What Chemistry Disproves about the Shroud of Turin?
Please read "What is the chemistry of the image?"
Whereas there is a thin layer of starch and other impurities on individual fibers that make up the threads of Shroud’s cloth . . . since in many places this layer is colorless . . . and because in some places, but only some places, this layer has undergone a chemical change that appears straw-yellow . . . and because it is this straw-yellow color that makes up the image we see on the Shroud . . . therefore we can be certain that the images are . . .
not painted. This is verified by spectrophotometry, fluorescence photography, x-ray fluorescence spectrometry, microscopy, microchemistry, laser microprobe Raman spectrometry, and pyrolysis mass spectrometry. While non-image contaminants of pigments used in paint and dye are found on the surface of the Shroud (as there are many other particles), nowhere on the Shroud is there a sufficient concentration of this material to form a visible image.
not photographic images. The carbohydrate layer is not photosensitive. Thus photosensitive material such as silver nitrate would need to be present. The same tests that confirm that the images are not painted confirm that they are not photographic. Furthermore, analysis of the highlights shows none of the expected directionality evidenced from reflected light.
not produced by scorching heat. The images do not fluoresce giving evidence of the byproducts produced by scorching heat. The is confirmed with fluorescence spectrometry. Furthermore, with scorching, the full diameter, including the medullas (inner core) of linen fiber becomes colored and carbon balls form at the nap tips of loose fibers. Microscopic analysis shows that this is not the case with the fibers in the imaged areas of the Shroud.
Back of Cloth Image
When the Shroud was examined in 1978, the backside of the cloth was not accessible. At that time, the Shroud was sewn to a backing cloth. Now that the backing cloth has been removed, faint imaging of the face and hands have been discovered. This imaging echoes the images on the front. There is no image between the two superficial layers as would be the case if a liquid had soaked through.
When, in the production of ancient linen, the cloth is open-air dried, most of the evaporation concentration of residuals will take place at one surface if it is exposed to sunshine. The backside of the cloth will have a lesser carbohydrate layer.
The fact that there is some imaging on the backside of the cloth makes artistic and photographic methods significantly more implausible. It does, however, lend credence to the possibilities that gaseous amines released by the body reacted with the carbohydrate layers. Some gases would have penetrated through the weave of the cloth and reacted with the backside carbohydrate layer.
Is a miraculous cause ruled out?
Phenomenologically difficult explanations, the various speculative hypotheses of miraculously induced images, are difficult to disprove simply by understanding the chemistry of the images. The various miraculous explanations generally presume a resurrection event in which the body dematerializes or becomes mechanically transparent thus allowing the cloth to fall through the body. The imagining mechanisms presuppose intense flashes of light, bombardment by energetic ionizing-particle radiation, corona discharge, or rare and perhaps unknown energy. And these cannot be ruled out without testing against many variables that cannot be known.
Home Page & Introduction: The Shroud of Turin Story - A Guide to the Facts 2005
© 2004 Daniel R. Porter, Bronxville, New York
