The Turin Shroud and the Tomb of the Shroud

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The Turin Shroud and the Tomb of the Shroud Apr 15, 2016 1:12:39 GMT

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Post by Admin on Apr 15, 2016 1:12:39 GMT

Archaeologists have discovered the first known burial shroud in Jerusalem from the time of Christ's crucifixion - and say it casts serious doubt on the claimed authenticity of the Turin Shroud.
Ancient shrouds from the period have been found before in the Holy Land, but never in Jerusalem.

Researchers say the weave and design of the shroud discovered in a burial cave near Jerusalem's Old City are completely different to the Turin Shroud. Radiocarbon tests and artefacts found in the cave prove almost beyond doubt that it was from the same time of Christ's death.

It was made with a simple two-way weave - not the twill weave used on the Turin Shroud, which textile experts say was introduced more than 1,000 years after Christ lived. And instead of being a single sheet like the famous item in Turin, the Jerusalem shroud is made up of several sections, with a separate piece for the head.

Professor Shimon Gibson, the archaeologist who discovered the tomb, said ancient writings and contemporary shrouds from other areas had suggested this design, and the Jerusalem shroud finally provided the physical evidence.

The debate over the Turin Shroud will not go away. Last month a Vatican researcher said she had found the words 'Jesus Nazarene' on the shroud, proving it was the linen cloth which was wrapped around Christ's body.

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The Turin Shroud and the Tomb of the Shroud Apr 16, 2016 1:54:57 GMT

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Post by Admin on Apr 16, 2016 1:54:57 GMT

The Turin Shroud is traditionally considered to be the burial cloth in which the body of Jesus Christ was wrapped after his death approximately 2000 years ago. Here, we report the main findings from the analysis of genomic DNA extracted from dust particles vacuumed from parts of the body image and the lateral edge used for radiocarbon dating. Several plant taxa native to the Mediterranean area were identified as well as species with a primary center of origin in Asia, the Middle East or the Americas but introduced in a historical interval later than the Medieval period. Regarding human mitogenome lineages, our analyses detected sequences from multiple subjects of different ethnic origins, which clustered into a number of Western Eurasian haplogroups, including some known to be typical of Western Europe, the Near East, the Arabian Peninsula and the Indian sub-continent. Such diversity does not exclude a Medieval origin in Europe but it would be also compatible with the historic path followed by the Turin Shroud during its presumed journey from the Near East. Furthermore, the results raise the possibility of an Indian manufacture of the linen cloth.

Detection of plant DNA from the Turin Shroud and identification of plant species
More than 100 PCR-derived amplicons were recovered from genic and intergenic target regions, 77 of which were successfully sequenced and attributed to a genus or species source (19 different plant taxa). Approximately half of the DNA sequences derived from the TS lateral edge samples (filter I) and allowed us to identify 16 plant species. In filters E-H, corresponding to various parts of the TS male body image, we assigned DNA sequences to one (glutei), two (feet), or three plant species (face and hands). Table 1 summarizes the plant species found on TS by querying databases of orthologous sequences from taxa of established identity. The land plant species include herbaceous weeds and crops, woody trees and shrubs; some are native to Mediterranean countries and are widespread in Central Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, whereas others have a center of origin in Eastern Asia and the Americas, and hence they were not yet present into Europe during the Medieval period (Supplementary Table S1).

Among the taxa identified, the most abundant belongs to the genus Picea, which includes a few closely related species native to Europe (P. abies (L.) H. Karst., P. obovata Ledeb. and P. omorika Purk.) and several spruce trees widespread in temperate and boreal forest regions of the Northern Hemisphere. However, other species are present, including those native to the Mediterranean basin, such as clovers (Trifolium spp.), ryegrasses (Lolium spp.) and plantains (Plantago spp.), and Eastern Asia, such as uncommon forms of pear (Pyrus kansuensis Rehder) and plum (Pyrus spinosa Forssk, syn. Pyrus amygdaliformis Vill.) of the family Rosaceae. Among the plant species of the New World, black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia L.), a tree of the family Fabaceae native to Appalachia in the Eastern United States, is notable. In addition, we identified crop species largely grown by farmers and common in many agriculture systems of the Old World, including chicory (Cichorium intybus L.), common hop (Humulus lupulus L.), cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) and grapevine (Vitis or Parthenocissus spp.). We also uncovered tree species commonly present in forests and woodlands, such as hornbeams (Carpinus spp.), walnuts (Juglans spp.) and willows (Salix spp.); although the centers of origin of these species are located in central Asia and Eastern Europe, their current areas of distribution are extremely broad (Fig. 1).

Based on the overall data, we may assume that TS was likely displayed in, or in very close contact with, different types of natural and anthropological environments. The large variety of taxonomic entities is compatible with highly diverse geographic ranges, varying from farms of cultivated plains to riparian woodlands and mountain forests. Some species have a center of origin and have diversified in areas around the Mediterranean basin, including North Africa and the Middle East, and most of these species were widely distributed throughout Europe before the age of Christ. However, other species identified on TS were not introduced to Europe before the XVI century, after the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus (for instance, Robinia pseudoacacia and also nightshades of the family Solanaceae), while the two species of the genera Prunus and Pyrus, rare fruit trees originating from South-East Asia and the Middle East, were likely introduced to Mediterranean territories from the XIII century and thereafter, following the travels of Marco Polo (Supplementary Table S1).

Figure 1: Plant DNA species found on the Turin Shroud.

Examination of human mtDNA haplotypes from the Turin Shroud and identification of mtDNA haplogroups
Among the 93 mtDNA amplicons generated and sequenced, a large number of different human sequences corresponding to three distinct mtDNA loci (MT-DLOOP, MT-CO1, MT-ND5) were identified. This result not only indicates that human DNA was indeed unequivocally present in the dust from TS but also that the sources of human DNA could be ascribed to numerous individuals (Table 2). In fact, the mtDNA haplotypes were found to belong to different branches of the human mtDNA tree (Supplementary Table S2), even after having excluded all the mtDNA sequences that could be theoretically attributed to operator contamination (Supplementary Table S3). Moreover, not only were the observed mtDNA haplotypes numerous, but they could also be affiliated to many distinct haplogroups. Six sub-branches of haplogroup H (H1, H2, H3, H4, H13, H33) are included, as well as representatives of haplogroups U2, U5, R0a, R7, R8, L3c, M39 and M56 (Table 2).

The number and proportion of read clusters derived from the different TS samples for each of the identified haplogroups are shown in Fig. 2, together with a schematic overview of their current geographic distributions. Some haplogroups are widespread, while others are geographically and ethnically more localized (see Supplementary Table S2 for detailed information). For instance, haplogroup H1 is very common in Western Europe, with a frequency peak among Iberians (~25%) but also among the populations of Northwestern Africa, including the Berbers. Haplogroup H4 is instead present at low and rather similar frequencies in Western (Iberia ~3%) and Eastern Europe (~1%), the Caucasus (~3%) and the Near East (~1%). Haplogroup H33 is rare and mainly found thus far among the Druze, a minority population of Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. Haplogroup U2 is found largely in South Asia (~5%), but one of its subsets (U2e) is present in Europe, with a frequency of ~1%. Haplogroup U5 harbors an average frequency of 7% in modern European populations, and its major sub-branches, U5a and U5b, are most common in Eastern and Western Europe, respectively. Haplogroup R0a is predominantly localized in the Arabian Peninsula and the Horn of Africa, with the highest frequency in southeast Yemen (approximately 30%), though it is also found at low frequencies all over Western Eurasia. Haplogroup L3c is extremely rare and only found in East Africa, while haplogroups M39, M56, R7 and R8 are typical of the Indian subcontinent, with the latter essentially present only in Eastern India.

Figure 2: Human mtDNA haplogroups found on the Turin Shroud.

With regard to the sources of human DNA, the detected haplotypes do not cluster randomly on the entire human mtDNA tree, but only on a specific subset of its branches, corresponding to numerous haplogroups from Western Eurasia and surrounding areas (Supplementary Table S2). This finding not only indicates that many individuals have left traces of their DNA on the TS, but also that they most likely belonged to different ethnic groups and were from far away geographic regions, including Europe, North and East Africa, the Middle East and India. Thus, the sources of these sequences fit well the geographic path of the postulated long journey from the Near East, even if they are also fully compatible with the scenario that among the perhaps thousands of worshippers who came into contact with the relic in France and Italy throughout the centuries, there were many coming from the far away geographic areas where these mtDNA haplogroups are common. Moreover, it should be taken into account that filters E, F, G and H correspond to the internal parts of the linen cloth that enveloped the body of the TS man; in contrast, filter I derives from the lateral edge of the cloth. Because the cloth was folded, the lateral edges were not only in contact with the external environment much more than the internal and more protected body image but are also the TS regions that were handled the most. Thus, filters E, F, G and H might provide more reliable clues than filter I with regard to the TS earliest contacts and contamination and, therefore, its hypothesized historical path. There are six haplogroups (H4, L3c, M39, R7, U2 and U5) that were detected only in the dust particles from filter I. If these are excluded, four partially overlapping geographic regions are generally outlined by the remaining haplogroups: (i) the Middle East with haplogroups H13, H33 and R0a; (ii) Southeast Europe and Turkey with haplogroups H1a, H2a and H13; (iii) Western Europe, including France and Italy, with haplogroups H1j and H3; and (iv) India with haplogroups M56 and R8.

In conclusion, our results on human mtDNA traces detected on the TS are compatible with both alternative scenarios that i) the cloth had a Medieval origin in Western Europe where people from different geographic regions and ethnic affiliations came in contact with it, possibly moved by the worship for the Christian relic; ii) the linen cloth had a Middle Eastern origin and was moved itself across the Mediterranean area, consequently coming across a wide range of local folks and devotes in a longer time span. Even in the latter case (i.e., Jerusalem in Israel until approximately 500 A.D., Şanliurfa in Turkey until 944, Constantinople in Turkey until 1204, Lirey and Chambery in France from 1353 until 1578, Turin in Italy to date)3, the detection of mtDNA haplogroups that are typically from India is somehow unexpected. One obvious possibility is that during the course of centuries, individuals of Indian ancestry came into contact with TS. Taking into account the rate of DNA degradation and PCR-biases toward undamaged DNA, the recent contamination scenario is extremely likely. However, one alternative and intriguing possibility is that the linen cloth was weaved in India, as supported perhaps by the original name of TS - Sindon - which appears to derive from Sindia or Sindien, a fabric coming from India.

doi:10.1038/srep14484

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The Turin Shroud and the Tomb of the Shroud Apr 19, 2016 1:14:34 GMT

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Post by Admin on Apr 19, 2016 1:14:34 GMT

The Tomb of the Shroud is a first-century C.E. tomb discovered in Akeldama, Jerusalem, Israel that had been illegally entered and looted. The investigation of this tomb by an interdisciplinary team of researchers began in 2000. More than twenty stone ossuaries for collecting human bones were found, along with textiles from a burial shroud, hair and skeletal remains. The research presented here focuses on genetic analysis of the bioarchaeological remains from the tomb using mitochondrial DNA to examine familial relationships of the individuals within the tomb and molecular screening for the presence of disease. There are three mitochondrial haplotypes shared between a number of the remains analyzed suggesting a possible family tomb. There were two pathogens genetically detected within the collection of osteological samples, these were Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Mycobacterium leprae. The Tomb of the Shroud is one of very few examples of a preserved shrouded human burial and the only example of a plaster sealed loculus with remains genetically confirmed to have belonged to a shrouded male individual that suffered from tuberculosis and leprosy dating to the first-century C.E. This is the earliest case of leprosy with a confirmed date in which M. leprae DNA was detected.

The Tomb of the Shroud was investigated in 2000 in the lower Hinnom Valley at the foot of Mount Zion by an archaeological team led by Shimon Gibson, Boaz Zissu and James Tabor [1], [2]. The tomb had been entered and looted before archaeologists reached the site. The tomb was one of more than seventy separate family tombs of the first century C.E. in an area identified with traditional Akeldama, the “Field of Blood” described in the Bible (Matthew 27:3–8; Acts 1∶19). The tomb comprised a simple entrance cut into a quarried scarp leading to rectangular rock-hewn chambers on two levels, with tunnel-like kokhim in the walls and with a number of niche repositories - ossilegia is the custom of bone collection in rock-hewn tombs - for the secondary storage of human remains (Figure 1). More than twenty stone ossuaries for the collection of human bone were found, a few bearing inscriptions in Jewish and Greek script (“Mary”; “Shimon ben [son of] Shulai”; “Salome”; “Phineas”). What marked this tomb as unique from the other tombs in the Akeldama cemetery was the discovery of degraded shroud textile, with a simple weave and a clump of human hair, in one of the loculi together with the skeletal remains of a primary burial of an adult. This discovery is rare because high levels of humidity in the Jerusalem area does not usually allow for the preservation of organic material. A radiocarbon date of the shroud textile determined by the AMS radiocarbon laboratory in Texas (by D. Donahue) confirmed its early date: 2025+/− 28 years BP, with calibrated calendar date ranges of one sigma: 50 BCE -16 CE and two sigma: 95 BCE -53 CE.

Figure 1. A schematic plan of the tomb (numbers represents the niche or loculi) (Produced by SG).

The investigation of this tomb has included many areas of archaeological investigation and the genetic analysis of the bioarchaeological material from the Tomb of the Shroud was an integral aspect of this interdisciplinary analysis. The genetic analysis was performed because no other first century tomb from Jerusalem has ever been examined by molecular methods and this particular tomb has remains that are unique within this region - specifically the discovery of textiles that form part of a burial shroud from the first century. Also, due to the extremely disturbed nature of the tomb, extensively damaged osteological remains and recovery of less than 5% of each skeleton, traditional morphological analysis did not yield any information (MNI, height, age, sex, ancestry and pathology). The morphological analysis did identify one osteological element, a phalanx (from the hand), that presented with secondary osseous remodeling lesions, however these features were not pathognomonic for any disease (Figure 2). Since molecular analysis has proven to be successful for the detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Mycobacterium leprae and these pathologies could be included in the differential diagnosis of this osteological element, all the samples in the tomb were screened for the presence of DNA from these two pathogens. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) was analyzed to examine familial relationships of the individuals within the tomb, in parallel with the molecular paleopathology that identified the presence of disease. Genetic analysis involves a method termed polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for amplification and analysis of trace amounts of DNA, including pathogenic bacterial DNA, recovered from past human material and has been used successfully to identify and characterize ancient DNA. The recovery of ancient or degraded DNA is challenging and hindered by forms of damage, including chemical modifications and fragmentation of the DNA [3], [4], [5]. The mtDNA molecule has been used extensively for population analysis and the identification of maternal relationships. MtDNA is favoured over genomic DNA, with good recovery due to its high copy number that is over a thousand copies within each cell [3], [6], [7], [8], [9], [10]. Mitochondria are maternally inherited organelles, suitable for characterization of maternal relationships [11], [12], the traditional approach in familial genetics, identifying haplotypes and population groups [10], [13], [14], [15].

Figure 2. The phalanx with suspected pathology (Photograph taken by KKV).

Sequences were generated from the analysis of all the Tomb of the Shroud samples for the HV1 and HV2 of the human mtDNA. The most consistent sequence amplified was 191 bp between mitochondrial nucleotide position (np) 16210 and np16401 (Table 2). The mtDNA profiles from these sequences were analyzed by determining the polymorphisms that occur between these sequences and the revised Cambridge Reference Sequence (Table 3). Polymorphisms in this region will be identical in most maternally related individuals enabling the individuation and maternal relatedness of remains to be interpreted from a familial sample population (Table 4). However the target region is small and thus errors could be introduced in the identification of relationship amongst a random sample population. This mtDNA analysis has identified two mtDNA profiles that are shared between two individuals and one mtDNA profile that is shared between three individuals, suggesting a number of maternal relationships within the individuals from the Tomb of the Shroud (Table 4). The samples were also analyzed to identify their biological sex using the amelogenin gene and the X and Y chromosome specific alphoid repeats (Table 5). All extraction and amplification controls were negative for mtDNA with the primers used in this study. The archaeologist's DNA was characterised for reference to eliminate possible contamination, however neither contamination nor the archaeologist's DNA was found in any of the results.

Skeletal and textile remains from numerous loculi and environmental samples were examined and analyzed for the presence of the M. tuberculosis DNA. A fragmented bone with what may have been a non-specific pathological lesion was discovered in a collection of archaeological material from the chest region of the shrouded individual's loculus. No other osteological indications of disease were observed from skeletal fragments. Randomly selected bone fragments were genetically analyzed. A phalange, assorted skeletal elements, textile samples and the pulp of a molar tooth from the loculus SC1 (Figure 1) individual were all positive for M. tuberculosis (Table 5). The positive amplification of M. tuberculosis obtained from two samples of the SC1 individual was independently replicated in the London and Thunder Bay laboratories. Teeth from two infants in the small ossilegium niche (SC2 T2 and SC2 T3) in the northern wall of the lower chamber (Figure 1) were also positive for M. tuberculosis (Table 5). No osseous bone changes were observed amongst these remains, although infants rarely survive to an age where M. tuberculosis lesions are evident in the skeletal material.

dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0008319