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Spirituality

Turin Shroud DNA analysis results surprising

By T.K. Randall
October 20, 2015 · Comment icon 54 comments

The shroud is believed by many to be the burial cloth of Jesus. Image Credit: CC 3.0 Mogadir
An analysis of dust particles retrieved from the shroud has uncovered plant DNA from all over the world.
The mysterious Turin Shroud, which is believed by many to be the actual burial cloth of Jesus himself, has long been the subject of intense scrutiny, controversy and debate.

Now in a renewed bid to better understand the shroud's history, scientists have been conducting a DNA analysis on particles of dust and pollen collected from its surface in an attempt to determine where the relic might have been over the last two thousand years.

The results were somewhat surprising and suggested that the shroud had been all over the world.
"Among the plant species of the New World, black locust, a tree of the family Fabaceae native to Appalachia in the Eastern United States, is notable," said Dr Gianni Barcaccia.

"In addition, we identified crop species largely grown by farmers and common in many agriculture systems of the Old World, including chicory, common hop, cucumber and grapevine."

The researchers believe that the shroud may have been originally produced in India before making its way to several countries including Italy, Turkey and even the Americas.

It is also possible that the samples of pollen found on it may have come from visitors who had traveled long distances to view the relic in person.

Source: Yahoo! News | Comments (54)




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Recent comments on this story
Comment icon #45 Posted by davros of skaro 9 years ago
We migh as well talk about the Shroud of the Pig that had the forethought to build a Brick House.
Comment icon #46 Posted by stereologist 9 years ago
No one's arguing that the patch-repairs had samples taken from them. That would be obvious. And, not to assault the credentials of the researchers, but for the variables they took into account, they left pretty glaring ones. Apart from testing fibers that later turned out to be made of the wrong material, they offered no control to test the Turin Shroud against. So for all they put into elaborate cleaning methods to isolate the "original" fibers, they had nothing of a similar make and known age to measure the Shroud against. So even if they were able to properly scrub the fibers to their base,... [More]
Comment icon #47 Posted by stereologist 9 years ago
Here is another article pointing out the limitations of the method of Rogers http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_shro7.htm Rogers said: "As unlikely as it seems, the sample used to test the age of the shroud in 1988 was taken from a rewoven area of the shroud. Indeed, the patch was very carefully made. The yarn has the same twist as the main part of the cloth, and it was stained to match the color." Rogers ran a test and did not see something happen. Instead of trying other methods Rogers simply decided that he did not make a mistake, or that the material had not been bleached, or that his g... [More]
Comment icon #48 Posted by stereologist 9 years ago
The no sample issue is interesting. As I mentioned before many seemingly valuable materials are tested and often in a destructive manner. I have learned that over time the shroud experienced fire and was boiled in water and possibly boiled in oil. http://llanoestacado.org/freeinquiry/skeptic/shroud/articles/rogers-ta-response.htm As is well known from historical sources, the Shroud has been exposed to several fires, boiled in water, and perhaps even boiled in oil. The boiling treatments were used by skeptical individuals in a pre-scientific age to test the authenticity of the Shroud and other ... [More]
Comment icon #49 Posted by fullywired 9 years ago
.Veil of Veronica , . . Ha yes, The Veil of Veronica.as Jimmy Durante use to say “Everybody wants ta get inta da act") . .
Comment icon #50 Posted by Magnanimus 9 years ago
Can you please provide the evidence that "fibers that later turned out to be made of the wrong material." I simply find that hard to believe since the material was carefully inspected under a microscope. ... You claim that "they offered no control to test the Turin Shroud against." That is false. Other materials were also carbon dated using the same methods employed on the shroud. Despite using different cleaning methods the dates obtained by the dating method were in agreement. So now you want to argue that the object should not have been sampled. That's nothing I am interested in discussing.... [More]
Comment icon #51 Posted by DieChecker 9 years ago
The strip removed from the Shroud was not part of a repair. Care was taken to avoid the patches and the charred area where the linen had been damaged. What I've heard was that it was not part of a Known repair. Also that the length of interweaving done to the known repair is not known. So that medieval fibers might have been in-woven with earlier fibers, throwing off the C-14 date. People have tried to say there was fungus or pollen on the shroud. That would have been visible during the microscopic examination. So why are we so sure that they did this correctly in 1988? Later scientists didn't... [More]
Comment icon #52 Posted by Codenwarra 8 years ago
1. The claims that all the samples and subsamples contained exactly the right proportion of modern or more recent mending threads in combination with ~2000 year old material to give the same mediaeval results (within the margins of error of C14 dating,) in a number of laboratories are just too improbable. 2. Reference samples were taken from the Cope of Saint Louis who was a medieval French king, some more modern cloth and cloth otherwise know to be about 2000 years old. These dated correctly. 2. The cloth was sampled under the supervision of clergy, whom you might expect to be pleased if the ... [More]
Comment icon #53 Posted by Hammerclaw 8 years ago
Catholicism has it's Holy Relics, Islam has it's Shrines to Rocks and Stones and Buddhism has a Million Idols for it's Religion without a God. What fools these mortals be.
Comment icon #54 Posted by DieChecker 8 years ago
1. The claims that all the samples and subsamples contained exactly the right proportion of modern or more recent mending threads in combination with ~2000 year old material to give the same mediaeval results (within the margins of error of C14 dating,) in a number of laboratories are just too improbable. If you look at the actual test results, it shows the test cloth was cut into four large pieces and each then was cut into smaller pieces and sent to various labs for testing. So each strip that was cut into smaller strips came out very close in dates. And one strip tested at near 2000.


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