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The sacred leaf or shroud of Turin. For some, the most valuable relic of Christianity. For others, an elaborate hoax is centuries after the crucifixion of Christ. A new study that analyzed the arrangement of blood stains tissue points in this second direction: they are false.
What is the leaf?
Here is a brief summary of what the sacred leaf is if you have never heard of it. The Shroud of Turin is a piece of linen that shows marks that correspond to the figure of a man with typical trauma of a crucifixion. The official assumption among believers is that these marks correspond to the face and body of Christ, and that the sacred leaf was precisely the fabric that they used as a shroud to wrap their corpse during the three days that, according to biblical tradition, remained in a crypt before
We say believers because, although the Catholic Church tolerates devotion to this object, it does not matter. has never officially accepted or denied its authenticity. The sacred leaf began to be studied seriously from the scientific point of view in 1973, when an international team of forensic serologists, anatomists, radiologists, historians and physicists examined the tissue. The team concluded that the shroud was probably a counterfeit, but could not gather evidence to confirm it, so that it remained neutral about it. The same thing happened with a later study in 1978.
The first major blow to the supposed authenticity of the canvas is occurred when the Vatican authorized the completion of a test of carbon isotope dating. Laboratories of the Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, the University of Oxford and the University of Arizona have determined that the canvas is not so old and that it was created in the Middle Ages between the years 1260 and 1390 after Christ. The date is very close, in fact, to the first real exhibition of the painting, which took place in 1357 in a church in Lirey, France.
The problem of its creation.
Dating did not convince the defenders of the authenticity of the relic, indicating a plethora of historical documents mentioning the shroud of the centuries before the year 1260.
The biggest problem with the sacred leaf is that today it is not known exactly how could the image of the person involved could have Shroud be transmitted to the Internet (if it was really like that and it was not painted by someone of a very competent ). Believers point out that it is the resurrection itself that has left this trace on the canvas as if it were the negative of a photograph.
Without going into miraculous explanations, science mixes different hypotheses that attempt to explain the phenomenon. There is talk of carbohydrates that are attached to the tissue because of the first gases that escape the corpse when putrefaction begins. It is also thought that it can simply be a work of art made with natural pigments and there are some studies that attribute the relic to a complex command made by Leonardo Da Vinci . According to this hypothesis, Da Vinci drew the figure using photographic techniques, making a dark camera and using photosensitive pigments. The task was precisely to make a sacred leaf more credible than the one that had been exposed until then at Lirey. Da Vinci already had the knowledge to perform such a mission, oddly enough.
The blood does not match
We come to the present. Forensic anthropologist Matteo Borrini and expert in organic chemistry Luigi Garlaschelli decided to analyze a very specific characteristic of the sacred leaf. His blood stains. Apart from the vaporous silhouette of the person that they supposedly wrapped with the shroud, the fabric has blood marks that correspond to the wounds on the hands and a laceration on the torso that corresponds to the spear that Christ has received when he was on the cross
Borrini and Garlaschelli analyzed how the blood would flow from this type of wound into a corpse wrapped in tissue and for that they used a dummy and royal blood donated for research as well as synthetic blood with the same properties
Your findings? Blood stains can not be real. The blood supposedly flowing from the hands and stained the fabric does not agree with the angle of the arms that appears marked on the canvas. As for the blood flowing to the side, the mark would coincide with that of a person who would have been wounded in an upright position, but not with that of a bleeding body lying on his back. Finally, nothing explains the type of blood accumulated under the waist. If we wrap a corpse in linen and let it bleed, it is impossible to form these spots.
The researchers even took into account that the stains were produced by manipulating the body wrapped in tissue and moving it in its place. remains, but the stains are not suitable either. His conclusion is that the fabric is probably a relic cleverly made in Sigo XV for didactic or simply artistic purposes.
Of course, there remains the unresolved mystery of how the three-dimensional mark of a person was created on the canvas. Until this issue is resolved, neither the church nor science can be firmly placed on the authenticity of one of Christianity's most fascinating relics.
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