SHROUD OF TURIN PICTURE TOUR
 WITH DR. JOHN DESALVO

 

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Dr. John DeSalvo, the Director of the Great Pyramid of Giza Research Association (www.gizapyramid.com), was also one of the scientists studying  the Shroud of Turin for over 30 years.  John is Executive Vice President for the Association of Scientists and Scholars International for the Shroud of Turin (ASSIST), which is the largest and oldest Shroud research organization in the world.  He has lectured nationwide on the Shroud and the International Platform Association designated him as one of the top 30 speakers in the nation in 1980.  He has published several articles on the Shroud and is the contributing science editor for the book Sindon, a Layman's Guide to the Shroud of Turin (out of print).

This section on the Shroud of Turin is part of the web site of the Great Pyramid of Giza Research Association.
Please visit our complete web site at.
www.GizaPyramid.com

This picture tour can also be reached directly at
www.ShroudTour.com

 


BEGIN THE TOUR
(There are five pages)

The Shroud of Turin is a piece of ancient linen cloth that measures about 14 1/2  feet long by 3 1/2 feet wide (exact dimensions are 14' 6" long by 3' 9" wide), and on this cloth is a very faint imprint of a human being who appears to have been crucified.  Legend has it that this Shroud is actually the burial cloth of Jesus Christ.  The Shroud takes it's name from its present location which is in the Cathedral of John the Baptist in Turin Italy.

 

SLIDE 1 - Present location of the Shroud in the Cathedral of John the Baptist. Photo taken during the 1978 public exposition. 


©1978 Barrie M. Schwortz Collection, STERA, Inc. 


 

Historically, we can only document the precise location of the Shroud from 1357 to the present.  This is important because if the Shroud is a forgery it would have to have been made prior to 1357.  In that year, the first known public exposition of the Shroud was held in Lirey, France.  From Lirey, the Shroud went to Chambery,  France.  While in Chambery, in the year 1532, there was a fire in the Chapel in which the Shroud was kept.  Fortunately, very little damage was done to the Shroud.  We will be looking at the damage on the Shroud due to this fire.  Than in 1578 it was brought across the Alps to Turin, Italy where it remains to the present.

 

SLIDE 2 - Locations of the Shroud from 1357 to the present. 

 

 

This is a 17th century painting showing how the body of the man in the Shroud would have to have been wrapped in order to produce the imprints on the Shroud.  The body was  first placed on half the cloth with the head in the center, and then the other half of the cloth was folded over to cover the rest of the body.  Notice how this would result in both a front and back imprint on the Shroud which would be head to head.

 

SLIDE 3 - 17th Century Painting of the Shroud


 

 

 

This slide shows the Shroud as it would appear to the naked eye.  The Shroud is marked with burns, scorches, and water stains from the 1532 Chambery fire.  The two dark parallel lines running lengthwise are scorch marks from that fire.  Framed between these lines is the faint body image, both frontal and dorsal.  The triangular shaped areas are patches sewn on in 1534 to cover up the areas destroyed by the fire.  These patches were removed in 2002 which we will discuss.  The Shroud was folded up and a corner was burnt by melted silver and this produced the regular pattern of triangular shapes that you see.  The several large diamond shaped areas are water stains.  There are also areas that appear to be blood.

 

SLIDE 4 - The Shroud as it appears to the naked eye


©1978 Barrie M. Schwortz Collection, STERA, Inc. 

 

 

The Shroud is amazing because only in the last 100 years has man developed the technology necessary to unlocks its secrets.  In 1898  a remarkable discovery was made.  In that year,  during a public exposition of the Shroud,  the first photographs  were taken by a lawyer named Secondo Pia.  As he was developing his negative plate, instead of seeing a faint, flat image of a human being, he saw a clear and well defined portrait of a human being with relief and depth.  He thought he was seeing a miracle but it didn't take him long to realize what had happened. There, on his negative plate was a positive image.  That is a true image with lights and shadows in there correct relationship.  If he had a positive image on his negative plate, that meant he must have photographed a negative image since you would get a reversal of lights and shadows on the negative.  Thus, this mean that the Shroud body image was similar to a photographic negative.  How could this be since photography was not invented until the 1800's and we know the Shroud existed at least since 1357, hundreds of years before the invention of photograph.  Go to Slide 6 to see what appeared on Secondo Pia's negative.

 

SLIDE 5 - The frontal image of the Shroud as it appears to the naked eye


©1978 Barrie M. Schwortz Collection, STERA, Inc. 

 

 

The same frontal image as it appears on the photographic negative.  Notice the body is now a positive image.  The lights and shadows are in their correct relationships.  

 

SLIDE 6 - The frontal image of the Shroud on the negative plate


©1978 Barrie M. Schwortz Collection, STERA, Inc. 

 

 

 

Comparisons of the shroud as it appears to the naked eye (left) and the image on a photographic negative (right).

 

SLIDE 7 - Comparisons of negative and positive images

  
©1978 Barrie M. Schwortz Collection, STERA, Inc. 

 

 


©1978 Barrie M. Schwortz Collection, STERA, Inc. 

 

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