The Shroud of Turin was not laid on Jesus' body, scientists reveal
... the shroud is nothing more than a 'masterpiece of Christian art'.
Mr Moraes used digital modelling software to examine how cloth drapes over the human body compared to a low, flat sculpture of a body.
These results, published this week in the journal Archaeometry, show that the shroud's distinctive pattern could only have been produced by a sculpture. ...
Imagine covering your own face with paint and pressing it into a paper napkin.
The image left on the napkin would not resemble a portrait of you, but rather appear stretched and warped.
For this reason, Mr Moraes believes that the images on the Shroud of Turin could not have been produced by laying it over the body of Jesus.
Mr Moraes told Live Science: 'The image on the Shroud of Turin is more consistent with a low-relief matrix.
'Such a matrix could have been made of wood, stone or metal and pigmented - or even heated - only in the areas of contact, producing the observed pattern.'
The first recorded mention of the Shroud of Turin dates back to the 14th century, and the relic was almost immediately accused of being a fake.
Modern carbon dating, a way of measuring the age of natural materials using radioactive isotopes of carbon, carried out in 1989, placed the Shroud's creation between 1260 and 1390 AD. ...
