Flora of the Shroud of Turin Avinoam Danin

1. Flora of the Shroud of TurinAvinoam Danin

2. The Shroud of Turin, the traditional burial cloth of Jesus of Nazareth, is made of fine linen measuring 435 cm long by 110 cm wide. Left photos are negative prints of the right one

4. Chrysanthemum coronarium, a common plant in Israel, the image of which seems to be on the Shroud

5. The plant images on the Shroud resemble prints of “corona discharge” (or Kirlian photography) of plants prepared by Mr. O. Scheuermann, e.g. the Chrysanthemum sp. In Flora Palaestina

6. The head area of the Shroud with plant images observed on a photo made in 1931 (see Danin et al., 1999). The plant images are faint and marked red on an overlay..

7. Gundelia tournefortii, an important geographical indicator, the image of which is near the man’s shoulder

8. The chest and shoulder area of the Shroud where Gundeliaimage is shown on the right with red and green arrows; on the low left the image of a leaf of Zygophyllum dumosumindicated

9. The image of Gundelia tournefortii flowering head with faint images of the long subtending leaves and dots at the tip of several stiff spines

10. Images produced (by O. Scheuermann) by electronic emission on photographic paper. He used “Van-der-Graaf-generator” as a high voltage source for the creation of corona discharge images. Main features: 1. Star-shaped dark dots at the tip of spines. 2. Fleshy fruit of Berberis looks dark and full. 3. Toothed margins of a rose leaf become prominent 1 1 Chrysanthemum 2 2 3 Berberis sp. fruiting stem a rose leaf

11. The author’s finger points to the image of G. tournefortii on the Shroud when he saw it directly in March 2000

12. The chest area with the Z. dumosum leaf (1). Another leaf without the pair of leaflets (2) is seen right of the first leaf 1 1 2

13. The previous area with Zygophyllum dumosum leaflets (L), petioles (P) and flower (F) images shown with a black overlay. On the right an illustration of the plant from Flora Palaestina

14. A branch of Z. dumosum in February Previous year’s leaf with a leaflet scar A pair of leaflets A new leaf

15. A Z. dumosum shrub on the Judean Desert escarpments above the Dead Sea

16. Distribution maps of Z. dumosum, an endemic plant of Israel, Jordan, and Sinai, and G. tournefortii in Israel

17. Distribution areas of G. tournefortii and Z. dumosum which share a boundary line at the Jerusalem – Hebron area

18. Cistus creticus, the image of which is seen on the Shroud, and grows in the meeting zone of the previous two other indicators only west of Jerusalem

19. Distribution map of Cistus creticus assisting the geographical indications that people could put fresh stems of the three indicators near or on the body of the man of the Shroud only in the Jerusalem – Hebron area

20. The common blooming time of plants, the images of which are seen on the Shroud, is March - April

21. The “Sudarium of Oviedo”, showing blood stains, highly similar in shape to the blood stains on the Shroud of Turin. They are assumed to have covered the body and head of the same person. Seen in Oviedo since the eight century, the Sudarium helps dating the Shroud to before the eight century. (See J. Bennett, 2001)

22. Ray Rogers’ paper • "As unlikely as it seems, the sample used to test the age of the Shroud of Turin in 1988 was taken from a rewoven area of the Shroud. Pyrolysis-mass spectrometry results from the sample area coupled with microscopic and microchemical observations prove that the radiocarbon sample was not part of the original cloth of the Shroud of Turin. The radiocarbon date was thus not valid for determining the true age of the Shroud." (The “sample” also had cotton fibers) • In a press-release Rogers stated, "The radiocarbon sample has completely different chemical properties than the main part of the Shroud relict. The sample tested was dyed using technology that began to appear in Italy about …AD 1291. The radiocarbon sample cannot be older than about AD 1290, agreeing with the age determined (for the sample) in 1988. However, the Shroud itself is actually much older."

23. Authenticity by comparison to a drawing and a gold coin of a known age 550 C.E., 250 pc 692C.E., 140 pc

24. Reading of a chapter from Isaiah (in Hebrew) at the private display of the Shroud to attendants of a scientific meeting, March 2000, with Cardinal S. Polleto, the interpreter, Don G. Ghiberti, and A. Danin

25. A negative photo of the head area. The arrow indicates fruits of Pistacia lentiscus with the stem feeding them

26. A close-up of the P. lentiscus fruits on a positive photo of the Shroud. The other dark dots, with less sharp boundaries, are interpreted as fruits of other species of Pistacia

27. A close up of the Shroud photo from A. Whanger’s (CSST) presentation displaying the high similarity between the peduncle with three fruits and low-right peduncle on the illustration of P. lentiscus in Flora Palaestina fruits

28. Fruiting stems of a P. lentiscus shrub in the Autumn

29. Large dots near the P. lentiscus site and dark lines with small branches in ca. 900 angle. Interpreted as fruits, peduncles, and pedicels of other Pistacia species (e.g. P. atlantica and P. palaestina), with a sample of such fruits and pedicels (on the white paper) derived from a shopin Old Jerusalem

30. Spices in a shop at the market of Old Jerusalem with Pistacia (BUTUM) tray. The owner harvests the fruits near Hebron in late Autumn and sells them throughout the year

31. The Pistacia tray. The “plant and man of the Shroud” were wrapped in Spring, as indicated by the blooming time of a few plants. Therefore, the fruits of the three Pistacia species were available in that season only in a similar shop

32. A pseudo three dimensional photo of the Shroud (the negative photo is almost superimposed on the positive photo), displaying many dots that are interpreted as Pistacia fruits. The validity and purpose of these fruits, added in hundreds to the enshrouded body, need further investigations

33. A photo of a part of the Shroud of Turin with an image of a reed stem A node with a leaf remnant Stem stem

34. The common giant reed, a component of the beach vegetation of the Kinneret, blooms in summer

35. Rope image

36. A rope and a string 9000 years old (dated by C14) from Nahal Heimar, The Dead Sea Valley

37. Image of sections of a 10 m rope

39. Typha domingensis(cattail) a common hydrophyte of river banks and lake shores

40. Fine longitudinal fibers constitute internal skeleton and air-storage chambers

41. Splitting a cattail leaf in preparation of “practical” fibers for ropes

42. Twisting cattail fibers and starting their folding towards their mutual twisting

43. The two halves become a rope and additional fibers are added when folded like a V

44. Summary 1.     There are plant images on the Shroud of Turin, the traditional burial cloth of Jesus of Nazareth, in addition to the well known man’s image. 2.     Plant images were studied on high quality photos of the Shroud taken in 1898, 1931, 1978, and seen directly on the Shroud in March 2000. Three of these were selected as geographical indicators as they grow only in the east Mediterranean area. 3.     The boundaries of the distribution areas of the indicators are congruent in a narrow belt between Jerusalem and Hebron; only here people could bring fresh plants and put them on the dead man’s body. 4.     The flowering plants brought and laid on the body inside the folded Shroud share blooming time in March-April. 5.     Following the tight relationships, due to blood-stains morphology, with the Sudarium of Oviedo, the Shroud of Turin existed already in the 8th century. 6.     The C14 dating was made of a sample derived from a rewoven strip dating after 1290. 7. There are experimental indications that radiation resembling electric discharge was involved in the formation of images on the Shroud of Turin. 8.     The study of pollen grains sampled by Dr. Frei does not enable recognition of types at the species level and demands new collection of pollen and their study in contemporary methods and equipment.

45. References List of Publications and presentations concerning The Shroud of Turin by A. Danin and collaborators Danin, A. 1998. The origin of the Shroud of Turin from the Near East as evidenced by plant images and by pollen grains. III Congresso Internazionale di Studi Sulla Sindone “Sindone e Scienza: Bilanci e Programmi alle Soglie del Terzo Millennio” Torino, 5-7 June, 1998. Danin, A. and Baruch, U. 1999. The origin of the Shroud of Turin from the Near East as evidenced by plant images and by pollen grains. Abstracts of the 7th Int. Conf. of the Israel Soc. for Ecol. and Env. Qual. Sci. p. 61. Danin, A. 1999. The Flora of The Shroud of Turin. In conjugation with the XVI International Botanical Congress, at St. Louis, Missouri August 2-7, 1999. Danin, A., Whanger, A.D., Baruch, U. and Whanger, M. 1999. Flora of the Shroud of Turin. Missouri Botanical Garden Press. 52 pp. Danin, A. 2000. Micro-traces of plants on the Shroud of Turin as geographical markers. In: S. Scannerini, P. Savarino (eds.) The Turin Shroud, past, present and future. Torino, Sindon pp. 495-500. Danin, A. 2000. Il mio incontro con la Sindone. Il Telo 1(2): 14-16 Danin, A., and Baruch, U. 2001. Floristic indicators for the origin of the Shroud of Turin. In A.D.Adler, I. Piczek, and M. Minor (eds.) The Shroud of Turin / Unraveling the Mystery / Proceedings of the 1998 Dallas Symposium, Alexander Books, Alexander, North Carolina p. 202-214. Danin, A. 2001. Floristic indicators for the geographical origin of the Shroud of Turin. In: Second Dallas International Shroud Conference. Dallas, Texas, 25-28 October 2001.  Danin, A. 2001. Indicazioni floreali per l’origine geografica della Sindone di Torino. Il Telo II(5-6):12-21.

46. Additional references • Bennett, J. 2001. Sacred Blood, Sacred Image, the Sudarium of Oviedo. • Rogers, R.N. 2005. Studies on the radiocarbon sample from the Shroud of Turin.Thermochimica Acta, 425 (1-2): 189-194. • Los Alamos National Laboratory • A link to the detailed information (website of B. Schwartz) http://www.shroud.com/latebrak.htm#rogersc14

47. A message to the reader When compiling the present lecture I used photos that served me in lectures that I gave several time on the interesting issue of the Shroud of Turin. I was using plant encoded information and distribution maps of these plants to try and solve one or a few of the questions concerned with this special object. There are thousands of pages written about the Shroud of Turin and naturally I could focus only on my contribution. However, we already wrote several comprehensive articles and a book (Danin et al., 1999), where much of the history of the Shroud is recorded. I thank Prof. Alan Whanger and his wife and devoted collaborator Mary Whanger for including me in their team dealing with the endeavor of researching into the secrets encoded in the Shroud of Turin and waiting for investigation. Alan kindly gave me most-close up photos of the Shroud of Turin presented here. Their organization CSST with the special help of the Niemans enabled most of my research on the Flora of the Shroud of Turin and I take this opportunity to thank them.