[Alberta's Child]

His experiments are nevertheless based on a set of assumptions gleaned from the Bible and what is known historically about crucifixion. It was the preferred means of dispatching criminals in the first century AD and took as long as 72 hours to kill a man.

Problem #1, Mr. Mattingly -- If the process you described is truly the origin of the image on the Shroud, then why aren't there more of them? Especially when you consider how relatively common a crucifixion was at the time.

[r9etb]

Problem #1, Mr. Mattingly -- If the process you described is truly the origin of the image on the Shroud, then why aren't there more of them? Especially when you consider how relatively common a crucifixion was at the time.

Not a problem: crucifixion was reserved for criminals, who were generally not given proper funerals with shrouds. IIRC, their bodies were generally dumped into graves outside the city walls.

Jesus was given a proper burial, in a tomb and linen provided by Joseph of Arimathea. (See Mark 15:42-47.)

[MEGoody]

"Especially when you consider how relatively common a crucifixion was at the time."

Generally, the bodies of the crucified were left on the crosses to rot and be eaten by birds. And even then, the bones were often just dumped. It wasn't all that common for them to be buried while there was still flesh on the bones.