On Cleaning Methods and the Raw Radiocarbon Data from the Shroud of Turin

Larry Schwalbe; Bryan Walsh

doi:doi:10.11648/j.ija.20210901.12

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On Cleaning Methods and the Raw Radiocarbon Data from the Shroud of Turin

Larry Schwalbe, Bryan Walsh

Published in International Journal of Archaeology (Volume 9, Issue 1)

Received: 19 February 2021 Accepted: 5 March 2021 Published: 12 March 2021

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Abstract

The Shroud of Turin is a long, narrow strip of linen cloth believed by many to be the burial cloth of Jesus. The Shroud is unique because faint images of a crucified man are clearly visible on one surface. These body images along with accompanying blood stains have been the subject of scientific inquiry for over a hundred years, yet the process of the image formation has been and remains unknown. Among the more recent of coordinated studies of the Shroud was a radiocarbon dating of excised samples. The results, published in 1989, place the origin of the cloth to sometime in or around the 14th century. The objective of the present study is to survey the cleaning methods (or pretreatments) that were applied to the samples removed for the radiocarbon study. Specifically, we explore the extent to which these methods may have given rise to a peculiar structure in the "raw" radiocarbon data published in 2019. The data from two of the participating laboratories, Zurich and Arizona, appear to bifurcate into groups separated by roughly 100 radiocarbon years. By comparing the pretreatment for each subsample and its group membership, we conclude that these pretreatments do not account for the bifurcation effect. As all subsamples represent portions excised from an originally intact and continuous sample of Shroud material, we assume they are all the same calendar age. Granted this assumption and given the results of the present study, two hypotheses remain to account for the curious anomaly: either 1) the carbon isotope ratios ¹⁴C/¹²C of the fabric itself were altered by some currently unknown process, or 2) a non-isotropic distribution of contamination remained after the samples underwent the documented pretreatments. A resolution of the question is important for deciding whether future radiocarbon studies are called for and, if so, how the testing protocols should be structured.

Published in	International Journal of Archaeology (Volume 9, Issue 1)
DOI	10.11648/j.ija.20210901.12
Page(s)	10-16
Creative Commons	This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright	Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Shroud, Radiocarbon, Inter-laboratory, Statistics, Pretreatment

References

[1]	Wilson, I, The Shroud of Turin, Doubleday & Company, Inc., Garden City, New York (1978).
[2]	Schwalbe, L. A. & Rogers, R. N., Physics and chemistry of the Shroud of Turin, a summary of the 1978 investigation, Anal. Chim. Acta 135, 3-49. (1982).
[3]	Jumper, E. J., Adler, A. D., Jackson, J. P., Pellicori, S. F., Heller, J. H. & Druzik, J. R., A comprehensive examination of the various stains and images on the Shroud of Turin, Archaeological Chemistry III, ACS Advances in Chemistry No. 205, J. B. Lambert, Editor, Chapter 22, American Chemical Society, Washington D.C., pp. 447-476 (1984).
[4]	Damon, P. E., Donahue, D. J., Gore, B. H., Hatheway, A. L., Jull, A. J. T., Linick, T. W., Sercel, P. J., Toolin, L. J., Bronk, C. R., Hall, E. T., Hedges, R. E. M., Housley, R., Law, I. A., Perry, C., Bonani, G., Trumbore, S., Woelfli, W., Ambers, J. C., Bowman, S. G. E., Leese, M. N. & Tite, M. S., Radiocarbon dating of the Shroud of Turin, Nature 337 (6208), pp. 611-615 (1989).
[5]	Casabianca, T., Marinelli, E., Pernagallo, G. & Torrisi, B., Radiocarbon dating of the Turin Shroud: new evidence from raw data, Archaeometry, https://doi.org/10.1111/arcm.12467.
[6]	Walsh, B., & Schwalbe, L., An instructive inter-laboratory comparison: the 1988 radiocarbon dating of the Shroud of Turin, Journal of Archaeological Sciences-Reports (2020).
[7]	Ward, G. K. & Wilson S. R., Procedures for comparing and combining radiocarbon determinations: a critique, Archaeometry 20, 19-31 (1978) https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-4754.1978.tb00208.x.
[8]	Walsh, B. J., The 1988 Shroud of Turin radiocarbon tests reconsidered, Proceedings of the 1999 Shroud of Turin International Research Conference Richmond Virginia, Magisterium Press, Glen Allen, Virginia (2000).
[9]	VanHaelst, R., Radiocarbon dating the Shroud a critical statistical analysis, http://shroud.com/vanhels3.htm (1997).
[10]	Riani, M., Atkinson, A. C., Fanti, G., & Crusilla, F., Regression analysis with partially labeled regressors: carbon dating of the Shroud of Turin, J. Statistics and Computing 23, 551-5561 (2012).
[11]	Adler, A. D., Updating recent studies on the Shroud of Turin, Archaeological Chemistry: Organic, Inorganic, and Biochemical Analyses, Mary Virginia Orno, ed., American Chemical Society, (1996).
[12]	Rogers, R. N., Studies on the radiocarbon sample from the Shroud of Turin, Thermochimica Acta 425 (1-2), 189-194 (2005).
[13]	Freer-Waters, R. & Jull, A. J. T., Investigating a Dated Piece of the Shroud of Turin, Radiocarbon 52 (4) 1521-1527 (2010).
[14]	Pellicori, S., UV fluorescence imagery of the Turin Shroud – digitally revisited, International Journal of Archaeology, 8 (2), 32-36 (2020) doi: 10.11648/j.ija.20200802.13.
[15]	Kearse, K. P., Unanticipated issues in serological analysis of blood species – the Shroud of Turin as a case example, Forensic Science International – Reports http://doi.org/10.1016/j.fsir.2020.100073

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Larry Schwalbe, Bryan Walsh. (2021). On Cleaning Methods and the Raw Radiocarbon Data from the Shroud of Turin. International Journal of Archaeology, 9(1), 10-16. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ija.20210901.12

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Larry Schwalbe; Bryan Walsh. On Cleaning Methods and the Raw Radiocarbon Data from the Shroud of Turin. Int. J. Archaeol. 2021, 9(1), 10-16. doi: 10.11648/j.ija.20210901.12

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AMA Style

Larry Schwalbe, Bryan Walsh. On Cleaning Methods and the Raw Radiocarbon Data from the Shroud of Turin. Int J Archaeol. 2021;9(1):10-16. doi: 10.11648/j.ija.20210901.12

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@article{10.11648/j.ija.20210901.12,
  author = {Larry Schwalbe and Bryan Walsh},
  title = {On Cleaning Methods and the Raw Radiocarbon Data from the Shroud of Turin},
  journal = {International Journal of Archaeology},
  volume = {9},
  number = {1},
  pages = {10-16},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ija.20210901.12},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ija.20210901.12},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ija.20210901.12},
  abstract = {The Shroud of Turin is a long, narrow strip of linen cloth believed by many to be the burial cloth of Jesus. The Shroud is unique because faint images of a crucified man are clearly visible on one surface. These body images along with accompanying blood stains have been the subject of scientific inquiry for over a hundred years, yet the process of the image formation has been and remains unknown. Among the more recent of coordinated studies of the Shroud was a radiocarbon dating of excised samples. The results, published in 1989, place the origin of the cloth to sometime in or around the 14th century. The objective of the present study is to survey the cleaning methods (or pretreatments) that were applied to the samples removed for the radiocarbon study. Specifically, we explore the extent to which these methods may have given rise to a peculiar structure in the "raw" radiocarbon data published in 2019. The data from two of the participating laboratories, Zurich and Arizona, appear to bifurcate into groups separated by roughly 100 radiocarbon years. By comparing the pretreatment for each subsample and its group membership, we conclude that these pretreatments do not account for the bifurcation effect. As all subsamples represent portions excised from an originally intact and continuous sample of Shroud material, we assume they are all the same calendar age. Granted this assumption and given the results of the present study, two hypotheses remain to account for the curious anomaly: either 1) the carbon isotope ratios 14C/12C of the fabric itself were altered by some currently unknown process, or 2) a non-isotropic distribution of contamination remained after the samples underwent the documented pretreatments. A resolution of the question is important for deciding whether future radiocarbon studies are called for and, if so, how the testing protocols should be structured.},
 year = {2021}
}

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TY  - JOUR
T1  - On Cleaning Methods and the Raw Radiocarbon Data from the Shroud of Turin
AU  - Larry Schwalbe
AU  - Bryan Walsh
Y1  - 2021/03/12
PY  - 2021
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ija.20210901.12
DO  - 10.11648/j.ija.20210901.12
T2  - International Journal of Archaeology
JF  - International Journal of Archaeology
JO  - International Journal of Archaeology
SP  - 10
EP  - 16
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2330-7595
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ija.20210901.12
AB  - The Shroud of Turin is a long, narrow strip of linen cloth believed by many to be the burial cloth of Jesus. The Shroud is unique because faint images of a crucified man are clearly visible on one surface. These body images along with accompanying blood stains have been the subject of scientific inquiry for over a hundred years, yet the process of the image formation has been and remains unknown. Among the more recent of coordinated studies of the Shroud was a radiocarbon dating of excised samples. The results, published in 1989, place the origin of the cloth to sometime in or around the 14th century. The objective of the present study is to survey the cleaning methods (or pretreatments) that were applied to the samples removed for the radiocarbon study. Specifically, we explore the extent to which these methods may have given rise to a peculiar structure in the "raw" radiocarbon data published in 2019. The data from two of the participating laboratories, Zurich and Arizona, appear to bifurcate into groups separated by roughly 100 radiocarbon years. By comparing the pretreatment for each subsample and its group membership, we conclude that these pretreatments do not account for the bifurcation effect. As all subsamples represent portions excised from an originally intact and continuous sample of Shroud material, we assume they are all the same calendar age. Granted this assumption and given the results of the present study, two hypotheses remain to account for the curious anomaly: either 1) the carbon isotope ratios 14C/12C of the fabric itself were altered by some currently unknown process, or 2) a non-isotropic distribution of contamination remained after the samples underwent the documented pretreatments. A resolution of the question is important for deciding whether future radiocarbon studies are called for and, if so, how the testing protocols should be structured.
VL  - 9
IS  - 1
ER  -

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Author Information

Larry Schwalbe

Shroud of Turin Center, Richmond, Virginia, USA
Bryan Walsh

Shroud of Turin Center, Richmond, Virginia, USA

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APA Style

Larry Schwalbe, Bryan Walsh. (2021). On Cleaning Methods and the Raw Radiocarbon Data from the Shroud of Turin. International Journal of Archaeology, 9(1), 10-16. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ija.20210901.12

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ACS Style

Larry Schwalbe; Bryan Walsh. On Cleaning Methods and the Raw Radiocarbon Data from the Shroud of Turin. Int. J. Archaeol. 2021, 9(1), 10-16. doi: 10.11648/j.ija.20210901.12

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AMA Style

Larry Schwalbe, Bryan Walsh. On Cleaning Methods and the Raw Radiocarbon Data from the Shroud of Turin. Int J Archaeol. 2021;9(1):10-16. doi: 10.11648/j.ija.20210901.12

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@article{10.11648/j.ija.20210901.12,
  author = {Larry Schwalbe and Bryan Walsh},
  title = {On Cleaning Methods and the Raw Radiocarbon Data from the Shroud of Turin},
  journal = {International Journal of Archaeology},
  volume = {9},
  number = {1},
  pages = {10-16},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ija.20210901.12},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ija.20210901.12},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ija.20210901.12},
  abstract = {The Shroud of Turin is a long, narrow strip of linen cloth believed by many to be the burial cloth of Jesus. The Shroud is unique because faint images of a crucified man are clearly visible on one surface. These body images along with accompanying blood stains have been the subject of scientific inquiry for over a hundred years, yet the process of the image formation has been and remains unknown. Among the more recent of coordinated studies of the Shroud was a radiocarbon dating of excised samples. The results, published in 1989, place the origin of the cloth to sometime in or around the 14th century. The objective of the present study is to survey the cleaning methods (or pretreatments) that were applied to the samples removed for the radiocarbon study. Specifically, we explore the extent to which these methods may have given rise to a peculiar structure in the "raw" radiocarbon data published in 2019. The data from two of the participating laboratories, Zurich and Arizona, appear to bifurcate into groups separated by roughly 100 radiocarbon years. By comparing the pretreatment for each subsample and its group membership, we conclude that these pretreatments do not account for the bifurcation effect. As all subsamples represent portions excised from an originally intact and continuous sample of Shroud material, we assume they are all the same calendar age. Granted this assumption and given the results of the present study, two hypotheses remain to account for the curious anomaly: either 1) the carbon isotope ratios 14C/12C of the fabric itself were altered by some currently unknown process, or 2) a non-isotropic distribution of contamination remained after the samples underwent the documented pretreatments. A resolution of the question is important for deciding whether future radiocarbon studies are called for and, if so, how the testing protocols should be structured.},
 year = {2021}
}

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TY  - JOUR
T1  - On Cleaning Methods and the Raw Radiocarbon Data from the Shroud of Turin
AU  - Larry Schwalbe
AU  - Bryan Walsh
Y1  - 2021/03/12
PY  - 2021
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ija.20210901.12
DO  - 10.11648/j.ija.20210901.12
T2  - International Journal of Archaeology
JF  - International Journal of Archaeology
JO  - International Journal of Archaeology
SP  - 10
EP  - 16
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2330-7595
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ija.20210901.12
AB  - The Shroud of Turin is a long, narrow strip of linen cloth believed by many to be the burial cloth of Jesus. The Shroud is unique because faint images of a crucified man are clearly visible on one surface. These body images along with accompanying blood stains have been the subject of scientific inquiry for over a hundred years, yet the process of the image formation has been and remains unknown. Among the more recent of coordinated studies of the Shroud was a radiocarbon dating of excised samples. The results, published in 1989, place the origin of the cloth to sometime in or around the 14th century. The objective of the present study is to survey the cleaning methods (or pretreatments) that were applied to the samples removed for the radiocarbon study. Specifically, we explore the extent to which these methods may have given rise to a peculiar structure in the "raw" radiocarbon data published in 2019. The data from two of the participating laboratories, Zurich and Arizona, appear to bifurcate into groups separated by roughly 100 radiocarbon years. By comparing the pretreatment for each subsample and its group membership, we conclude that these pretreatments do not account for the bifurcation effect. As all subsamples represent portions excised from an originally intact and continuous sample of Shroud material, we assume they are all the same calendar age. Granted this assumption and given the results of the present study, two hypotheses remain to account for the curious anomaly: either 1) the carbon isotope ratios 14C/12C of the fabric itself were altered by some currently unknown process, or 2) a non-isotropic distribution of contamination remained after the samples underwent the documented pretreatments. A resolution of the question is important for deciding whether future radiocarbon studies are called for and, if so, how the testing protocols should be structured.
VL  - 9
IS  - 1
ER  -

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