Committee for Skeptical Inquiry

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 CONTACT: Kevin Christopher
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 Review of Evidence Confirms Shroud of Turin Is a Forgery

 Amherst, NY--The approach of Easter, the Christian holiday commemorating the
crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, sparks an inevitable surge
of discussion about the Shroud of Turin. Some claim that this relic is the
genuine burial shroud of Jesus. Others say it is a forgery.

 Joe Nickell-senior research fellow of the Committee for the Scientific
Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP)-has conducted a review of
recent shroud evidence. Nickell concludes that the documentary and forensic
findings disprove the cloth's authenticity. "The preponderance of evidence
leads to the conclusion that the shroud is the work of a medieval artisan."

 The records of the Turin shroud start abruptly in the fourteenth century
A.D. The earliest document is a bishop's report to Pope Clement VII, dated
1389. The report states that the cloth had been created as part of a
faith-healing scheme, "the truth being attested by the artist who had painted
it."

 Samples of what was claimed to be blood failed a battery of tests in 1973.
In the late 1970s, forensic microanalyst Walter McCrone, an expert in
examining the authenticity of documents and paintings, identified the "blood"
pigment of the shroud as red ocher and vermilion tempera paint.

 In 1988, the shroud was carbon dated by three different laboratories in
Zurich, Oxford and the University of Arizona. Their results closely agreed.
Radiocarbon dating yielded a date range of A.D.1260-1390-coinciding with the
forger's confession in the report to Pope Clement. Claims that the carbon
dating was flawed ignore the fact that the shroud would have to be
contaminated with twice its own weight in contaminating material to push the
cloth's age to the first century A.D.

 Finally, the Turin shroud contradicts the account of Jesus' burial in the
Gospel of John. In the Greek New Testament, Jesus is said to have been
wrapped in othonia-strips of linen, not a whole linen sheet. (John 19:40 and
20:6-7). John also says that Jesus' body was also buried in a large quantity
of aloes and myrrh: no trace of either spice has been found on the shroud.

 "Defenders of the shroud typically start with their desired conclusion and
work backward to the evidence; science begins with the evidence and proceeds
forward to a conclusion," says Nickell. Together, the facts corroborate each
other in rejecting the claim that the shroud dates to the time of Jesus.

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 Joe Nickell, Ph.D. is CSICOP's Senior Research Fellow and an expert on the
Shroud of Turin. He is author of Inquest on the Shroud of Turin (Prometheus
1983, 1998) and numerous articles, including "Blooming 'Shroud' Claims"
(Skeptical Inquirer, Nov./Dec. 1999) and "Pollens on the 'Shroud': A Study in
Deception" (Skeptical Inquirer Summer 1994). Mr. Nickell can contacted
directly at his CSICOP office at (716) 636-1425 ext. 310.