There is no blood on the shroud. The material is paint. The shroud comes from the 14th century,and has no further interest for scientists. It has become a huge industry of fraud, where money is the bottom line. First a brief history, followed by a link explaining the conclusive scientific verification:
A History of Doubt
From it's very beginnings, the genuine nature of the Shroud of Turin was doubted. It was first brought to light in 1349 when the French knight Geoffry de Charny wrote of his intentions to build a Church of St. Mary at Lirey, France. This is where, in 1355, the first recorded exhibition of the Shroud took place. 1 Shortly after its discovery, the Bishop of Turin, Henri de Poitiers, uncovered the fraud:
"Eventually, after diligent inquiry and examination, he discovered the fraud and how the said cloth had been cunningly painted, the truth being attested by the artist who had painted it, to wit, that it was a work of human skill and not miraculously wrought or bestowed."2
In 1389, another bishop complained that it was not the genuine article, stating that the diocese in Lirey had:
"...falsely and deceitfully, being consumed with the passion of avarice and not from any motive of devotion but only of gain, procured for their church a certain cloth cunningly painted, upon which by clever sleight of hand was depicted the twofold image of one man, that is to say the back and front, they falsely declaring and pretending that this was the actual Shroud in which our Savior Jesus Christ was enfolded in the tomb." 3
While stored in a silver reliquary in Sainte Chapelle, Chambéry, the Shroud was nearly destroyed by fire. It was rescued with the help of a blacksmith, but not before being scorched and holed by melting silver. Nuns repaired the worst of the damage, sewing it to a backcloth and patching the worst of the holes. Nothing could be done for the scorch marks, however.
After bouncing around in possession the French nobility, the shroud was finally given to the cathedral in Turin, Italy, from whence it comes by its name. No scientific analysis of the shroud was performed until 1902, when a French anatomy professor declared it to be, in his opinion, the genuine shroud of Jesus. In May of 1939, the first official congress on Shroud studies convened in Turin. In 1978, modern testing by the Shroud of Turin Research Project (STURP) began. 4 Evidence mounted against the shroud, but a number of scholars managed to find "errors" in the results or methods. These errors, however, have proven to be generally spurious. Now, only the faithful and a number of scholars who are reluctant to give up hope that they have an earthshaking find still believe it is real.
1 Wilson, Ian Shroud History As presented on the Shroud of Turin Website.
2 d'Arcis, Pierre Letter to Pope Clement VII
Excerpted at home.fireplug.net
3 Ibid.
4 Wilson, Ian Shroud History As presented on the Shroud of Turin Website.
THE SCIENTIFIC CONCLUSIONS FROM MODERN FORENSICS
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