We present the press release issued by EDICES on the occasion of the new discoveries made about the shroud. In this blog you can read the press release. To see it in full, we recommend downloading the pdf with the text and the corresponding photographs.
PRESS RELEASE
Murcia, April 9, 2024
Last April 6, 2024, on the occasion of the 450th Anniversary of the foundation of the Santo Entierro Brotherhood of Ronda (1574-2024), a Dissemination Day took place in the town of Ronda, Malaga, entitled "The burial linens of Jesus of Nazareth in the empty tomb".
Four members of our EDICES research team participated in it, being the main objective of the event to communicate the latest findings concerning not only the correlation between the Turin Shroud and the Oviedo Sudarium, but also other relevant and unpublished contributions, which culminated in the meeting that part of the team had in Seville on February 24, 2024.
Since June 2022 there have been advances of remarkable importance regarding the Turin Shroud-Sudarium of Oviedo correlation after detecting reference areas that allowed the identification of 16 duplicate bloodstains, i.e. potentially with the same origin, both in Shroud and Sudarium. This result was already announced in a previous note (November 4, 2024), in which it was concluded that, from the point of view of mathematics, under the conditions of our work, all the correlation tests support mathematically, with a level of reliability that exceeds the requirements of practically all the judicial systems of the world, that Shroud and Sudarium wrapped the same body, although in different moments, although, both were produced in a short space of time.
From this line of work, thanks to the new materials and methods used by the team, new conclusions have emerged which, in the absence of direct comparison, are considered sufficiently firm to be communicated to the scientific community.
First
Using a high-resolution scanner of the Turin Shroud, specifically, in the dorsal imprint of the sindonic image, on the area of the buttocks, a group of stains was observed that present a certain degree of bilateral symmetry between them following the major axis of the corporeal image. The chromatism and morphology of these stains differs significantly with respect to the rest of the stains observable both in the Turin Shroud and in the Oviedo Sudarium. The tone is more brownish, and in their center they show a greater density of material, presumably biological, which shows no resemblance to blood stains or other body fluids already identified in these canvases. In addition, around each and every one of these dense stains, there is a peripheral halo caused by another less dense and less chromatic fluid. The most plausible hypothesis, in the absence of direct verification with the appropriate technical means on the Shroud of Turin itself, is that these are stains caused by fecal residues that contained semi-solid material of greater density and dark color, as well as another type of material of lighter color and less dense.
This finding should not be surprising because, during the agonic processes, especially if they are very prolonged, it is usual that a phenomenon known in Medicine as "loss of sphincters" occurs, with emission of urine and fecal remains through the natural orifices. Everything seems to indicate that the primary stains were produced, in the first place, in the area of the left buttock, and, later, when picking up the Shroud, already without the corpse, but with the stains still conserving staining capacity, the tissue was folded following its major axis, and, consequently, they stained the area of the right buttock causing a new system of "secondary stains". In addition, in the area of the intergluteal fold, another stain appears which, in the absence of direct verification, may have its origin in the same phenomenon, given its position and similarity to the aforementioned stains.
This finding should be considered a hypothesis until confirmed by new direct observations on the Turin Shroud.
Second
Thirdly, it has been possible to identify on the Turin Shroud duplicate blood stains coming from a common origin, caused by the displacement of the cloth. In the process of burial of the body that wrapped the Turin linen, the cloth occupied a first position in a short period of time, but enough to leave a faint blood mark on the fabric.
Subsequently, the cloth was lifted and placed again definitively on the body, leaving stains similar to the first ones, in shape and position relative to each other, but considerably more marked. Thus it has been possible to quantify the displacement, in a first phase on the forehead. Similar findings have also been made in the Oviedo Sudarium.
Third
Starting from the different positions of the Oviedo Sudarium on the head that it wrapped, it was considered the possibility that there were duplicated structures in different parts of the cloth. Specifically, we are able to establish the hypothesis that a stain coinciding with a hairy area on the nape of the neck of the Oviedo Sudarium, also visible on the Shroud of Oviedo, has been identified, which when wrapped around the head was replicated in the opposite corner, giving rise to the same duplicate stain.
This stain, of a specific and peculiar geometry, is replicated in the same dimensions as the original (coinciding with those of the Sindone) appearing therefore in three different positions (two on the Shroud and one on the Shroud). Moreover, the primary stain is perimetrical and most probably formed as a result of a double stitching with needle and thread on its sides, which draws this peculiar shape. It also maintains the predicted inclination caused by the disposition of the cloth over the head.
Fourth
Finally, a structure compatible with the imprint of a human hand has been identified, in the area of the left elbow of the anterior imprint of the image present in the Shroud of Turin, an area that, in addition, is devoid of blood stains, which leads us to suppose that, during the manipulation of the corpse, it was held by that part leaving that imprint and eliminating the possible remains of blood that could have previously been in the forearm.
It is very probable that in that area of the corpse there was blood, since the continuity of the contiguous stains and their directionality indicate it, but the application of a hand eliminated it, transferring the blood to that hand. A mechanism similar to the imprinting of fingers on the blood stains present on the feet, as already discovered in the past.
The EDICES (Research Team of the Spanish Center of Sindonology), wishes to communicate this to the scientific community as a preview of the publications that we will publish soon to make known in depth these and other findings that are in the process of confirmation.