Formation of the Image on the Shroud of Turin by x-Rays: A New

21 Formation of the Image on the Shroud of Turin by x-Rays: A New Hypothesis G I L E S F. C A R T E R Downloaded by UNIV OF CALIFORNIA SANTA BARBARA on March 21, 2018 | https://pubs.acs.org Publication Date: January 1, 1984 | doi: 10.1021/ba-1984-0205.ch021

Eastern Michigan University, Chemistry Department, Ypsilanti, MI 48197

Intensive study of the Shroud of Turin by previous inves tigators has shown that the image very probably was not formed by painting, dyeing, rubbing, or staining. Indeed no hypothesis satisfactorily explains all attributes of the image, such as its inherent three-dimensional information or its shallow depth. The new hypothesis suggests that x -rays emanated from the elements sodium, silicon, phos phorus, sulfur, chlorine, potassium, and calcium on the surface of the skin. These long-wavelength x-rays, which are easily absorbed by air, apparently account for most attributes of the body-image. Calculations show the x-ray image would be moderately, but not severely, out of focus. Iron, which is present over the entire Shroud in varying concentrations, catalyzes the image formation by x-rays or by scorching.

T

H E

S H R O U D

O F T U R I N

is a unique archaeological object believed by

many to be the burial cloth of Jesus Christ. E v e n apart from its religious significance, the Shroud is extremely important. It has already provided a great deal of information on the process of crucifixion. T h e Shroud is a piece of fine linen, approximately 1.1 m wide and 4.3 m long, bearing the faint, diffused image of a crucified male (Figure 1). T h e linen is in a remarkable state of preservation considering its age (it dates at least from A . D . 1357, when it was first displayed publicly, and possibly dates to the first centrury A . D . ) and its function (used to cover a dead body—most shrouds are rather badly decomposed). Its true age may be determined by carbon-14 dating, but this critically important experiment has not yet been performed.

Description of the Image on the Shroud T h e image on the Shroud of T u r i n is a straw color that penetrates only one or two microfibrils or about 125 μπι of the linen. W h e n one is close 0065-2393/84/0205-0425$06.50/0 © 1984 American Chemical Society

Lambert; Archaeological Chemistry—III Advances in Chemistry; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1984.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY

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Figure 1. The Shroud of Turin: top, front; bottom, dorsal. The positive has a dark beard and moustache and dark blood; the negative has a light beard, etc. (Reproduced with permission. Copyright 1978, Vernon Miller.)


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to the Shroud, the image is difficult to see clearly, but from a distance it becomes fairly clear. Thus the image appears diffuse or somewhat "out of focus." Jackson et al. have demonstrated that the image contains some three-dimensional information (1,2). T h e Shroud also has been stained by blood, body fluids, and water used in 1532 to extinguish a fire in which the Shroud was partly burned and scorched i n certain areas. T h e Downloaded by UNIV OF CALIFORNIA SANTA BARBARA on March 21, 2018 | https://pubs.acs.org Publication Date: January 1, 1984 | doi: 10.1021/ba-1984-0205.ch021

blood stains have been shown by Heller and Adler (3) to be just that— stains caused by contact with blood and body fluids. T h e image on the Shroud, which is the topic of study in this chapter, is separate from the blood stains and was formed on the linen after deposition of the blood stains (3). Heller and Adler (3) state that the image on the Shroud has not been applied by humans by painting, staining, dyeing, or rubbing. T h e quantity of iron oxide present on the Shroud is insufficient to account for the image, and the concentration of iron oxide does not correlate with the image intensity. Heller and Adler's work disproves that the image on the Shroud was caused by iron oxide, as was claimed by M c C r o n e (4-6), or rubbing, as claimed by Nickell (7). Furthermore, the diffuseness of the image, the shallow penetration of the image into the linen thread, and the three-dimensional information contained in the image are additional evidence that the image was not produced by painting, rubbing, dyeing, or staining. Other important features of the Shroud image are the minimal distortion and the presence of vertical striations apparently caused by different intensities of the image on different linen threads. These attributes, as well as the ones discussed above, must be accounted for b y any satisfactory hypothesis of image formation; these attributes of the image are summarized in the box on the next page.

Hypotheses for Image Formation It is not the purpose of this chapter to attempt to disprove the various hypotheses that have been advanced to explain the formation of the image on the Shroud. However, it is appropriate to comment briefly on these hypotheses. 1. Painting.

Insufficient pigments are present to account for the

image; the diffuse character, three-dimensional information, lack of brush strokes, and thin surface coloration of the image make this method highly improbable. 2. Dyeing. T h e color of the image is due to dehydrative oxidation of cellulose according to H e l l e r and Adler (3). N o evidence for dyes has been found on the Shroud; this method of image formation is highly unlikely.



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3. Staining. Most of the comments from the two previous hypotheses apply. This method is highly unlikely to have produced the image. 4. Rubbing. T h e lack of pigment from rubbing essentially rules out this method. It is nearly impossible to prepare a rubbing that would convey three-dimensional information. [Jackson et al. asked police artists to try to duplicate the three-dimensional effect, but they could not do it (2).] N o brush strokes or directionality of the image exist. Pertaining to the four hypotheses, the Shroud of T u r i n contains physiologically correct information that is counter to popular conceptions


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of crucifixion. Nail holes are in the wrist rather than through the hand; blood has run down the arms in two different angles. This information on the Shroud would not likely have been portrayed by a human artist before A . D . 1357. F o r all the above reasons scientists almost unanimously believe that the image on the Shroud was not painted, dyed, rubbed, or stained. 5. Vapor-Phase Reaction. Perhaps the image was formed by the diffusion of gases, particularly ammonia, from sources such as decom posing sweat or blood, and these gases reacted with burial spices or other compounds on the cloth. However, Jackson et al. (2) found the method cannot account for facial details in the three-dimensional information in the image. T h e surface-only characteristic of the image is difficult to account for by a vapor phase, which would permeate the cloth. T h e image would likely be far too diffuse to give the sharpness present in the image. N o spices have been found on the cloth. T h e image of hair is difficult to account for by this hypothesis. This mechanism is unlikely. 6. Physical Contact. T h e image was perhaps formed through d i rect contact with a body covered by decomposed sweat, skin, and the like interacting with other chemicals on the cloth, such as spices. H o w ever, this process would likely cause much distortion in the image and would not produce gradations in intensity (shading) such as found on the Shroud. T h e image is uniformly not very deep into the cloth, and direct contact would not be likely to produce a uniform image to limited depth. T h e intensity of the image would probably be proportional to the pressure on the cloth, but the same approximate intensity exists for frontal and dorsal images. Almost no chemicals are presently on the Shroud. T h e image appears for parts of the body where little or no contact occurred. T h e three-dimensional relief of a direct contact image was found by Jackson et al. (2) to be highly distorted. T h e excellent state of preservation of the linen argues against a centuries-long period of image formation. 7. Scorching with a Hot Statue. Perhaps a statue of a man or a bas-relief (2) was heated, and the cloth was applied to the statue to produce scorching. However, this method is unlikely to produce an image with correct three-dimensional information or an image that is only about 125 μ π ι deep in the linen. Also, the image would be distorted by the bending (drape) of the cloth (8). Experiments have shown that this method would not produce the shading found on the Shroud. T h e resolution of the image is another difficulty for this method, and it would be exceed ingly difficult to obtain the uniformity of image intensities over a large surface. Details, such as the scourge marks covering the body, would be difficult to form by means of a scorch method. 8. High-Intensity Light. Because the image is similar to a scorch, perhaps it was caused by a strong burst of light. H i g h intensities of light are capable of casting images on materials other than photographic film;



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for instance the shadow of a valve wheel occurred on concrete due to the atomic bomb explosion in Hiroshima (9). T h e main difficulty with this hypothesis is the three-dimensional character and diffuseness of the image. Light presumably would be emitted spherically from an array of point sources. This would cause some three-dimensional information (the intensity would decrease laterally on the cloth above a point source because the angular emission, i n photons per degree, is constant, but the number of photons striking the cloth would decrease with distance— see Figure 2). However, the image from light alone would likely be too diffuse. This hypothesis would probably account for the degradation of linen to only a relatively small depth. T h e intensity would be proportional to the distance between the body and the cloth because of geometric dispersion. 9. Corona-Discharge. Perhaps a high potential difference resulted in the emission of ions that were collimated by an electric field (10). Problems with this hypothesis, as outlined by its author, include the following: (1) H o w was the dorsal image generated if the body rested directly on the cloth? (2) W o u l d there be sufficient potential difference between a body and a linen cloth around and about it? (The natural fibers would tend to short out the potential difference.) (3) A n image has not yet been produced by this mechanism.

p

Figure 2.

Geometric attenuation of an image from a point source.

Ρ is the point source of x-rays that emanate spherically. The point A is defined as ground zero; d is the minimum distance between Ρ and the cloth, namely AP. Angles APB, CPD, and EPF are each equal to &. The same number of x-rays would fall on AB as on CD or EF, assuming that none of the x-rays are absorbed by the intervening space (i.e., the space is a vacuum). Therefore, the number of x-rays per centimeter for AB is greater than the x-rays per centimeter for CD, which in turn is greater than the x-rays per centimeter for EF; a is the lateral distance along the cloth, such as AB, AC, AD, or AE. 0


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In conclusion, after a large volume of scientific work on the Shroud of T u r i n no satisfactory mechanism has yet been proposed to account for the formation of the image on the Shroud.

Some Observations of the Image on the Shroud of Turin Downloaded by UNIV OF CALIFORNIA SANTA BARBARA on March 21, 2018 | https://pubs.acs.org Publication Date: January 1, 1984 | doi: 10.1021/ba-1984-0205.ch021

Although direct observation of the Shroud of T u r i n has not been made by the author, many photographs and slides have been studied. Primarily these consist of photographs, including some life-size photographs in the public display on the Shroud prepared by Vernon Miller, the official photographer during the 1978 scientific examination and study of the Shroud. M a n y observers have noted the "too-long" fingers in the Shroud image. T h e fingers are extremely long for a man of 1.73-1.78 m (5'8'5 Ί 0 " ) height (see Figure 3). T h e probability is very small that a man of this height would have such long fingers, yet this remains a possibility (8). Other explanations of the long fingers are that the cloth was moved during image formation or that somehow the image of the fingers was distorted b y having their apparent length increased. However, the hand image does not appear to be distorted i n this manner, so this appears to be a remote possibility. A disease called Marian's syndrome could also cause a person to have unusually long fingers but other parts of the body would be similarly affected; however, the Shroud body is muscular and not slender as is found i n those afflicted with Marian's syndrome, and this explanation seems improbable. A further suggestion is that there was much blood i n the vicinity of the fingers due to the wrist wound and perhaps due to other wounds on the hands. This suggestion can be checked by further study of the Shroud to determine whether the finger images are due primarily to blood or to the phenomenon that caused the other parts of the image on the Shroud. T h e author's suggestion is that the finger images may be due at least in part to x-rays emanating from the bones in the body. Finger bones continue throughout m u c h of the hand, and they could cause the fingers to look too long. In normal bodies, the ratio of the distance from the middle fingertip to the base of the finger divided by the distance from the middle fingertip to the wrist (wound area) is about 0.5. This compares with a ratio of about 0.6 for the image on the Shroud, meaning that the fingers are unusually long and the rest of the hand is grotesquely small. T h e probability for this to have occurred must be small. Close inspection of the fingers on both hands reveals still further interesting information. T h e hand having the visible wrist wound has the tips of the four fingers nearly in a straight line. This is most probably due to the bending of the fingers. As a person cups his or her hand, the fingertips tend to line up. Because this hand probably had its fingers




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Figure 3. Exceptionally long fingers of the body on the Shroud of Turin. (Reproduced with permission. Copyright 1978, Vernon Miller.)


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bent somewhat, the real length of the fingers was somewhat greater than that obtained by directly measuring the Shroud image. This exacerbates the above problem. T h e other hand apparently has the little finger bent away from the cloth more than the other fingers leading to a highly uneven length of fingers on the Shroud image. A second curious part of the Shroud image is the mouth area. Close inspection, particularly of slides from a distance, shows the presence of what appear to be eight or more objects, two rows of four or six (see Figure 4). Perhaps these could be teeth images, but other observers disagree with this assessment. Because the lips probably covered the teeth of the body of the Shroud, any images of teeth may indicate that x-rays have been involved in the formation of the Shroud image (or perhaps the skin decayed and shrank before the image was completely formed). A third observation indicating possible image formation by x-rays is the high, pronounced cheekbones. T h e face is somewhat skull-like, especially in the appearance of the high cheekbones. Part of the backbone may be visible on the dorsal image, but again others have stated that they do not see any bone or teeth images.

x-Ray Hypothesis for Image Formation If moderately strong x-rays emanated from the bones and teeth of this body or if radiation came from surrounding rocks or soil, then some of the x-rays would have been absorbed by elements at the surface of the body, such as sodium, silicon, phosphorus, sulfur, chlorine, potassium, and calcium, as well as carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen, and characteristic x-rays of relatively long wavelengths would be emitted due to an x-ray fluorescence effect. These x-rays, many of which were presumably emitted from the surface of the body, would then have interacted with both air and cellulose. A i r strongly attenuates x-rays of long wavelengths, and even cellulose absorbs a high percentage of soft x-rays in a few micrometers. However, energetic x-rays (short wavelengths) would not be attenuated by air to any appreciable extent and would largely pass through cellulose (linen) without absorption (see Tables I and II). Table I presents calculations showing the transmittance (the inverse of attenuation) of characteristic x-rays of several elements in air, and Table II shows the transmittance of these soft x-rays in cellulose. There also is a spatial attenuation factor of the x-rays due to the fact that x-rays are spherically generated. Because of this effect, the closer the x-ray source to the cloth, the greater the intensity of x-rays at a small area adjacent to the x-ray source. T h e lateral x-rays decrease geometrically in number with the number of degrees away from the perpendicular line


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Figure 4.

Possible teeth images on the Shroud of Turin. (Reproduced with permission. Copyright 1978, Vernon Miller.)


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Table I. Transmittance of K

a

x-Rays of Various Elements Through A i r Length of Air Path (cm)


Element Na Si Ρ S Cl Κ Ca Fe Cu Mo

μ/ρ 3088 727 464 317 219 122 88.8 18.2 9.39 1.12

0.100 0.200 0.300 0.500 1.00

1.50

2.00

2.50

0.695 0.483 0.335 0.162 0.918 0.842 0.773 0.651 0.947 0.896 0.849 0.761 0.963 0.928 0.894 0.829 0.974 0.950 0.925 0.879 0.986 0.972 0.958 0.931 0.990 0.979 0.969 0.949 0.998 0.996 0.994 0.989 0.999 0,998 0.997 0.994 1.000 1.000 1.000 0.999

0.004 0.276 0.440 0.571 0.679 0.806 0.855 0.968 0.984 0.998

0.001 0.180 0.335 0.473 0.596 0.750 0.811 0.958 0.978 0.997

Ν Ν 0.117 0.076 0.254 0.193 0.393 0.326 0.524 0.461 0.698 0.649 0.770 0.730 0.948 0.938 0.973 0.967 0.997 0.996

0.026 0.424 0.578 0.688 0.772 0.866 0.901 0.979 0.989 0.999

3.00

NOTE: A i l values above are for transmittance, I/I , calculated from the equation 0

JIJ

— g - μ/ρ 0.00118 air path in cm.

Ν = negligible (

Formation of the Image on the Shroud of Turin by x-Rays: A New

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