Shroud of Turin Gets High-Def Scrutiny

"I keep an open mind--as I would about any scientific investigation. However, my strong intuition, based on my experience in this field, is that the new hypothesis will not challenge the accuracy of the original radiocarbon dating exercise," Ramsey said in a statement.

The new theory would only require two percent contamination to skew the results by 1,500 years--not much considering the shroud's long history, handling and exposure to the elements.

"There is nothing new, as far as I know, which would change the situation. These ideas have been raised previously and none has been shown to have any merit. Many hypotheses, such as contamination, fire changing the results and more dubious assertions have been made, but none has seriously challenged the 1988 dating," Timothy Jull, a professor in geosciences at the University of Arizona who specializes in carbon dating, told Discovery News.

Indeed, numerous theories, such as a plastic coating built up on the linen by millions of tiny micro-organisms, have been presented to explain how the radiocarbon tests could have been inaccurate. All have been rejected by the scientific community.

In 1998, Ramsey himself tested the possibility that carboxylation of the cellulose in the linen during the 1532 fire could have produced a younger dating, but concluded that "carboxylation is not a systematic source of error in the dating of cellulose-containing materials such as the linen in the Shroud of Turin."

The latest research, by the late Ray Rogers, suggested that the sample used to test the age of the shroud in 1988 was taken from a medieval rewoven area of the shroud.

Whatever the outcome of Ramsey's tests, the high definition images are expected to add new complexity to one of the most controversial relics in Christendom.

"The Shroud has yielded surprises each time it is subjected to a new form of reproduction. The first time it was photographed, it revealed its negative characteristics. Then it was scanned and turned into a tridimensional image. Now we have filmed it in high definition. We are already seeing some interesting effects," Rolfe said.

Related Links:

Rossella Lorenzi's blog: Archaeorama

How Stuff Works: Shroud of Turin/a>

Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit