A New Image Discovered in 2004
The peer-reviewed journal of the Institute of
Physics in London, on April 14, 2004, announced that Giulio Fanti
and Roberto Maggiolo, both of the University of Padua, Italy, have
found a second face image on the back of the Shroud of Turin. This
image corresponds to the front image but is much fainter. And this
image, like the front image, is completely superficial to the
topmost crown fibers of the cloth.
Because both images are
superficial (meaning there is no image or colorant of any kind
between the two image layers on the extreme outer faces of the
cloth) and because the images are in registry with each other, all
so-far-proposed fakery proposals are moot. The images are not
paintings and not some form of medieval proto-photography.
When the Shroud was examined
in 1978, the backside of the cloth was not accessible. At that
time, the Shroud was sewn to a backing cloth. Quoting from the IoP
press release of April 14, 2004:
Because the images
are extremely faint, the duo [Fanti and Maggiolo] has used an
array of image-processing techniques -- including Gaussian
filters, Fourier transforms and template matching -- to highlight
human features.
They found that the
face of the man that can be seen on the reverse of the Shroud
matches that observed on the front. The image shows faint details
of a nose, eyes, hair, beard and moustache . . . The Italian duo
was also able to make out weak images of the man's hands, but
could not produce images of his shoulders or back.
These new findings
could help to shed light on the origins of the cloth but are more
likely to fuel further debate over it. In 1989 (sic 1988),
carbon-dating techniques revealed that the Shroud dated from
medieval times and therefore could not have been used to bury
Christ. However, many scientists have argued that the
carbon-dating techniques used to study the Shroud were flawed.
Fanti and Maggiolo
are now saying that the Shroud is unlikely to be a fraud because
the image of the face is superficial on both sides of the cloth
and only involves the topmost fibres of the material. "It is
extremely difficult to make a fake with these features," says
Fanti.
While this discover of imaging
on the backside of the cloth makes artistic and photographic
methods significantly more implausible, it does lend credence to
the possibilities that gaseous amines released by the body reacted
with the carbohydrate layers. Some gases would have penetrated
through the weave of the cloth and reacted with the backside
carbohydrate layer. (And it does not rule out miraculous cause or
effect).
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