Some of the material in this essay is obsolete. Please refer to the
Shroud of Turin Story Home Page

The
Resurrection
Problem
and the
Shroud of Turin

By Daniel R. Porter

1. Introduction
2. "Ann, You're Nuts"
3. What we need to know 
4. The newer evidence
5. The resurrection problem
6. Vetting
7. Acceptance
8. Textile studies
9. Plant images and pollen
10. Travertine aragonite
11. Sudarium of Oviedo
12. The Image of Edessa
13. Jesus in art
14. A negative that is not a negative
15. Other visual characteristics
16. The most intriguing characteristic
17. A picture of a million words
18. How were the images formed ? 
19. Appendix: Carbon 14, etc.

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Part 9:  Plant Images and Pollen Grains on the Shroud

During a 1999 conference of the prestigious Missouri Botanical Society in St Louis, Missouri, Dr. Avinoam Danin, a botany professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a leading authority on the flora of Israel, along with Dr. Uri Baruch, a pollen specialist with the Israel Antiquities Authority, reported that the combination of pollen spores lodged in the Shroud's surface, as well as floral images mysteriously "imprinted" on the face of the cloth, could only have come from plants growing in a restricted area around Jerusalem.

Pollen identification is a common method used in criminal forensics to determine where an object has been geographically. Dr. Max Frei, a Zurich criminologist, had previously identified a total of 58 different pollens on the Shroud from the area around the 1) Dead Sea and the Negev, 2) the Anatolian Steppe of central and western Turkey, 3) the immediate environs of Constantinople, and 4) Western Europe. Danin and Baruch have confirmed much of Frei's work. They also confirmed some of the previous floral image identifications of Oswald Sheuermann, a German physicist, and Alan Whanger a professor at Duke University.

The most significant plants that Danin and Baruch identified and reported on are:

• Chrysanthemum coronarium. This is one of the most prominent plant images on the Shroud. It is not a very strong geographical indicator in that it is a widespread Mediterranean species. It is something of a temporal indicator, however, since it blooms between March and May. This suggests that the image was formed at that time of year. The Chrysanthemum image is very significant in another way because, as I mentioned, it is seen in works of art. I'll address this in more detail.
  
• Zygophyllum dunosum. This is the second most prominent floral image on the Shroud. The phonologic stage of bloom, as seen on the Shroud, indicates that it was cut or picked sometime between December and April. This plant grows only in the Sinai, a small area of Jordan adjacent to Israel, Jerusalem, and an area of Israel south of Jerusalem.
  
• Gundelia tournefortii. In addition to faint imagery, there is also a very significant number of pollen spores for this species on the Shroud. Such large quantities of pollen grains, of this otherwise insect-pollinated plant, can only be explained by physical contact with the Shroud. Gundelia blooms in Israel between March and May. This plant also grows throughout Turkey, Syria, northern Iran, northern Iraq, and in northern Israel. The southernmost edge of its growing region is Jerusalem.
  
• Cistus creticus. Numerous pollen grains tend to confirm a somewhat fuzzy image of this plant on the Shroud's surface. This is considered a very high geographic indicator since it only grows in Israel along the Mediterranean coast areas and the higher elevations east of the coast but only as far in that direction as the old city of Jerusalem.
  
• Capparis aegyptia. This plant grows only in Israel, Jordan, and the Sinai. According to Danin and Buruch, "Flowering buds of this species begin to open about midday, opening gradually until fully opened about sunset. Flowers seen as images on the Shroud correspond to opening buds at three to four o'clock in the afternoon."

The last four plants on the Shroud are significant because, as Danin and Baruch report, "[the assemblage] occurs in only one rather small spot on earth, this being the Judean mountains and the Judean Desert of Israel, in the vicinity of Jerusalem."

Dan Porter is an Episcopalian and a member of Trinity Church, Wall Street, in New York City. He may be contacted by email at porter@shroudstory.com or by mail at 20 McIntyre Street, Bronxville, NY 10708. 

(c) Copyright 2001, Daniel R. Porter. All Rights Reserved. This article may be reproduced in full for any non-commercial purpose without further permission.