The imprint of a human-like figure on the Shroud of Turin may have come from a shallow sculpture and not an actual person, according to a new study that sheds more light on the world’s most studied archaeological artefact.
The shroud measuring 14ft by 3.6ft first emerged in the 1350s, bearing the faint image of a man that many believe to be the imprint of Jesus Christ.
It displays the frontal and dorsal figures of an adult man with signs of physical violence.
Researchers have long debated the origin of the linen cloth, with some dating it to around the time of Jesus Christ’s crucifixion and others deeming it a medieval forgery.
Now, a study by a Brazilian designer claims the shroud is most likely “a medieval work of art”.
Cicero Morares is known for using 3D digital modelling to analyse how different types of cloth drape over various shapes or figures and to map their respective contact areas.
The study, published in the journal Archaeometry, employs an open-source software to assess how fabric forms impressions from a full three-dimensional human body as compared to a low-relief sculpture formed by raising a figure slightly from a flat background.
“Two scenarios were compared,” the study says, “the projection of a three-dimensional human model and that of a low-relief model.”
The low-relief figure produced an imprint on the fabric similar to that on the Turin shroud. “The results demonstrate that the contact pattern generated by the low-relief model is more compatible with the Shroud’s image,” it concludes.
Morares says the scenario of fabric contouring a low-relief sculpture shows greater similarity to the observed contours on the shroud while the projection of a 3D human body results in a “significantly distorted image”.
The designer suspects such a sculpture may have been made of wood, stone or metal and likely pigmented only in the areas of contact to produce the kind of pattern seen on the shroud.
“The accessible and replicable methodology suggests that the shroud’s image is more consistent with an artistic low-relief representation than with the direct imprint of a real human body,” the study says.
The findings, according to the Brazilian researcher, supports a hypothesis of the shroud’s origin “as a medieval work of art”.
