a bit of a sidebar, Swordmaker; A friend of mine sent me a youtube vid... Prophecyinthenews interviewing LA Marzulli... within the body of the interview, Marzulli touches upon the Shroud, and makes some rather extraordinary accusations concerning a 'restoration' which has taken place, significantly ending any credibility wrt new forensic evidence. Do you know what he is speaking of? Here is a link to the vid starting time-wise at the pertinent passage:
Clickety-clickYes, I know what they are discussing. In 2002, under the advice of a self-styled textile expert, Madame Mechtild Fluery-Lemberg, the Shroud was cleaned, vacuumed (removing any
in situ evidence of where the shroud had been in the past), stretched and steamed the material to remove wrinkles (all evidence of previous foldings and handling), and the scorched areas were trimmed away (because according to the self-styled expert, the scorched area from the 1532 fire "were
still burning"(!), contrary to all scientist's statements to the contrary), and the patches added along with the Holland Cloth backing that were added to repair the Shroud after the fire by the Nuns pf Poor Clare were replaced with modern materials. Finally, the Shroud was placed on—her ill considered advice—into a new reliquary filled with a hydrocarbon atmosphere intended to prevent pests and micro-organisms from future damaging the Shroud but has the unintended effect of suffusing the Shroud with unknown amounts of modern Carbon 14, completely distorting any future attempts to accurately date it.
This was all done in secret and was presented as a "restoration," after the fact, to all Shroud scholar's and scientist's horrified reactions! No peer-reviewed input was requested or desired in advance of the "restoration." It was purely done between non-scientist Fluery-Lemberg and the non-scientist custodian of the Shroud.