Travertine Aragonite found on the Shroud of Turin
Joseph Kohlbeck, Resident Scientist at the Hercules Aerospace Center in Salt Lake, Utah, and Richard Levi-Setti of the Enrico Fermi Institute at the University of Chicago, examined embedded dirt particles taken from the foot region of the Shroud’s surface. Using a high-resolution microprobe, Levi-Setti and Kolbeck compared the spectra of dirt samples taken from the Shroud with samples of a relatively rare form of calcite, travertine aragonite, found near the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem. The chemical signatures of the Shroud samples and the dust found near Golgotha were identical except for some minute fragments of organic cellulous linen fiber that could not be separated from the Shroud samples. Kolbeck acknowledges that this is not absolute proof that the Shroud was in Jerusalem and that there might be other places in the world—though none are known—where travertine aragonite has the identical trace chemical composition.If the Shroud is a medieval forgery that originated in medieval Europe, we must wonder how such dirt, likely from the environs of Jerusalem, became imbedded in the cloth.
| Here is the issue: The outermost fibers of the cloth
are coated with a thin film of starch fractions and saccharides. In places,
bits of this coating have turned straw-yellow because of a chemical change.
That is how the images are recorded, plain and simple. But it is not so simple. While heavy volatile amines coming from a body would have caused this chemical change (that is certain), it is puzzling that the images are focused and properly exposed. |
Home Page & Introduction:
The Shroud of Turin Story - A Guide to
the Facts 2005
© 2004 Daniel R. Porter, Bronxville, New York
