Two new investigations have been conducted to investigate the authenticity of the famed Shroud of Turin.
The first was an initiative begun by the Association of Scientists and Scholars International for the Shroud of Turin (ASSIST), which aims to determine if limestone particles found on the Shroud came from a Jerusalem tomb or from another location. Using detailed collection protocols from ASSIST, ABR's Dr. Wood and Dr. Scott Stripling, along with Abigail Leavitt and Kent Wegner, obtained limestone particles using acid-free tape from the walls, benches and floors of the tomb complex beneath École Biblique in east Jerusalem. These tombs are less than one km away from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where the body of Jesus was likely entombed. The specimens are currently beginning to be tested.
The second investigation was recently reported in the journal PLOS ONE, in which the authors conducted an atomic resolution study on a fiber from the Shroud of Turin using Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and Wide-Angle X-ray Scanning (WAXS). Their study showed that the fiber is covered by a "blood serum typical of a human organism" and not dye or paint. Moreover, the particles contained a high level of creatinine and ferritin, which is common in patients who have suffered trauma or torture. The researchers concluded, "the presence of these biological nanoparticles found during our TEM experiments point to a violent death for the man wrapped in the Turin shroud."
Limestone Testing Links:
- http://www.biblearchaeology.org/post/2017/05/30/ABR-Researches-Jerusalem-Tombs-for-the-Shroud-of-Turin-Project.aspx
- http://tbts.info/episodes/1579
Blood Testing Links:
- http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0180487
- http://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/cwn/2017/july/new-evidence-blood-of-tortured-man-is-found-on-the-shroud-of-turin