Are There Roman Lepta Coin Images on the Eyes on the Shroud of Turin?
Images of coins, minted by Pontius Pilate for use in
Palestine, have been tentatively identified over both eyes of the man whose
image is seen on the Shroud. But is the identification valid?
In 1978, scientists, including Dr. John P. Jackson and Dr. Eric J. Jumper,
while working with NASA's VP-8 3-D Image Analyzer, discovered what appeared
to be raised button-like shapes over each eye.
About 1980, the Rev. Francis Filas, S.J., of Loyola University in Chicago and
Michael Marx, an expert in classical coins, examined the area over the right
eye and detected patterns of what appeared to be the letters UCAI (from
TIBERIOU CAISARUS). They also found a lituus design (an auger's staff).
Father Filas concluded that this was a lituus lepton coin minted by Pontius
Pilate between 29 and 32 CE. Over the left eye, Father Filas also identified
what he believed to be a Juolia lepton with a distinctive sheaf of barley
design. The Juolia lepton was only struck in 29 CE in honor of Tiberius
Caesar's wife, Julia.
Subsequent computerized image enhancement analysis at the Virginia
Polytechnic Institute and State University's Spatial Data Analysis Laboratory
supports, though cautiously, the existence of the lituus lepton over the
right eye and an outline of a coin over the left eye.
By overlaying polarized images, Alan Whanger at Duke University identified
both coins. Alan found 74 points of congruence with an existing lituus lepton
and 73 points with a Juolia lepton. But such identification is highly
interpretive and other researchers do not find the same level of congruence.
The UCAI Problem
Though the lepta (plural of lepton) minted in Palestine were Roman produced
coins, the inscription of Tiberius Caesar would have been written in Greek as
TIBERIOU KAISAROS. Was the C, where a K was expected, a misspelling? This was
a problem that seemed to preclude positive identification until an actual
lituus lepton was found with the aberrant spelling. Several have since been
found. This anomaly seems to give credence to the coins identification.
Other Problems
Barrie Schwortz, a technical photographers who photographed the Shroud,
disagrees. Having studied numerous high quality negatives of the Shroud
taken in 1978, he concludes:
My personal opinion, based on my photographic experience and my close examination of the Shroud itself, is that the weave of the cloth is far too coarse to resolve the rather subtle and very tiny inscription on a dime sized ancient coin...What he (Filas) saw as inscriptions, I saw as random shapes and noise. Such is the subjective nature of image analysis. For these reasons however, I cannot accept these coin "inscriptions" as viable evidence of a first century Shroud "date"...I do not argue that there appears to be something on the eyes of the man of the Shroud, and it may well be coins or potshards, since they were used in some first century burial rituals, but I do not believe we can resolve coin inscriptions.
Many current authors, among them John C. Iannone in "Mystery of the Shroud of Turin" and Dr. Kenneth E. Stevenson in "Image of the Risen Christ," support the findings of the coins. Mary and Alan Whangers, in their book The Shroud of Turin: An Adventure in Discovery, make a strong case for the findings of the coins. Noted Shroud author Ian Wilson, though convinced of the Shroud's authenticity, does not see coin images on the Shroud
Home Page & Introduction: The Shroud of Turin Story - A Guide to the Facts 2005
© 2004 Daniel R. Porter, Bronxville, New York
