Image Characteristics
The empirical fact that the Shroud frontal body image is highly correlated with cloth-body distance presents major problems for hypotheses describing the origin of the Shroud image. First, the fundamental three-dimensional characteristic of the image argues forcefully that it could not be the work of an artist. Controlled experiments with highly trained artists have demonstrated that the human eye-brain coordination system is incapable of both recognizing and creating an intensity correlation to the degree found on the Shroud. Dr. Jackson and his team have used the VP-8 system while investigating numerous artistic copies of the Shroud produced over the past several centuries. Without exception these relief images appear quite distorted. Moreover, there appear to be no artistic examples in history where someone thought to intentionally encode the intensity structure of their artwork with three-dimensional meaning.
Because the intensity-distance correlation reveals a mathematical order in the image structure we are on much more solid ground if we consider that the image on the Shroud was the result of a physical process of some sort. However, we can reject, on the basis of the intensity-distance correlation, the hypothesis that the image was the result of a direct contact transfer from a body to the cloth because we see body image discoloration on the Shroud where cloth contact is extremely doubtful. We can also exclude simple diffusion or radiation from a body shape, because both transfer mechanisms, while acting through space, would produce a blurred image. This latter category, in fact, rejects Vignon’s ammonia vapor diffusion hypothesis discussed under the previous topic heading.
In 1978, the Shroud was studied first-hand by a team of professional scientists from the United Stated that came to be known as STURP. STURP is an acronym for “The Shroud of Turin Research Project”. Dr. Jackson was one of the leaders of the STURP team that was composed of scientists from universities, scientific laboratories, and industry as well as other experts in such fields as photography and microscopy. Among the major conclusions of the STURP team were that the bloodstains on the Shroud are real human blood and that the body image is absent beneath the blood stains. This leads to the straightforward conclusion that the blood was on the cloth before the image. This is another condition that must be taken into account by any image formation hypothesis. Another STURP conclusion was that the image itself is chemically a form of degraded cellulose. That is, the body image is a result of a molecular change in the linen cellulose, with a chemistry similar to that induced by scorching, although a thermal explanation for the image seems unlikely. Further, no extraneous chemical agents of any significance were detected that could be associated with the image. Significantly, again this means no paint or paint binding materials. Also, the body image was shown to reside only on the surface, or upmost, fibrils of the cloth. Nothing has penetrated or “seeped” into the underlying fabric. At the microscopic level, the brownish colored fibrils in the body image could be seen lying atop and next to white underlying white fibrils that comprise the threads that make up the weave of the Shroud.
Considering all of the above image characteristics there still has yet to be a satisfactory explanation or hypothesis for the Shroud image formation mechanism. In late 2009 there was a sensation in the popular press concerning an effort made by a team in Italy to produce a body image that could be compared to the Shroud. Again, we believe that this latest and well-funded effort has simply fallen well short of the mark. In future postings we will discuss this latest effort in more detail and also outline a hypothesis of Dr. Jackson’s team, that they have been working on for over twenty (20) years, for the origin and mechanism of image formation.