John Chen has done some great, new 3D modeling of the Shroud of Turin face. On his blog, he wrote:
The Shroud of Turin is a 14-foot cloth in which many believe Jesus Christ was buried. I watched an interesting doco on SBS tonight about the shroud and how scientists tried to disproof this relic. This inspired me to do a little investigation myself, as the photo that was taken during the examination reminded me of a depth map, used in 3D CGI to generate displacements on an object.
Of course, read his Blog « Visual FX | Animation | 3D – VFXForge.com. And while there, check out some of his other 3D modeling work.
This is an image from his blog based on the shroud face:
John writes:
What I found interesting was not who this person was, but how the image was transferred onto the cloth in the first place 2000+ years ago?? or as cabron dating suggest 1200 – 1300
We’ll have to get John up to speed on the carbon dating issues.
Please do not perpetuate the Carbon 14 dating myth. The small piece from the lower-left corner of the cloth which was tested by 3 laboratories in 1988 is not representative of the shroud. The piece was taken from a corner that had been repaired in the 16th century. Here’s the proof:
o 3 different textile experts saw discernible differences between the sample area and the rest of the shroud, including an “invisible” mending technique used by Europeans of old to mend damaged linens, which made both the reweave and its reattachment “invisible” to the untrained eye.
o Retired Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist Raymond N. Rogers examined 14 strands from the test sample under a high-powered microscope:
He saw clearly distinguishable cotton fibers (flat, tape-like) spliced into the linen fibers (round, like tiny bamboo shoots). His findings were published in a 2002 co-authored paper, “Scientific Method Applied to the Shroud of Turin.”
There was a brownish coating on the cotton fibers, which had been applied as a liquid and had flowed down the threads. Chemical analysis showed it was madder root in a gum arabic base—a classic dye mixture to blend in the newer mending patch with the rest of the cloth, applied after the patch was weaved.
In 1978, Rogers inspected the shroud itself with even more probing technology and confirmed there was no cotton elsewhere interwoven with the linen.
Rogers also performed a test for vanillin, found in flax, the plant from which linen is made. Vanillin is known to dissipate slowly over centuries. Rogers found significant amounts of vanillin in the Carbon 14-tested sample.
My source is Robert K. Wilcox’s excellent book, The Truth About the Shroud of Turin (Regnery, 2010).
I would have to say neither camp, for or against has made conclusive arguments
Carbon dating past, present, future (although highly unlikely) proves the age of the cloth itself and not when the actual image was produced
Some refer to Da Vinci and the camera obscura..i.e the reason it behaves like a photograph is because it was made using photographic techniques. Some experts have also noted key similarities between the face on the Shroud and that of Da Vinci himself
But Da Vinci appears to have been born way too late in terms of what some consider to be historical references to the shroud e.g the Holy Mandylion of Edessa or the Pray Manuscript.
Then again, it could be argued that if it is indeed man-made, the “artist” used an ancient piece of cloth and had seen the Pray manuscript and added those finishing details to the image….
But then there’s the possible relationship with the Sudarium of Oviedo….
So, I will not say it is fake or real
I just think it is absolutely magnificent regardless
And I am Sikh not Christian!