There has been some off-the-blog chatter about papers dealing with the 1988 carbon dating of the shroud. One in particular is mentioned frequently and it is one of my favorites. It is a paper by M. Sue Benford and Joe G, Marino published in Chemistry Today. I had mentioned this paper called Discrepancies in the radiocarbon dating area of the Turin shroud and provided links to it in 2008. Those those links have expired. However, a copy may be found HERE at shroud.com. Will shroud.com ever cease being extraordinarily useful?
I highly recommend it the Benford/Marini work.
DaveB, in an email today writes of the paper:
My recollection of the paper is that it surmised that the "invisible repairs" may have been carried out after the death of Margaret of Austria in the 16th century. This may have been too early to skew the C14 dates to ~1250, assuming the TS dates to the first century. An alternative suggesion, first suggested on Dan’s web-site by I think Max Patrick Hamon was that it may have been carried out by Princess Clotilde of Savoy after the 1868 showing. This was the last showing where it was manually held by five bishops. Clotilde replaced Valfre’s black silk lining with a red one. If the cloth showed signs of wear at this time, she may also have been the one to effect the repairs. It is significant, I think, that all future showings were done with the TS held in a frame. It would also better account for the skewing of the C14 dates.
He then goes on to write:
Other papers which I suggest you check out are:
"Chronological History of the Evidence for the Anomalous Nature of the C-14 Sample Area of the Shroud of Turin Introduction", By Joseph G. Marino and Edwin J. Prior, 2008;
http://www.shroud.com/pdfs/chronology.pdfNew Historical Evidence Explaining the "Invisible Patch" in the 1988 C-14 Sample Area of the Turin Shroud; By M. Sue Benford and Joseph Marino, ©2005 All Rights Reserved.
http://www.shroud.com/pdfs/benfordmarino.pdf
[Possibly this is the paper you refer to below]
Studies on the radiocarbon sample from the shroud of turin
Raymond N. Rogers 2004
http://shroudnm.com/docs/2004-09-12-Rogers.pdfThe setting for the radiocarbon dating of the Shroud, by Emanuela Marinelli
Valencia, April 28-30, 2012http://www.shroud.com/pdfs/marinelliv.pdf
[Describes the preliminaries for the carbon dating, involving the various people involved.]
There are several others, including a batch of papers by Pam Moon, discussing the effects of contamination, together with some excellent illustrations.
Regarding Pam’s papers I had posted the following in June of this year.
You may recall that in February, I linked to a scientific paper by Pam Moon, Coloured Dissolved Organic Matter (CDOM) contamination, mould damage, biocides and the carbon-14 dating of the Shroud of Turin.
Pam now has two new historical papers that explore a medieval manuscript, which is a version of John Skylitzes chronicle of the Byzantine Empire from 811 to1057. The first paper is about the so-called poker holes and the second paper about the transfer of the shroud from Edessa to Constantinople.
The Shroud of Turin in Constantinople? Paper I: An analysis of the L Shaped markings on the Shroud of Turin and an examination of the Holy Mandylion and Holy Shroud in the Madrid Skylitzes
- The Shroud of Turin in Constantinople? Paper 2: An examination of Byzantine art depicting Christ between AD 945 and AD 1042, following the arrival of the Holy Mandylion in Constantinople in AD 944
I think that only the first of the papers deals directly with the carbon dating. The others deal with history, which contradicts the carbon dating.