The mended corner
of the Shroud of Turin was the cause of the carbon
14 dating failure
Carbon 14 dating in 1988 supposedly proved that the
Shroud of Turin was medieval. But not everyone was
convinced. An overwhelming amount of other data
suggested that the Shroud was indeed much older,
perhaps first century and from the environs of
Jerusalem.
Many researchers who were not experts in radiocarbon
dating attempted to explain why the carbon 14 dating
was wrong. Several ideas were put forward. Some of
these explanation gained traction in the media and
with the public.
One
hypothesis was that a serious fire in 1532 that
nearly destroyed the Shroud had somehow changed the
measurement age of the cloth. Another theory was
that a bioplastic-polymer growing on the cloth
contaminated the sample. These ideas were
scientifically insupportable. Scientists, who were
knowledgeable in radiocarbon dating, science
dismissed these ideas as preposterous.
|
 |
|
Photomicrograph of fibers from a warp segment of
carbon-14 sample. Chemically, it is unlike the
rest of the Shroud. |
In
2005 an article appeared in a peer-reviewed
scientific journal Thermochimica Acta,
which demonstrated that the carbon 14 dating was
flawed because the sample was invalid. It turns out
that the corner from which the sample was taken for
carbon dating had been mended. As a result, the
sample included a significant amount of newer
material.
Moreover, this article, by Raymond N. Rogers, a
well-published chemist, and a Fellow of the Los
Alamos National Laboratory, explained why the cloth
was much older. It was at least twice as old as the
radiocarbon date, and possibly 2000 years old. |
