Researcher To Re-examine Radiocarbon Dating of Shroud of Turin

19-08-2008

Colorado Springs, Aug 19, 2008 (CNA).-
The Shroud of Turin Center in Colorado Springs is preparing linen
samples similar to the materials used in the Shroud of Turin in an
attempt to determine whether or not the carbon dating tests of the
shroud could have been skewed by contamination from atmospheric carbon
monoxide.

The Shroud of Turin
is considered by some to bear an image of the face of Jesus Christ.
Made of herring bone linen, the shroud has dimensions of about 4 feet
by 14 feet. It bears faint brown discolorations forming the negative
image of a man. Its positive image, revealed by modern photography,
shows the outline of a bearded man.

Skeptics contend that the shroud is a medieval forgery.

At
a conference sponsored by the Shroud Science Group at Ohio State
University this weekend, the Los Alamos National Laboratory presented
findings that the 1988 test results were flawed because the tested
linen samples may have been from material added to the shroud during
medieval repairs, the Los Angeles Times says.

A
researcher at Oxford University has said he will re-examine the
radiocarbon dating of the Shroud of Turin to determine whether a
previous test which dated the Shroud to the 13th and 14th centuries is
accurate.

Christopher Ramsey,
head of the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, in a statement on his
website said "There is a lot of other evidence that suggests to many
that the shroud is older than the radiocarbon dates allow, and so
further research is certainly needed."

"Only
by doing this will people be able to arrive at a coherent history of
the shroud which takes into account and explains all of the available
scientific and historical information," he continued.

Though
Ramsey has agreed to collaborate with shroud researchers, he said he
does not believe contamination would have had much effect.

The
reexamination of the radiocarbon dating of the shroud has been
advocated by John Jackson, a physics lecturer at the University of
Colorado at Colorado Springs. Jackson, who with his wife Rebecca runs
the Colorado Springs-based Shroud of Turin Center, hypothesizes that
the previous carbon dating test results were skewed by elevated levels
of carbon monoxide.

While he
does not accept the Los Alamos researchers' contention that some
materials in the shroud were added later, John Jackson suggests that
atmospheric carbon monoxide could have contaminated the shroud during
its long history.

John and
Rebecca Jackson say that some evidence, such as the characteristics of
the cloth and the details of the image, suggest a much older origin of
the shroud. At present John is preparing linen samples to be tested for
carbon monoxide contamination, which could be compared to the shroud to
prove or disprove his hypothesis.

"If
we get to the point where we believe we have a viable hypothesis that
works in the lab, then we have scientific grounds to go to Turin and
say, 'Here's what we think has happened to the shroud. These are the
effects we need to look for. Can we please have access?'" said Jackson,
the Los Angeles Times reports.

John
Jackson, 62, is a devout Catholic and a former professor at the Air
Force Weapons Laboratory. He has been interested in the shroud since he
first saw its famous image at the age of 13.

"If
you love Christ, why wouldn't you want to explore the possibility that
you have an artifact of his material existence on Earth?" he said,
according to the Los Angeles Times.

He
added that his faith isn't incompatible with his scientific training:
"How I think about the shroud comes from the shroud. It's not, 'Gee,
I'm a Christian, so I'll force it to be what I want it to be.' That's
not scientific logic."

John's
wife Rebecca, 60, is a convert to Christianity from an Orthodox Jewish
background. She moved to Colorado Springs from Brooklyn, New York after
enlisting in the army. In 1990, while watching a documentary on the
shroud, she began to think the face in the shroud's image looked like
that of her grandfather.

She met John while pursuing her interest in the shroud.

Speaking
to CNA in a Monday phone interview, John Jackson explained that the
hypothesis of carbon monoxide contamination in the shroud has "serious
potential" for upsetting the previous radiocarbon dating of the shroud,
but first it must be determined if the hypothesis has scientific merit.

He
emphasized that the samples he is preparing are not from shroud but
rather are "control linen samples" exposed to conditions similar to
those the shroud is believed to have experienced. This preparation
process, he said, is going to take a "considerable amount of time"
because there are many parameters to the hypothesis.

"We
have to be able to address these various parameters and we have, at the
moment, only one reaction chamber to be able to do all these different
experiments. Any one experiment takes a considerable amount of time to
perform."

Jackson said the
research preparations could move more quickly, but he noted their
progress is relative to the donations the Shroud Center receives.

"It's
going to take months to several years, I would say," he told CNA.
If it is shown that gaseous contamination can affect the carbon dating
of the shroud, Jackson said, the research would have implications for
the radiocarbon community in general.

"It's
important that we bring the radiocarbon community into this project
through Oxford so we are not leaving it just to us to say that the
radiocarbon dating of shroud was in error, if indeed it is, so that
they can be partners in that."

"I believe they're genuinely interested in getting an accurate date of the shroud," he said.

Jackson claimed other linen samples subjected to radiocarbon dating have given misdates as well.

Further,
he repeated that historical and archaeological studies of the shroud
suggest an earlier date, mentioning its Jewish style of weaving and
burial procedure

"The radiocarbon date looks to us like an outlier."

"I'm
very pleased to see the very wide interest in the shroud," he told CNA,
noting the recent Los Angeles Times article on the shroud was listed as
the most viewed and most e-mailed article on the paper's website.

"It
would be meaningful to the world if it is authentic, it would be the
premier archaeological artifact that could take us into the tomb of
Christ, scientifically," he concluded. "Not to replace faith, but to
help us go into the tomb even before Peter and John. That is a really
exciting possibility nearly 2,000 years later."

http://www.ewtn.com/vnews/getstory.asp?number=90511