Second Face on the Shroud of Turin

Institute of Physics ^ | April 13, 2004 | Giulio Fanti and Roberto Maggiolo

[shroudie]

The most definitive evidence yet that the Shroud of Turin is not a medieval fake-relic. This is big stuff, published on a highly respected scientific organizations website, the Institute of Physics, a 37,000 member organization of physicists. Their journal is an ethical journal of peer-reviewed scientific studies.

The Washington Times, BBC, the Observer, the Telegraph of London, ABC Australia, the Chicago Sun-Times and several outlets have picked up the story in the last few hours. In my opinion it reinforces the already clear proof that the carbon 14 testing in 1988 was completely erroneous. It clearly eliminates the polemics of medieval paintings, da Vinci conspiracies, proto-photography and other silly concocted theories being bantered about by those skeptical of Christianity.

If it is a genuine burial shroud of a 1st century victim of crucifixion, it can almost certainly be inferred that it is Jesus. If that is so, it buries the extra-liberal revisionism of John Dominic Crossan and Marcus Borg who argue that Jesus was not buried.

If it is a genuine burial shroud of a 1st century victim of crucifixion, how is it that this piece of cloth survived the grave and was not ravaged by decomposition products?

The story at the link is quite technical. I suggest alternatively reading the stories in any of the various newspapers or for a clear concise explanation read first Chemistry of the Image and then Explanation of the Backside Image.

From the extract: "Photographs of the back surface of the Turin Shroud were analysed to verify the existence of a double body image of a man. The body image is very faint and the background not uniform; i.e., the signal-to-noise ratio is lower than one. Therefore, image processing . . . was necessary to highlight body features. This was based on convolution with Gaussian filters, summation of images, and filtering in spatial frequency by direct and inverse bidimensional Fourier transformations.

[shroudie]

It is my opinion that this is near-definative evidence that the Shroud is genuine.

[EternalHope]

It is my opinion that this is near-definitive evidence that the Shroud is genuine.

Agreed.

No one has come up with anything remotely capable of explaining how a painter from the Middle Ages could have faked this kind of double image, or that needed this kind of enhancement to see. The other remarkable features of the shroud were sufficient IMHO, but this seems to seal the case.

However, I expect to see near hysterical denials that it is of Jesus Christ. Such a thing would have implications that are simply unacceptable to many people.

[NewHampshireDuo]

Good find. The nice thing about IoP is that you can download the journal articles at no charge for 30 days from the date of publication (beyond that you'll have pay a hefty fee for the download).

[LandOfLincolnGOP]

I'm not a physicist, but as I read the original article, I think it's relatively neutral as to whether or not the shroud is genuine. One interesting thing it does highlight, however, is that this image analysis discovered differences between the front and back side images that seem to suggest they do not correspond with one another very closely. If anything, I would think that would cast additional doubt on the shroud.

But again, I'm not a physicist...

[polemikos]

However, I expect to see near hysterical denials that it is of Jesus Christ. Such a thing would have implications that are simply unacceptable to many people.

What I find especially humorous is that many hysterical denials will come from Fundamentalists decrying "false idols". What a world, what a world...

"And as a man was being buried, lo, a marauding band was seen and the man was cast into the grave of Eli'sha; and as soon as the man touched the bones of Eli'sha, he revived, and stood on his feet." -- 2 Kg 13:21 (RSV)

[orionblamblam]

> No one has come up with anything remotely capable of explaining how a painter from the Middle Ages could have faked this kind of double image

Hmmm. How about this: the painter painted both sides?

Not exactly challenging... just paint one side, hold up to the light, paint the other side. Easy.

[orionblamblam]

> I expect to see near hysterical denials that it is of Jesus Christ.

What I find funny is that any scientist who looks at the evidence and says, "Nah, it's a fake," will be hysterically described as being in hysterical denial.

[JaguarXKE]

It has been recently discoved that there are also two faces on the shroud of Kerry.

Jag

[shroudie]

Much of the current thinking in the Shroud skunkworks is that the correspondance is within the tolerance ranges of gaseous diffusion of heavy amines. Other possibilities, without regard to miraculous causation, would include an ionizing radiation or corona discharge -- though some physicists have real problems with this.

The differences, such as the nose on the reverse side which doesn't show the same extension as the front, are probably completely due to chemical reaction differences, image inhibition by bloodstains, and diffusion of amine reactants if the catalyst or the reactant is gaseous.

I am not a physicist either, but I know what sort of scientist Fanti is and I know what sort of scientist Ray Roger, UCLA fellow and former head of the bomb explosives group for the Los Alamos Laboratory, is, and they agree emphatically that this rules out forgery or any form of artistic or crafty technique.

Fanti's words are clear: "It is extremely difficult to make a fake with these features."

In fact, the skunkworks group has been working with the double superficiality of the images for some time now. It is hard to imagine how this could be mechanically or artistically produced.

Shroudie

[happydogdesign]

The double superficiality of the frontal image of the Turin Shroud
Giulio Fanti and Roberto Maggiolo
Dipartimento di Ingegneria Meccanica, Università di Padova,
Via Venezia 1, 35137 Padova, Italy

E-mail: giulio.fanti@unipd.it
Received 13 October 2003, accepted for publication 12 March 2004
Published 13 April 2004


Abstract. Photographs of the back surface of the Turin Shroud were analysed to verify the existence of a double body image of a man. The body image is very faint and the background not uniform; i.e., the signal-to-noise ratio is lower than one. Therefore, image processing, developed ad hoc, was necessary to highlight body features. This was based on convolution with Gaussian filters, summation of images, and filtering in spatial frequency by direct and inverse bidimensional Fourier transformations. Body features were identified by template matching. The face and probably also the hands are visible on the back of the Turin Shroud, but not features related to the dorsal image. Keywords: image processing, very low signal-to-noise ratio, fast Fourier transform, convolution, Turin Shroud

URL: stacks.iop.org/1464-4258/6/491
DOI: 10.1088/1464-4258/6/6/001
PII: S1464-4258(04)70555-3


The double superficiality of the frontal image of the Turin Shroud

So, basically, these guys are stating that after running photographs of the back of the Turin cloth through lots of image processing filters and doing a bit of tweaking, they were able to discern faint blurs that bled through from the other side.

That convinces me! It must be Jesus!

[shroudie]

Right, except he had to paint it without paint or pigment or dyes or colorants of any kind. He would have needed a microscope and a single fiber paintbrush thinner than a human hair. The color is within a thin carbohydrate film that is 180 to 600 nanometers thick on fibers that average 13 microns in diameter (human hair is 100 microns). It is superficial to the topmost crown fibers on both sides of the cloth. There are no visible concentrations of paint on the Shroud. Period.

Shroudie

[EternalHope]

What I find funny is that any scientist who looks at the evidence and says, "Nah, it's a fake," will be hysterically described as being in hysterical denial.

To say it's a fake without any idea of HOW it could be faked is simply denial. Thus far, no one has any idea how the image could have been faked.

[shroudie]

There you go again. Nothing bled through. There is no image between the superficial layers. We've been through this before, haven't we.

Shroudie

[happydogdesign]

Sorry, shroudie, I keep forgetting that one should assume a miraculous, supernatural theory is true, then work backwards to prove it's validity by ignoring or discrediting those nasty secular humanist scientific techniques and inconvenient historical records. But we minions of Satan are always planting those nasty doubts to test the faithful. Rock on! I have to go plant some more dinosaur bones to plague the creation science folks!


CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: The Shroud of Turin

PBS "Secrets of the Dead" Buries the Truth About Turin Shroud

[Swordmaker]

You know, we haven't entertained the theory that Happy is actually Joe Nickell, trolling around Shroud threads. Could be.

[Kirkwood]

You need to read more carefully, because on page 500-501 the authors state:
"It should be noted that the image of the face, bs, is found in the same position as the corresponding one on the front, in all its detail, and on the same scale, with non-detectable relative rotation within the range of measurement uncertainty (3% for the scale factor, 3 degrees for relative rotations)."

In other words, no significant difference in image position with respect to front and back surfaces.

[Swordmaker]

Hmmmm dead links. I guess you don't want readers to see that your sources are an article that was written in 1908 and copyrighted in 1912, since superceded in the Catholic Encyclopedia in 1968 (still outdated but nowhere nearly as biased as the one YOU like to cite).

And that the other is to Joe Nickell, PhD in Art and English, no science to his name, a professional "debunker" with a book to sell... more on that later, Happy.

[Kirkwood]

NO ONE believes that the image was painted - even those who do not believe it is a true death shroud acknowledge it could not have been painted.

[Swordmaker]

Shroud of Turin PING!

If you want to be included or deleted from the Shroud of Turin Ping List, please Freepmail me.

Swordmaker

[Interesting Times]

Amusing that the "credulous" shroudie is the one providing technical analysis and scientific documentation, and the "realist" debunker must make do with sarcasm, innuendo and intentionally ignoring established facts...