Nice posting by Günther Simmermacher at The Southern Cross:
It is interesting to note that the wounds on the body on the Shroud of Turin, which many believe to be Christ’s burial cloth, show that the nails were driven through the man’s wrists — so if the Shroud is a medieval forgery, then the counterfeiter had physiological insights many centuries ahead of his time.
In 1968 archaelogists found the first physical evidence of a crucifixion, in Jerusalem. The skeleton of a man included a heel bone with a nail embedded within it and fragments of wood at the tip of the nail. His arms and hands were not injured, so he probably was tied to the crossbeam. His feet would have been nailed to the side of the cross. So our image of the technicalities involving Jesus’ crucifixion is most likely historically inaccurate.
A sample of one? I think it has been pretty well established that the Romans nailed people to crosses and that there were difference in the methods, as well. I’ll have to investigate this some more.
See: Part 13: The symbolic power of the cross | The Southern Cross
Some points made are erroneous, first the archaelogists did find signs on the forearms bones which were possibly from nails driven between and scoring the bones. As for the nail thru the ankle; How does this refute the typical view of both feet together being nailed? or show that the feet were nailed to the sides of the beams? Place one foot flat on the floor, place your other foot across the top of the flat foot angled so one side of the foot points up, the nail could have been driven thru the ankle of the top foor and thru the top of the bottom foot into the beam easily.The spikes/nails were said to be approx 6 inchs in length.
R