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Shroud Of Turin Passes Test

More than a decade after a carbon-dating study concluded that the Shroud of Turin was not the true burial cloth of Jesus, believers have gotten a boost from an analysis of pollen grains and plant images on the centuries-old relic.

“We have identified by images and by pollen grains species on the shroud restricted to the vicinity of Jerusalem,” botany professor Avinoam Danin of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem said Monday during the International Botanical Congress. “The sayings that the shroud is from European origin can't hold.”

The earlier study indicated the shroud came from Europe rather than the Holy Land and that it was made between 1260 and 1390.


The shroud contains pollen grains and the image of a crucified man, as well as faint images of plants.

Analysis of the floral images, and a separate analysis of the pollen grains by another botanist, Uri Baruch, identified a combination of plant species that could be found only in March and April in the region of Jerusalem, Danin said.

Danin identified a high density of pollen of the tumbleweed Gundelia tournefortii. The analysis also found the bean caper (Zygophyllum dumosum). The two species coexist in a limited area, Danin said.

“The pollen grains were collected from the shroud in 1973 and '78,” Danin told CBS This Morning. “We tested them now and due to the pollen analysis that our team was making… We could arrive to the conclusion that there is no other place on earth where these three plants could grow unless it was the Jerusalem/Hebron area.”

An image of the Gundelia tournefortii can be seen near the image of the man's shoulder. Some experts have suggested that the plant was used for the “crown of thorns.”

Two pollen grains of the species were also found on the Sudarium of Oviedo, believed to be the burial face cloth of Jesus.

Danin, who has done extensive study on plants in Jerusalem, said the pollen grains are native to the Gaza Strip.

Since the Sudarium of Oviedo has resided in the Cathedral of Oviedo in Spain since the 8th century, Danin said that the matchup of pollen grains pushes the shroud's date to a similar age. Both cloths also carry type AB blood stains in similar patterns, Danin said.

“The pollen association and the similarities in the blood stains in the two cloths provide clear evidence that the shroud originated before the 8th Century,” Danin said.

The location of the Sudarium of Oviedo has been documented since the first century. If it is found that the two cloths are linked, then the shroud could date back even further, Danin said.

The 1988 study used carbon-14 dating tests. Danin noted that the earlier study looked at only a single sample, while he used the entire piece of fabric.

The Shroud of Turin is a linen about 13 feet long and 3 feet wide that has ben kept in the city of Turin, Italy, since 1578. The shroud bears the image of a man with wounds similar to those suffered by Jesus.

Roman Catholic Church officials have said the shroud is not a holy relic, but the image does have great symbolic importance.

It has been kept in a silver casket in a chapel of Turin Cathedral and is encased in four layers of bullet-proof glass. It was last on display in 1998 and is expected to be displayed again next year.

©1999 CBS Worldwide Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report

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