history of the shroud of turin
"The Turin Shroud, to this day, remains one of the best known unexplained mysteries in the world" (Facts).
"The Shroud of Turin is one of the most venerated, most remarkable, most mysterious, most thoroughly studied artifacts in the world today" (Sunfellow). "The shroud first emerges on the stage of [western] history in the mid-14th century in the town of Lirey, France. Its owner was a famed knight - Geoffrey de Charny, Seigneur of Lirey" (General). It manages to evade attention in the public eye until about 1898 when an amateur photographer, "Secondo Pia, captures the first photo of the shroud of Turin. This introduced a new era in the Shroud’s history, the era of science (Wilson).
It is not until 1937 that the Shroud of Turin develops its first research investigation organization.“Father Edward Wuenschel, a teacher with a strong interest in the Shroud of Turin, corresponds with Giuseppe Enrie and Paul Vignon. He and Vignon collaborate on an article for Scientific American and, later in the year, found the American Commission on Studies of the Holy Shroud. Although it lasts less than two decades, it gains the distinction of being the first Shroud research organization in America (Wilson)”. From the dawn of this organization on, the Shroud will be studied by multiple researchers, scholars, archaeologists, and scientists.
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Investigation of the Shroud continues to develop as more organizations directed towards understanding the Shroud bud. February 17, 1976 marks a new Shroud discovery “in the U.S.A., at Sandia Laboratries, Dr. John Jackson and Bill Mottern view for the first time the Shroud three-dimensional image. It is a moment that would prove to be significant in Shroud history, since it catalyzed the interest of a diverse group of scientists that eventually would become the Shroud of Turin Research Project (STURP). They ultimately would spend 120 hours performing the first in-depth scientific examination of the Shroud” (Wilson).
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Radiocarbon dating was the first of many experiments conducted of the Shroud. The Shroud’s first encounter with radiocarbon dating was in 1977, at Rochester University; it is the dawn of Shroud experimentation. STURP continues to research the Shroud into 1979 where “STURP holds its 'First Data Analysis Workshop' on the Shroud, in Santa Barbara, California. According to their preliminary findings, the image shows no evidence of the hand of an artist; the body image does not appear to be any form of scorch; and the blood image was probably present before the body image” (Wilson). These key findings give a better understanding of the Shroud and its origins.
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To this very day the Shroud continues to be studied as we strive to understand it unconditionally. Everyday marks as a new discovery.
The Shroud of Turin now resides in Turin, Italy where is has been since 1578, over 400 years.