The Post-STURP Era of Shroud Research 1981 to the Present

Presented by BARRIE M. SCHWORTZ Editor and Founder Shroud of Turin Website www.shroud.com President, STERA, Inc.

1 The Post-STURP Era of Shroud Research 1981 to the Present

LECTURE 10

Some Important Events, Papers and Articles Part 1

2 Some Important Events, Papers and Articles

A good way to review the Shroud research that occurred after 1981 is to look at the various events, meetings and conferences that took place during that time and the various papers and articles that were published in both peer-reviewed and non reviewed sources. (You can find a complete listing on the Shroud Conferences & Symposia Page).

By the end of 1981, STURP had formally concluded most of their work and had already published many of their papers in peer reviewed scientific journals. Over the next two years, their remaining papers were ultimately published (see A Summary of STURP’s Conclusions and the Bibliography of Published STURP Papers) and they began developing a new test plan (STURP II) for further studies of the Shroud. This would ultimately consist of 26 new tests (including radiocarbon dating), many based on the results of their first examination and other tests to answer new questions raised by their 1978 data.

As we discussed in an earlier lecture, in the end, STURP II never was realized. 3 Some Important Events, Papers and Articles

In this lecture, we will take a chronological look at Shroud science over the past three decades. The story begins in 1985.

June 1, 1985: At a meeting in Trondheim, Norway, Dr. Tite and Richard Burleigh of the British Museum, London, release the results of an inter- comparison experiment conducted between six radiocarbon dating laboratories, some using the old proportional counter method, others the new AMS method pioneered by Dr. Harry Gove. One of the samples was a 4,000-year-old Egyptian mummy wrapping for which one of the laboratories, Zurich, produced a 1000-year error due to faulty pre-treatment. Despite this gaffe, the experiment is seen as opening the way for a radiocarbon dating of the Shroud. Dr. Harry Gove sets in motion plans for a meeting of the six laboratories and the British Museum to agree on a working procedure for the Shroud dating. It is suggested that the Pontifical Academy of Sciences be contacted.

Source: Shroud of Turin Website Shroud History Page http://www.shroud.com/history.htm#1900 4 Some Important Events, Papers and Articles

January 1986: Paul Maloney of the U.S. Shroud group ASSIST receives from Dr. Max Frei's widow two copies of Frei's unpublished manuscript, together with five of the sticky-tape samples he took in 1978

February 16, 1986: Shroud Conference at Elizabethtown College, Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, at which some of Dr. Max Frei's pollen samples are examined by the attendees, who include Walter McCrone. McCrone almost immediately confirms observing pollen.

September 29 to October 1, 1986: Representatives of several radiocarbon dating laboratories at last meet in Turin, under Professor Chagas' chairmanship, to discuss the best 'protocol' for radiocarbon dating the Shroud. A protocol is drawn up for seven laboratories (five AMS, two small-counter) to take part, the AMS facility at Gif-sur-Yvette, France, having been added to the list. This is then submitted to both the Pope and the Cardinal of Turin.

October 6, 1986: News of the meeting is released to the world's press.

Source: Shroud of Turin Website Shroud History Page http://www.shroud.com/history.htm#1900 5 Some Important Events, Papers and Articles April 27, 1987: The Turin paper La Stampa publicly quotes Professor Gonella as saying that only two or three laboratories would be involved in the testing.

July 1, 1987: Representatives of the seven laboratories write a letter to Cardinal Ballestrero advising: 'As participants in the workshop who devoted considerable effort to achieve our goal we would be irresponsible if we were not to advise you that this fundamental modification in the proposed procedures may lead to failure'.

October 10, 1987: Cardinal Ballestrero of Turin writes to the seven radiocarbon laboratories informing them that on the advice of his scientific advisor Professor Gonella, it is only three of their number, the Oxford, Arizona and Zurich laboratories, who have been chosen to perform the testing. Ballestrero's letter states that ' experience in the field of archaeological radiocarbon dating' was a criterion. The cardinal also advises that certain other details of the 1986 protocol have been scrapped, including any further involvement of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in the exercise. Also eliminated is the participation of Swiss textile expert Mme. Flury- Lemberg who, it had been intended, would actually physically remove the samples from the Shroud. Dr. Tite is named as the appointed supervisor for certification of the samples. Source: Shroud of Turin Website Shroud History Page http://www.shroud.com/history.htm#1900 6 Some Important Events, Papers and Articles November 1987: The directors of the three chosen laboratories warn Cardinal Ballestrero: 'As you are aware, there are many critics in the world who will scrutinize these measurements in great detail. The abandonment of the original protocol and the decision to proceed with only three laboratories will certainly enhance the skepticism of these critics'. The chosen three declare themselves 'hesitant to proceed', and request the matter be given 'further consideration‘.

January 13, 1988: The Turin newspaper La Stampa discloses that Professor Gove and Dr. Harbottle have written an open letter to the Pope, also to Nature and the director of the British Museum, deploring the rejection of the seven-laboratory protocol. They claim that the Pope has been 'badly advised' and 'that he is making a mistake if he approves a limited or reduced version of the research whose outcome will be, to say the least, questionable‘.

January 15, 1988: In a press release Gove and Dr. Harbottle conclude, 'The Archbishop's plan, disregarding the protocol, does not seem capable of producing a result that will meet the test of credibility and scientific rigor' and that 'it is probably better to do nothing than to proceed with a scaled-down experiment‘. Source: Shroud of Turin Website Shroud History Page http://www.shroud.com/history.htm#1900 7 Some Important Events, Papers and Articles

January 22, 1988: Professor Gonella and leading representatives of the Oxford, Arizona and Zurich laboratories meet in the Board Room of the British Museum, London, to discuss the best procedures to be adopted. News of this meeting is released the same evening.

February 1988: Dr. Tite tries unsuccessfully to find control samples of weave identical to the Shroud.

March 25, 1988: Professor Gove writes to the Pope outlining all that has transpired and appealing to him to persuade Cardinal Ballestrero to revert to the original protocol. His letter is ignored.

April 13, 1988: (Wednesday) Professor Paul Damon holds an 'open house' for journalists at his Arizona radiocarbon dating laboratory to show them where and how the work on the Shroud samples will be done.

Source: Shroud of Turin Website Shroud History Page http://www.shroud.com/history.htm#1900 8 Some Important Events, Papers and Articles

April 21, 1988: At 5 a.m. the Shroud is secretly taken out of its casket. At 6.30 a.m. Dr. Tite and the representatives of the three laboratories assemble at the cathedral. In the cathedral sacristy the Shroud is unrolled and shown to assembled representatives of the three chosen radiocarbon dating laboratories. Professor Testore of Turin Polytechnic, Gonella's choice as textile expert in place of Mme. Flury-Lemberg, reportedly asks 'What's that brown patch?' of the wound in the side. Professor Riggi and Professor Gonella reportedly spend two hours arguing about the exact location on the Shroud from which the sample should be taken. During the event, it is Riggi who seems in charge of the operation.

At 9.45 a.m., he cuts a sliver from one edge and divides this into two, then divides one of these halves into three. In a separate room (the Sala Capitolare), and now unrecorded by any camera, the Cardinal and Dr. Tite place these three latter samples in sealed canisters, for the respective laboratories to take away with them. At 1 p.m. the sample taking for carbon-dating purposes is formally completed, and the laboratory representatives depart.

Source: Shroud of Turin Website Shroud History Page http://www.shroud.com/history.htm#1900 9 Some Important Events, Papers and Articles

April 21, 1988: During the afternoon, and in the presence of some twenty witnesses, Riggi takes blood samples from the lower part of the crown-of-thorns bloodstains on the Shroud's dorsal image. According to Riggi's own subsequent account, he received the cardinal's permission to take for himself both these 'blood' samples and the portion of the Shroud he cut away but which was superfluous to the needs of the carbon-dating laboratories. These samples he will deposit in a bank vault. At 8.30 p.m. the Shroud is returned to its casket.

April 22, 1988:(Friday) The news of the taking of the samples is released to the world's press.

April 24, 1988: (Sunday) Safely arrived back in Tucson, Damon and Donahue of the Arizona laboratory informally open the samples, immediately recognizing the characteristic weave of the Shroud on opening sample A1. A photograph taken on this occasion shows this sample to have been in two parts.

Source: Shroud of Turin Website Shroud History Page http://www.shroud.com/history.htm#1900 10 Some Important Events, Papers and Articles

April 25, 1988: (Monday) Formal opening of the Arizona samples, with Damon and Donahue now joined by Toolin and Jull.

May 6, 1988: 9.50 am. In the presence of Professor Harry Gove, who has been invited to be present, the Shroud sample is run through the Arizona system. With the calibration applied, the date arrived at is 1350 AD.

June 8, 1988: The Arizona laboratory completes its work on the Shroud.

Week of July 4, 1988: Having delayed because of technical adjustments to their radiocarbon dating unit, the Oxford laboratory begins its pre-treatment of its Shroud sample and controls.

July 15, 1988: At the Hotel Thalwiler Hof, Thalwil, Switzerland, Dr. Max Frei's entire collection of twenty-eight sticky-tape Shroud samples is formally handed over to the American Shroud group ASSIST.

July 22, 1988: (Friday) Dr. Michael Tite of the British Museum receives the Zurich laboratory's radiocarbon dating findings.

Source: Shroud of Turin Website Shroud History Page http://www.shroud.com/history.htm#1900 11 Some Important Events, Papers and Articles

July 23, 1988: Shroud Meeting at the Academy of Natural Science, Philadelphia, in which Dr. Max Frei's sticky tape samples, just brought over from Europe, are formally and collectively studied by Dr. Walter McCrone, Dr. Alan Adler and others, under the auspices of the U.S. Shroud group ASSIST. This reveals that, in addition to pollens and fabric particles, the tapes bear a surprising proportion of plant parts and floral debris, suggesting that actual flowers were laid on the Shroud at some time during its history.

July 27, 1988: (Wednesday) The Oxford laboratory commences its first run of its Shroud sample and controls.

August 8, 1988: The Oxford laboratory completes its Shroud work.

August 26, 1988: The London Evening Standard carries banner headlines declaring the Shroud to be a fake made in 1350. The source, Cambridge librarian Dr. Stephen Luckett, has no known previous connection with the Shroud, or with the carbon dating work, but in this article declares scientific laboratories 'leaky institutions'. The story is picked up around the world.

Source: Shroud of Turin Website Shroud History Page http://www.shroud.com/history.htm#1900 12 Some Important Events, Papers and Articles

September 18, 1988: Without quoting its source, The Sunday Times publishes a front-page story headlined: 'Official: The Turin Shroud is a Fake'. Professor Hall and Dr. Tite firmly deny any responsibility for this story.

October 13, 1988:(Thursday) At a press conference held in Turin, Cardinal Ballestrero, Archbishop of Turin, makes an official announcement that the results of the three laboratories performing the Carbon dating of the Shroud have determined an approximate 1325 date for the cloth. At a similar press conference held at the British Museum, London, it is announced that the Shroud dates between 1260 and 1390 AD. Newspaper headlines immediately brand the Shroud a fake and declare that the Catholic Church has accepted the results.

February 15, 1989: (Wednesday) In a talk at the Logan Hall, Institute of Education, London, Professor Hall lectures to the British Museum Society on 'The Turin Shroud: A Lesson in Self-Persuasion'. He very forcefully declares anyone continuing to regard the Shroud as genuine a 'Flat Earther' and 'onto a loser'.

Source: Shroud of Turin Website Shroud History Page http://www.shroud.com/history.htm#1900 13 Some Important Events, Papers and Articles February 16, 1989: Publication, in the prestigious scientific journal Nature, of the official results of the Shroud radiocarbon dating. This has twenty-one signatories. It declares that the results 'provide conclusive evidence that the linen of the Shroud of Turin is medieval'.

You can read the paper, titled, Radiocarbon Dating of the Shroud of Turin at this link.

March 24, 1989: (Good Friday) A press release to the UK press announces that forty-five businessmen and 'rich friends' have donated 1 million (pounds Sterling) to create a chair of archaeological sciences at Oxford to perpetuate the radiocarbon-dating laboratory created by Professor Edward Hall. The first incumbent is to be the British Museum's Dr. Michael Tite.

May 6-7, 1989: International Shroud Symposium 'La Sindone e Le Icone' held in Bologna.

September 7-8, 1989: Shroud Symposium organized by the French Shroud group CIELT is held in Paris. The speakers include Professor Michael Tite. Source: Shroud of Turin Website Shroud History Page http://www.shroud.com/history.htm#1900 14 Some Important Events, Papers and Articles September 30, 1989: New Scientist reports findings of the scientific workshop at East Kilbride that 'the margin of error with radiocarbon-dating ... may be two or three times as great as practitioners of the technique have claimed'.

March 9 to September 2, 1990: London's British Museum holds exhibition entitled 'Fake. The Art of Deception'. This includes a life-size transparency of the Turin Shroud.

June 22-23, 1991: Scholars from Italy, Spain, France, Australia and the United States gather at St. Louis University in St. Louis, Missouri, for a Symposium on the Shroud. The meeting closes with the forming of a task force to ultimately formulate an American position on conservation and further testing of the Shroud. A second meeting for this purpose is held several months later, but with little impact on sindonology.

September 7, 1992: (Monday) The Shroud is brought out for examination in the sacristy of Turin Cathedral before five textile experts: England's Sheila Landi; Switzerland's Mechtheld Flury-Lemberg; the USA's Jeanette M. Cardamone; Italy's Silvio Diana and Gian Luigi. Optical observation only is permitted and no samples are taken. The Shroud is re-sealed in its casket. Source: Shroud of Turin Website Shroud History Page http://www.shroud.com/history.htm#1900 15 Some Important Events, Papers and Articles April 15, 1993: American pediatrician Dr. Leoncio Garza-Valdes, a respected amateur microbiologist, gives a paper on 'Lichenothelia varnish' to the Society for American Archaeology's annual meeting at St. Louis, Missouri.

May 1993: Dr. Garza-Valdes examines Riggi's Shroud sample in Turin.

June 10-12, 1993: Shroud Symposium, organized by CIELT, held at the Domus Mariae conference center, on the outskirts of Rome. Among the speakers are Dr. Leoncio Garza-Valdes, who suggests that 'Lichenothelia varnish, or bioplastic coating, on the Shroud may have contaminated the Shroud radiocarbon dating'. Russian Dr. Dmitri Kouznetsov is another of the speakers.

In this same year the official charter of STURP, the team that examined the Shroud in 1978, is formally dissolved by the Secretary of State for the State of Connecticut.

February 12, 1994: Conference on the Shroud held at the University of Southern Indiana, Evansville, at which pediatrician Dr. Leoncio Garza-Valdes again conveys his findings concerning a bioplastic coating on the Shroud's fibers contaminating the radiocarbon dating.

Source: Shroud of Turin Website Shroud History Page http://www.shroud.com/history.htm#1900 16 Some Important Events, Papers and Articles September 2-3, 1994: Round table at the University of Texas San Antonio Health Science Center, attended by Professor Harry Gove, during which Gove views Shroud threads under the microscope and acknowledges that these certainly seem to have a substantial bioplastic coating.

September 5, 1995: In a broadcast on Italian television, Cardinal Saldarini announces that expositions of the Shroud will be held in 1998 and 2000.

September 1995: Cardinal Saldarini issues statement declaring any Shroud samples in circulation other than those taken with official permission for the tests of 1978 as unauthorized. He remarks that 'if such material exists…the Holy See has not given its permission to anybody to keep it and do what they want with it' and he requests those concerned to give the piece back to the Holy See. This statement seems clearly to be directed at the samples taken by Professor Giovanni Riggi in April 1988, portions from which were procured in all good faith by Dr. Garza-Valdes.

January 21, 1996: The Shroud of Turin Website goes online. The website is produced by Barrie Schwortz, STURP's Official Documenting Photographer during the 1978 examination. It quickly becomes the largest Shroud resource on the Internet. Source: Shroud of Turin Website Shroud History Page http://www.shroud.com/history.htm#1900 17 Some Important Events, Papers and Articles

August 23-25, 1996: Father Adam Otterbein, C.Ss.R., founder and President of the Holy Shroud Guild, is the honored guest at a gathering of his friends and Shroud of Turin colleagues at the First International Holy Shroud Guild Seminar-Retreat in Esopus, New York. In attendance are a number of important sindonologists including several former STURP team members.*

This event is generally referred to as the 1996 Esopus Conference. See the above link for a complete list of papers presented and other details. Here are links to five of the papers that are available on shroud.com:

"Alice In Wonderland and the Shroud of Turin" by Isabel Piczek "Joseph of Arimathea, the Holy Grail and the Turin Shroud" by Dr. Dan Scavone "The Fathers of American Sindonology" by Mrs. Dorothy Crispino "Where Do We Go From Here?" by Thomas D'Muhala "The Disciples On The Road To Turin" by Joseph Marino

*Source: Shroud of Turin Website Shroud History Page http://www.shroud.com/history.htm#1900 18 Some Important Events, Papers and Articles May 11-14, 1997: International Symposium on the Shroud held in Nice, France. The event is sponsored by CIELT, the French sindonology organization.*

This event is generally referred to as the 1997 Nice Symposium. See the above link for a complete list of papers presented and other details. Here are links to eight of the papers that are available on shroud.com:

The Concept of "Negativity" Through the Ages vs The Negative Image on the Shroud. by Isabel Piczek A Proposal for High Resolution Colorimetric Mapping of the Turin Shroud: Analysis of Metrological Problems. by Giulio Fanti Optical Properties of Ancient Textile Fibers: Racemization and Epimerization. by Silvio Diana and Emanuela Marinelli An Autopsy on the Man of the Shroud by Robert Bucklin Concerning the Side Strip on the Shroud of Turin by Alan D. Adler Was the Shroud in Languedoc During the Missing Years? by Jack Markwardt The Red Stains on the Lier and Other Shroud Copies by Remi Van Haelst The Sudarium of Oviedo by Mark Guscin *Source: Shroud of Turin Website Shroud History Page http://www.shroud.com/history.htm#1900 19 Some Important Events, Papers and Articles

September 13-14, 1997: A group of independent sindonologists meets in Kaufman, Texas to discuss the collection and archiving of the important and diverse Shroud materials residing in private collections in the United States. Curators of the Wuenschel and Boston collections, two of the largest collections in the world, attend.

April 18 to June 14, 1998: Public Exposition of the Shroud is held to commemorate the centenary of Secondo Pia's first photograph of the cloth, the discovery of its hidden negative image and the beginning of the scientific era of its study. Over two million pilgrims visit the Shroud during the eight week exhibition.

May 24, 1998: Pope John Paul II visits the Shroud as it is displayed in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, in Turin. The visit occurs on the exact day that Secondo Pia made the first photograph of the Shroud 100 years earlier, on May 24, 1898. This is the first time the pope has seen the cloth since a private viewing in 1980.

*Source: Shroud of Turin Website Shroud History Page http://www.shroud.com/history.htm#1900 20 Some Important Events, Papers and Articles

June 5-7, 1998: The Third International Congress for the Study of the Shroud is held in Turin. Nearly 100 researchers come to present their work at the well attended but poorly organized event, officially opened by the Honorable Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, President of the Republic of Italy & Cardinal Giovanni Saldarini, Archbishop of Turin.*

This event is listed on shroud.com as The 1998 Turin Symposium. See the above link for a complete list of papers presented and other details. Here are links to a few of the 13 papers that are available on shroud.com (5 in multiple languages):

Floristic Indicators for the Origin of the Shroud of Turin by A. Danin and U. Baruch Comparative Study of the Sudarium of Oviedo and the Shroud of Turin by G. Heras The Fire and the Portrait by J. Markwardt The Shroud of Turin: Its Ecumenical Implications by A. R. Dreisbach The Role of the Internet in the Future of Shroud Research by B. Schwortz

*Source: Shroud of Turin Website Shroud History Page http://www.shroud.com/history.htm#1900 21 Some Important Events, Papers and Articles

November 6-8, 1998: An invitation only meeting of American sindonologists meets in Dallas, Texas, to discuss the future of Shroud research in the United States.*

This event is listed on shroud.com as The Dallas Meeting of American Sindonology. See the above link for a complete list of papers presented and other details. Here are links to three of the papers that are available on shroud.com:

Imaging Spectroscopy: A New Non-Destructive Method for Materials Analysis by Warren S. Grundfest, M.D. Electronic Archiving and Distribution: The Value of the Internet and CD-ROM Technology by Barrie M. Schwortz Comments On Shroud Research by Donald J. Lynn (STURP)

*Source: Shroud of Turin Website Shroud History Page http://www.shroud.com/history.htm#1900 22 Some Important Events, Papers and Articles

May 6-9, 1999: A conference with the theme, "From the Passion to the Resurrection - 2000 Years of Silent Testimony," is held in Rome, Italy. Co-sponsored by the Center of Sindonology "Giulio Ricci" in Italy and the Basilica of S. Croce in Jerusalem, the conference is primarily a local event with few international experts invited to attend.*

This event is listed on shroud.com as The 1999 Rome Conference. See the above link for a complete list of papers presented and other details.

*Source: Shroud of Turin Website Shroud History Page http://www.shroud.com/history.htm#1900 23 Some Important Events, Papers and Articles

June 18-20, 1999: The Shroud of Turin Center, Richmond, Virginia, hosts the Richmond Conference, an international Shroud meeting with the theme "Multidisciplinary Investigation of an Enigma." The focus of the meeting is new research and sindonologists from around the world attend.*

This event is listed on shroud.com as The 1999 Richmond Conference. See the above link for a complete list of papers presented and other details. Here are links to a few of the 11 papers that are available on shroud.com:

The Nature of the Body Images on the Shroud of Turin by Alan D. Adler Photometric Responses from the Shroud by Peter M. Schumacher Recent Historical Investigations on the Sudarium of Oviedo by Mark Guscin Experiments with Radiation as an Image Formation Mechanism by A. Accetta, M.D. Computerized Anthropometric Analysis of the Man of the Turin Shroud by Emanuela Marinelli, Alessandro Cagnazzo and Giulio Fanti The 1988 Radiocarbon Dating Reconsidered by Bryan Walsh

*Source: Shroud of Turin Website Shroud History Page http://www.shroud.com/history.htm#1900 24 Some Important Events, Papers and Articles

August 1999: A controversial article titled, "Flora of the Shroud of Turin" by Avinoam Danin, Uri Baruch and Alan and Mary Whanger is published by the Missouri Botanical Garden Press, a highly respected international botanical scientific press. Not only does the article document the pollen evidence they discovered on the Shroud in detail, but it also presents their somewhat more controversial claim of observing actual flower images on the cloth.

September 5, 1999: Archbishop Saverino Poletto, former bishop of the Diocese of Asti, the birthplace of Secondo Pia, becomes the new Archbishop of Turin and Pontifical Custodian of the Shroud.

These are the last important events of 1999. In the next lecture we will review the events beginning in the year 2000.

*Source: Shroud of Turin Website Shroud History Page http://www.shroud.com/history.htm#1900 25 END OF LECTURE 10