A team of researchers from France and Italy found evidence that the analysis of the famous Turin Shroud, carried out in 1988, was not carried out in full, and therefore the conclusions based on it are erroneous.
The sensational data comes from a study published in the scientific journal Archaeometry, briefly described by Phys.org.
Scientists actually double-checked the data obtained back in 1988. Then a group of scientists for the first time got access to the Turin Shroud - a small piece of cloth, which, according to legend, covered Jesus Christ after the crucifixion.
Researchers were then allowed to study not the entire relic, but individual pieces. Of all possible applicants, only three organizations received the right to conduct the analysis: the University of Arizona in the United States, the Federal Institute of Technology in Switzerland and the University of Oxford in the UK.
The analysis carried out then made it possible to date the tissue. It was found to refer to the time period between 1260 and 1390. In 1988, this was considered proof that the famous shroud could not have been used in the time of Christ.
However, the Vatican refused to give other researchers access to the data. A new research group sued Oxford University, which had the data, and won. It took another two years to re-analyze.
As a result, scientists considered the 1988 conclusions to be wrong. The previous research did not include the study of the entire shroud, but only some of its parts from the edge.
At the same time, it is believed that in the Middle Ages, nuns “forged” some parts of the shroud, trying to restore the damage caused to it over time.
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As the head of the project, Tristan Casabianca, noted, the raw data from the 1988 tests showed that the samples were heterogeneous, and this automatically invalidates the results.
Researchers believe that the entire shroud should be subjected to a new analysis. Only this will allow us to establish her exact age. But for that to happen, the Vatican must once again grant scientists access to the shroud.
Denis Peredelsky