at first before gradually appearing as the cloth aged or was exposed to heat.
Kearse noted that Samuel Pellicori, a member of the scientific team that examined the shroud for five days in 1978, was the first to suggest that the image may have emerged later.
Pellicori proposed that natural substances from the body, such as skin oils or funeral ointments, were transferred to the linen and slowly discolored the fibers.
This process is known as ‘latent staining’. The changes necessary to create the image begin immediately, but the image does not become visible until the fabric ages or is exposed to heat.
Scientist Ray Rogers, who also took part in the 1978 study, suggested that a natural chemical reaction between substances from the body and the fabric could have produced the image.
He recreated linen fibers that resembled those on the shroud and also believed that the image had developed gradually.
Kearse pointed out another unusual feature of the shroud: the image rests only on the top surface of the linen, affecting the top two or three fibers of the threads.
Each fiber is about ten times thinner than a human hair, making the image extremely superficial.
The Shroud of Turin Research Project (STURP) team used X-rays, ultraviolet and infrared photography, chemical analyzes and microscopic tests to study the fibers, stains and image of the fabric (photo)
Scientists previously used extremely short ultraviolet laser pulses to mimic some of the superficial discoloration seen on the shroud on pieces of linen.
The experiments reproduced certain physical characteristics of the markings, rather than the full body image of the Shroud.
When researchers used pulses powerful enough to produce an instantly visible mark, the energy damaged or vaporized blood spots placed on the fabric.
That posed a problem for energy theory, because the Shroud’s bloodstains appear to have survived without suffering comparable damage.
If the cloth actually covered Jesus, Kearse argued, the blood would have been transferred to the linen before the body image had formed.
Any burst of energy responsible for creating that image should therefore have discolored the exposed linen without destroying the blood that already covered parts of it.
Researchers found that the blood was left relatively unharmed only when they lowered the laser energy to much weaker levels.
Those weaker pulses changed the linen, but did not produce an immediately visible image.
Instead, the discoloration became visible after the material was heated or aged naturally.
Later experiments with both blood and serum yielded similar findings, according to Kearse.
Even some of the weaker laser settings disrupted the spots, while only the lowest levels left the blood seemingly undamaged.
Kearse argued that the results supported a possible sequence of events: blood first reached the burial cloth, a weak burst of energy then changed the exposed fibers, and the resulting body image appeared some time later.
That scenario could explain why the statue did not destroy the bloodstains and why the disciples might have seen only apparently blank linens in the tomb.
However, Kearse acknowledged that the evidence was circumstantial and did not prove that radiation formed the image of the Shroud.
The experiments were conducted on modern linen samples rather than on the shroud itself, and researchers still don’t know what caused the mysterious markings.
Kearse also said it was impossible to determine exactly when a dormant image might have become visible.
Natural, chemical or artistic explanations remain possible, and the proposed delayed imaging process would require further experimental evidence.
The findings did not show that the shroud covered Jesus and that radiation created his image or that the markings developed after the cloth was removed from the grave.
Kearse described the proposed sequence as hypothetical and said further evidence would be needed to show how and when the image was formed.
