Shroud Research Confirms Authenticity Using Scanning and Historical Evidence
It was the final test, the decisive one—if needed—to confirm the authenticity of the human image on the Shroud. Thus, the hypothesis that the image was formed by combustion is now dismissed. Professor Pierluigi Baima Bollone, the world’s leading expert on the Holy Shroud—the cloth that would have wrapped Jesus’ body after death—is satisfied with this latest confirmation of his studies derived from scanning, specifically the recording on an electronic matrix of the back of the Shroud.
In simple terms, a fragile doubt still persisted: whether the corpse was exposed on the front or the back. With this result, Baima Bollone explained, a guest of the Lions Club of Sirmione and Incres Onlus, it can reasonably be excluded that the image of the corpse on the cloth could have been artificially created. He also rules out any manipulations made after its discovery.
“And then there is the blood,” continued the scientist. “It does not emerge from the opposite side, the one examined with the scanner. Furthermore, traces of pollen from three plants, which bloom only in a restricted geographical area—around Jerusalem—have been found on the Shroud. Moreover,” Baima Bollone added, “textile archaeologists have demonstrated that the cloth belonged to a type of fabric typical of that era and woven with a specific kind of loom found only in the Jordan Valley.”
Through the illustration of footage frames, the Turin scholar detailed, with abundant specifics, the long sequence of elements that form the core of the Shroud’s authenticity. For example, the blood flow, the positioning of the mortal wounds caused by the nailing of Jesus’ hands and feet—images that, from the Middle Ages onward, appeared in paintings and mosaics, almost as if some artists knew of the existence of the sacred cloth brought certainly by the Templars from Palestine.
Finally, traces of two coins from the time of Tiberius, the Roman emperor during which Christ was crucified, have also been found on the cloth. They bear the date of year 16 of Tiberius’ empire, roughly corresponding to 30 AD, the year in which historians have fixed Jesus’ death. The coins are dated April 7. Baima Bollone, 64 years old, professor of Forensic Medicine at the University of Turin, is the author of 130 scientific publications and 18 books translated into numerous languages. He was invited to Sirmione by the president of the Lions Club, Crescini, and Professor Gian Carlo Quaglia, president of Incres Onlus of Desenzano, an association planning cultural events.
