Italy – Researchers attempting to determine the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin revealed on Tuesday that they don’t believe it could have been faked given their repeated attempted to do so.
According to the study medieval technology simply didn’t have the know-how to create a fake. Scientists attempted to recreate the sepia image of a crucified man and found that the physical and chemical characteristics were “impossible to obtain in a laboratory” using technology from the medieval period.
Scientists were eventually able to create a replicate but only when they used bursts of light from ultaviolet lasers, technology not available during the 13th or 14th century.
The study comes after since disputed carbon dating studies in Zurich, Arizona and Oxford in 1988 found that the Shroud of Turin was likely created in the period ranging from 1260 to 1390 and not 2,000 years ago as originally claimed.
Based off their study researchers say the Shroud was likely created with “some form of electromagnetic energy (such as a flash of light at short wavelength).”
In a study from 1978-1981 researchers also said that “no chemical or physical methods known” at the time could have produced the image.
For the time being the Shroud of Turin remains shrouded in mystery and religious lore.
This most recent study was conducted at Italy’s National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Development.
According to the Montreal Gazette:
[Researchers] conducted 120 hours of X-rays and ultraviolet light tests and concluded that the marks were not made by paints, pigments or dyes and that the image was not “the product of an artist”, but that at the same time it could not be explained by modern science.
Do you think the Shroud of Turin is the sign of divine intervention or simply an object that happens to look like the face of a man being crucified?