October 9th, 2018 2:08 PM
UM. SHROUD OF TURIN IS A NICE FORGERY. SORRY
As far as I know the Shroud of Turin was produced for profit (a forgery) after the Fourth Crusade, as was common for all religious artifacts of the era. (Every little church wanted one as it provided an excuse for pilgrimage (vacationers). It is produced on fabric from the crusade period. The pattern of the weave was not produced in the origin period (not even sure it COULD be produced), which usually consisted of simple two-way weave. It appears likely that the cloth was of medieval Indian origins. The blood artifacts on the shroud are neatly applied not fitting splatter or settlement patterns. The posture appears to have been of a sculpted figure, not natural. The sculpture itself is medieval in technique (a knight) not ancient (a soldier or nobility). The coloring itself and its iron oxide can be produced relatively easily by wetting with organic compounds and laying on a relief sculpture and placing it in the sunshine to dry (uv radiation), thereby oxidizing (‘rusting’) the organic compounds. In other words all that was necessary was to find a relief sculpture common on a crusader burial of the period, to wet it with any number of organic materials (speculation on which was used isn’t clear), rub those organic compounds while on the sculpture, and to dry it in the intense regional sunshine. The problem we face is that so many people have come in contact with it, that other than the oxidation (Stains), we can’t trust any of the micro particles we’ve pulled from it since they contain everything from europe to the levant. In any event, as someone with a lot of experience with dead bodies, who has done rubbings of ancient 3d arts from all over the world, it looks like an obvious forgery, and it’s pretty hard for me to imagine anyone would think otherwise. But then I have an education in ancient art history, in identifying are methods, and as a consequence, art fraud, and my family is in the ‘burial’ business so maybe I’m just more informed by accident of circumstance.