The chemists tries to explain...
The explanation is the ammonia from the skin, sweat & as a gaseous form could have left such a stain mark on the shroud.
Another explanation......
The Resurrection caused a supernatural release of energy which resulted in the fabric becoming scorched. This particular theory seems to have some similar echoes from the US Air Force scientists saying that the marks on the shroud appeared to have caused by a "microsecond blast of intense radiation". Radiation??? Where on earth did it come from??
Lab test results....
In 1988, three separate laboratories conducted dating experiments on the tiny samples of cloth supplied by the Vatican. The results of their finding began to cast some doubts about the antiquity of this priced relic. They reveal that the age of the relic was not less than 14th century. (This was approximately the time when the relic turned up in a small French village). If 1 lab produced the findings such as this it is easy to suspect the credibility of their test but as 3 labs comes with similar findings...this triggers some thoughts along the whole subject of this relic.
More researchers come forward...
In 1994, Clive Prince & Lynn Picknett wrote a book entitled "Turin Shroud" claiming that the whole idea is a gigantic hoax but created by a genius. The "genius" according to them is no other than Leonardo da Vinci (remember the Da Vinci Code-the movie? :) who happens to be the most inventive artist & scientist ever lived. (Leonardo da Vinci's image left). The authors theory on why the artist did such a scam is due to the orders of the Pope Innocent VIII who "needed a fresh religious relic to boost his popularity".
Countering skepticism of the Turin shroud...
As a way to counter the skeptics, came another 2 fresh appraisers. They were German researhers, Holger Kersten & Elmar Gruber who wrote the book, "The Jesus Conspiracy". They believe that the carbon dating by these laboratories are perfect methods BUT the samples they dated DO NOT stem from the shroud!! They further state that the samples of flax prepared under unexplained secrecy were actually switched by the Vatican. The reason is that "since the winding sheet had been around a dead man, any evidence that it was a genuine relic would also have proved that Christ had lain dead long enough to cause such an imprint. And that means it would have destroyed the entire story of the Resurrection," says Gruber.
Another backer of the Turin shroud...
Then came Rodney Hoare, a scientist educated in the Cambridge who spent 26 years researching the relic. He wrote a book entitled "The Turin Shroud Is Genuine". His arguments too surrounds the carbon-dating laboratories were bound to make a mistake because unlike most objects they usually analyse, the shroud had been constantly exposed and handled for almost 2000 yrs. Fingerprints, fire, pollutants and other causes such as the high carbon content in treated flax made nonsense of the carbon dating figures. Hoare who also happens to be the chairman of the British Society for the Turin Shroud vehemently concludes that the relic is genuine. He says that paintbrushes could not have possibly created such an image because "it is a negative image that holds 3-dimensional information of a nature that NO ARTIST could ever produce.
Furthermore, nobody or no medieval artist could have produced a negative image since no one knew what it was in the middle ages since photography was not invented during that time. Does this mean that the Turin shroud is for Real? What significance does it hold for the humanity if it is to survive 2 centuries? What is the hidden message of this Turin Shroud? Perhaps, one day, someone may come forward to decipher the message to mankind.
