Shroud of Turin age debate flares again

LOS ALAMOS, N.M., Jan. 27 (UPI) -- A New Mexico scientist says the Shroud of Turin is much older than earlier radiocarbon dating research suggests, the BBC said Thursday.

Raymond Rogers, a retired chemist from Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, wrote in the peer-reviewed Thermochimica Acta journal the shroud is between 1,300 and 3,000 years old. That would place it back in the realm of possibility the shroud with stains outlining a man's face was used to wrap the body of Jesus Christ.

Rogers said his research and chemical tests show the sample used in the 1988 radiocarbon analysis was cut from a medieval patch woven into the shroud to repair fire damage. In the 1988 study, scientists from three universities concluded the cloth dated from some time between 1260 and 1390.

Rogers' tests revealed the presence of a chemical called vanillin, which is produced by the thermal decomposition of lignin, a chemical compound found in plant material such as flax. Levels of vanillin in material such as linen fall over time, so it provides one way to date the shroud.