Where Did the Shroud of Turin Originate? A Botanical Question
by Avinoam Danin
ERETZ Magazine, November/December 1997
A great deal of mystery surrounds the 4.3 - by - 1.1 - meter
piece of linen kept in the Cathedral of San Giovanni
Battista in Turin, Italy. This piece of cloth, known as the
Shroud of Turin, is one of the most important Christian
relics in the world. On it is a full-scale imprint of the
body of a man resembling the descriptions of the crucified
Jesus that were common from the third century onward. The
impression of the body in the shroud shows signs of
flagellation, and it appears that the dead man's hands were
wounded and bloody. Marks of blood can also be seen on the
parts of the shroud that lay on his nape and forehead.
Consequently, there are many who believe that the Shroud of
Turin was wrapped around the body of Jesus after it was
taken down from the cross, and that the profile on the
shroud is that of Jesus himself.
The Shroud of Turin is first mentioned in the fourteenth
century, when according to the commonly accepted version of
its history it was discovered in the vaults of Geoffrey de
Charney. Presumably, it was taken there after having been
removed from a church in Constantinople during a crusade
aimed at bringing the shroud to France. Margarita,
granddaughter of de Charney, handed the shroud over to
Louis, Duke of Savoy in 1453, though it is unclear why she
was willing to part with such a valuable item. Legend has it
that her horse, after having the shroud loaded on its back,
refused to move. To this day, the duke's family is the legal
owner of the shroud.
Experts in the natural sciences began examining the shroud
toward the end of the nineteenth century. Among their
findings were the imprints of plants and grains of pollen.
In 1995 I was asked by Dr. Alan Whanger and his wife Mary,
of Durham, North Carolina, to assist them in identifying the
plants and to evaluate the identification of the grains of
pollen that had been collected by the Swiss crime expert Dr.
Max Frei.
Ten years previously, in 1985, Dr. Whanger was looking at a
photograph of the shroud taken in 1931 when he noticed the
faint outline of a flower later identified as the
inflorescence of the crown chrysanthemum (Chrysanthemum
coronarium). Intrigued, the Whangers, amateur photographers,
spent thousands of subsequent hours looking at photographs
that had been specially enhanced so that the faint images
stood out more clearly. They discovered hundreds of flowers,
mostly in the vicinity of the figure's head. Comparing the
flowers they found with drawings in Michael Zohary and Naomi
Feinbrun's Flora Palaestina, they succeeded in identifying
twenty-eight species of plants.
During the Whangers' stay in Israel in September 1995, I
recognized images of the crown chrysanthemum and the rock
rose (Cistus creticus) in their photographs, and became
convinced that the material was authentic and that the
Whangers' findings were valid. At their request, I collected
pollen grains of the plants they had identified so that they
could be compared to the pollen Max Frei had removed from
the shroud by means of adhesive tape.
In February 1997, I visited the Whangers in their home and
examined the images of the flowers in the original
photographs of 1931. Indeed, the crown chrysanthemum was the
easiest species to identify there. It took me some time to
get used to the visual medium, but eventually I discovered
the most interesting find on the "site" - a bouquet composed
of bean caper plants (Zygophyllum dumosum). The Whangers had
noticed that there were images of flowers and leaves on that
part of the shroud, but had not identified the species.
It was after I discovered the images of both summer and
young winter leaves of Zygophyllum dumosum that I became
interested in ascertaining that the provenance of the shroud
was the Holy Land. During rainy winters this species sprouts
leaves whose petioles look like sausages with two leaflets
at their head. When summer comes, the leaflets drop and only
the petiole is left. The petioles shrink slowly during the
summer, only to fill out and grow new leaves again with the
arrival of winter. The only species of Zygophyllum that
exhibits this behavior is Zygophyllum dumosum, whose
petioles survive for up to three years.
A bouquet of rock rose, which I had noted along with the
crown chrysanthemum in 1995, appears on the right cheek of
the human profile on the shroud. Dr. Frei had placed his
adhesive tape No. 6bd at that spot and actually found some
grains of rock rose pollen long before anyone had discovered
images of the plant on the shroud. The fact that the
existence of this plant's image on the shroud has been
demonstrated by two independent botanical methods proves
beyond a reasonable doubt that plants of this species were
placed on the shroud at one time.
In 1973, some clerics in Turin had asked police crime expert
Dr. Max Frei to examine the shroud with a microscope and to
apply to it the method he had developed to study crimes, for
the purpose of determining its origins. Among the flax
fibers of which the shroud is made, Frei found dust
particles, parts of plants, and grains of pollen. He placed
strips of transparent adhesive tape on the shroud, folding
them after taking the samples in order to prevent
contamination. An expert on the flora of central Europe,
Frei had trouble identifying the pollen. He made several
trips to Israel to collect plant samples from the Jerusalem
and Dead Sea areas: with their help he succeeded in
identifying twenty-five species of plants whose pollen he
had found on the shroud. The Whangers' alternative method of
identification confirmed Frei's findings.
Dr. Frei collected hundreds of pollen grains from the
shroud, but he died in 1982 before he could finish examining
and publishing all of his findings. Part of his collection
was studied by the American Paul Maloney, who found hundreds
of pollen grains on the adhesive tapes. On tape No. 4bd, for
example, no less than forty-five shreds of plant parts were
found, including a whole anther full of pollen. Maloney is
not a botanist, but he managed to record tens of pollen
grains on microscopic photographs. Today his collection is
kept in a vault in the care of the Whangers, and his
findings are being documented using the latest microscopic
methods.
I collected samples from Israel of the pollen of all
twenty-eight species identified on the shroud so that they
could be compared to the grains on Frei's adhesive tapes. In
addition, I gathered samples of related species belonging to
the same genus or family, to be used in cases of doubt
concerning the identification of the plants. I hope that Dr.
Uri Baruch, an expert on the pollen of Israel and the
surrounding area who has joined our research team, will help
us reveal the secrets of the pollen grains on the shroud.
I also checked the distribution pattern in Israel of the
plants that had already been identified on the shroud. In my
database on local plant distribution (designed by Barak
Danin), data is organized in topographical squares of five
kilometers to a side. The database includes more than ninety
thousand units of information, including the names of the
plants and the squares in which they appear. I asked Barak
to correlate twenty-six of the species whose imprints were
found on the shroud with the plant lists on the various
squares superimposed on the country.
At first we analyzed squares of 5 km to a side; later we
combined four such squares to form squares of 10 km to a
side, and then squares of 20 km to a side. We discovered
that there is one square of 10 km to a side that contains
70% of the species we were seeking - and is located midway
between Jerusalem and Jericho. Another check determined that
five of the 5-km-sided-squares containing twenty-seven out
of the twenty-eight species are in the Jerusalem area: one
includes the villages of Aminadav and Mevo Beitar, two
include the eastern and western sections of Jerusalem,
another includes the village of Kfar Adumim, and the last
includes the ruins of Qumran. Other combinations of squares
will be examined in the future.
As far as establishing the shroud's provenance, Zygophyllum
dumosum is the most significant plant on the list. Max Frei
identified pollen grains of this species on the adhesive
tapes he examined. The northernmost extent of the
distribution of this plant in the world coincides with the
line between Jericho and the sea level marker on the road
leading from Jerusalem to Jericho. As Zygophyllum dumosum
grows only in Israel, Jordan, and Sinai, its appearance
helps to definitively limit the shroud's place of origin.
The fact that the images of winter leaves appear on the
shroud together with the previous year's petioles indicates
that the plant was picked in spring. This conclusion is
reinforced by the state of growth of the other plants whose
images are to be found on the shroud.
Research on the Shroud of Turin is far from over, and the
identity of the man it once enfolded remains unresolved. I
hope, however, that the comprehensive study of the pollen
and plant images on the shroud leads us to full agreement at
least about where it originated.
IN HIS OWN IMAGE
The best explanation for the appearance of the plant images
on the Shroud of Turin is the one proffered by physics
teacher Oswald Schewermann, who noticed the images on it in
1983 and conducted many unpublished experiments on the
phenomenon of coronal discharge, which involves the
discharge of radiation from a surface charged with static
electricity. Flat objects like leaves lose electrons on
their edges when they touch cloth, for instance, forming a
dark line that follows the contours of the points of
contact. The images are sharply defined where the body
touched the cloth and fuzzy where it did not. (See the
chrysanthemum image above, produced by Schewermann.)
The Whangers discovered images of other objects on the
shroud as well, including a nail, a hammer, a broom, a rope
reminiscent of ropes found in Nahal Heimar whose ages are
estimated at eight to nine thousand years, a round wreath of
thorns, a reed, and a sponge. The reed and the sponge recall
the description of the crucifixion in the New Testament:
"And one [bystander] ran and, filling a sponge full of
vinegar, put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink."
(Mark 15:36).