ABSTRACT

The existence of the radiocarbon dating technique is rather known, if for no other reason than it is cited in the explanation cards of some artifacts exposed in museums; sometimes writing says “artifact dated using radiocarbon method.” The out-of-the-blue assignation of a medieval date to the Shroud upset both the scientific community and the world public opinion. Some scholars, such as Eric Jumper, belonging to the famous Shroud of Turin Research Project and blindly trusting in science and in the radiocarbon dating method, quit their studies on the Turin relic. The statistical calculations of the results related to radiocarbon test published by the review in Nature were double-checked, and serious mistakes had been found. The American researcher R. Villarreal, analyzing a thread declared coming from the Shroud, provided by R. Rogers and extracted by Professor Luigi Gonella Gonella from the sample taking in 1988, discovered that one end was made of linen but the other end was made of cotton.