Why an Atheist Thinks the Shroud of Turin is the Real Deal

Several years earlier,

Cotton

Several years earlier, a textile expert, Gilbert Raes (for whom the Raes corner is named), had been permitted to cut away a small fragment of the shroud. In it he found cotton fibers.  Rogers confirmed the existence of embedded cotton fibers and noted that such cotton fibers are not found in other samples from anywhere else on the shroud. Cotton fibers were sometimes incorporated into linen threads during later medieval times, but not earlier, and not even as early as the carbon 14 range of dates. This, along with the dyestuff, suggested some sort of alteration or disguised mending.

Rogers also noted that fibers in the Raes material contained less lignin than the rest of the shroud. Lignin is a chemical compound found in plant material including flax, the plant from which linen fibers are sourced. The most plausible explanation for this difference was that material in this area contained threads that had been bleached more efficiently. It was already known from the shroud’s faint variegated appearance that the shroud’s thread was probably bleached before weaving, probably with potash. This is not an exacting method and thus some hanks of yarn were whiter than others. As the cloth aged and naturally yellowed, the variegation became more pronounced, as can be seen in contrast-enhanced photographs. This form of ancient bleaching removed very little lignin.

Arguably, from a historical point of view (but not a scientific one) the linen cloth used for the shroud was not produced in medieval Europe. Even by the timeframe suggested by the radiocarbon dating, linen was “field bleached” after weaving. And it removed most of the lignin.