The Shroud fabric and the body image: chemical and physical characteristics”, in: “The Turin Shroud, past, present and future

A variety of investigative techniques has been applied to the study of the fabric of the Shroud of Turin and the frontal and dorsal body images on its surface by a variety of independent experienced investigators. These investigations include photographic studies (reflection, transmission, IR thermographic, and ultraviolet emission), computer image analysis, spectroscopic studies (X-ray transmission and fluorescence, electron microprobe, reflection ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy, infrared spectroscopy, micro-FTIR spectroscopy, various types of optical microscopy), and wet chemical testing (including enzymatic and immunochemical analysis) of materials removed from the surface of the Shroud. These researches at both the macroscopic and microscopic level confirm, complement, and supplement one another so as to provide us with a consistent set of observed physical and chemical characteristics for the Shroud fabric and the body images on its surface. The images are anthropometrically correct for a Semitic adult male human being, as supported by the immunological and forensic studies. The mechanisms to form the body and blood images (contact) are different, with the blood images going onto the cloth first and out of stereoregister with the body images. The body images were produced by some as yet unknown collimated information projective process that upo