GIOVANNI FAZIO*, ANTONIO ANASTASI, GIUSEPPE MANDAGLIO
*Corresponding author
Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Catania, I-95123, Catania, Italy
Università di Messina, Dipartimento di Fisica e di Scienze della Terra, I-98166, Messina, Italy

KEYWORDS: Shroud of Turin, perfumes and/or burial ointments, E(z) correlation, E₀/R₀ attenuation specific coefficient
ABSTRACT: In this paper we suggest that observations of the different intensities of the dorsal and ventral images on the Shroud of Turin can be accounted for by the presence of burial ointments and/or perfumes. This is a new approach, valuable because of the strong disagreement between the results of various previous experiments to determine chemical substances on the Shroud. We will show that the image intensity of both images varies measurably and consistently between the dorsal and ventral images, in areas that nevertheless represent the same cloth-body distance, and suggest that this variation is due to the different amount of burial ointments covering the upper and lower surfaces of the body as it lay on the cloth.

The determination of the original presence of perfumes and/or burial ointments is one of the goals of research on the Shroud. Experiments on, and theoretical analyses of, the above questions are valuable in the attempt to determine if the Linen of Turin is ...