PART ONE Robert Rucker has used the remarkable computing power of Monte Carlo N-Particle software to calculate the enrichment of radiocarbon that would ensue in a shroud, given a simple model man-in-a-tomb, a uniform generation of neutrons within the man, and just enough to produce a radiocarbon date 1400 years ahead of the cloth’s actual […]
Did dragons exist? I mean real dragons, those huge flying fire-breathing monsters we read of in History and Fable, not the lumbering Komodo of Indonesia. Some years ago, an enchanting book by Peter Dickinson1 explored the possibility pseudo-scientifically, beginning with the aerodynamic problem of how such a huge animal could fly. His solution was that […]
Fr Maurus Green wrote a scholarly article for the Ampleforth Journal in 1969, before too much emphasis became placed on the scientific analysis of the Shroud, called “Enshrouded in Silence,” in which he mentioned the ‘Mozarabic Rite,’ and quoted a short extract from it. “Others, like the author of the seventh century Mozarabic rite, simply […]
According to the paper by Joseph Kohlbeck and Eugenia Nitowski published in Biblical Archaeology Review in 1986, “further analysis was conducted by Dr. Riccardo Levi-Setti of the Enrico Fermi Institute of the University of Chicago who put both shroud and Jerusalem samples through his high-resolution scanning ion microprobe and produced graphs; these graphs revealed that […]
I’ve been criticised, over the years, for assiduously pointing out the mistakes (and occasional deceptions), of authenticist popularists, but rarely if ever reviewing the podcasts and videos of those who think the Shroud is medieval. There are several reasons for that. Firstly, those who pontificate about authenticity are nearly always either proclaimed, or self-proclaimed, experts. […]
About the middle of June 2022, a podcast called ‘The Gracious Guest,’ hosted by Mike Creavey, invited Joe Marino to come in and answer the question, “How Old is the Shroud???” (Yup, three question marks). A good half of the interview is devoted to persistent insinuation that the radiocarbon dating of the Shroud was a […]
Many years ago an enthusiastic sindonologist decided that he thought he could see teeth on the image on the Shroud of Turin. The earliest report I can find is from Shroud News, of September 1982, relaying an article in the Sidney Daily Telegraph, itself based on something which appeared in the USA a little earlier. […]
The Sudarium of Oviedo, Signs of Jesus Christ’s Death, by César Barta. A Selective Review. To demonstrate that the Sudarium of Oviedo is the companion to the Shroud of Turin, and that both are described in the Gospel of St John, several pieces of evidence might be adduced, and a new book by Cesar Barta […]
Frankly, I’m a little surprised that the news that the Shroud has at last been definitively proven to be from the time of Christ has received considerably less publicity than the discovery that it is actually a tablecloth made in Burton-on-Trent, or the idea that Jesus didn’t die from crucifixion, but by rupturing blood vessels […]
Popular commenters on the Shroud invariably mention the 1978 investigations carried out by the STuRP team, but usually forget that an earlier scientific investigation had already been carried out by an Italian Commission, with almost contradictory results. One reason for this is the difficulty of obtaining much detailed information regarding the earlier report, which seems […]