Understanding the nature of the Shroud of Turin's images

The Shroud is a single piece of linen cloth about 14 feet long by 3½ feet wide. The twill is a 3 over 1 herringbone weave. It is bloodstained and shows faint front and back images of a man who, by the visible wounds appears to have been crucified. He seems to be resting in in burial repose.

The bloodstains

The bloodstains on the Shroud are composed of hemoglobin and give a positive test for serum albumin. Numerous tests confirm that the blood is real human blood.

The images

The Shroud's images are superficial and fully contained within a thin layer of starch fractions and saccharides that coats the outermost fibers of the Shroud. The coloration is a caramel-like product or the product of an amino/carbonyl reaction. Where there is no image, the carbohydrate coating is clear. There is also a very faint image of the face on the reverse side of the Shroud which lines up with the image on the front of the cloth. There is no image content between the two superficial image layers indicating that nothing soaked through to form the image on the other side.

Until recently, it was widely believed that the images on the Shroud of Turin were produced by something which resulted in oxidation, dehydration and conjugation of the structure of the fibers of the linen itself. This has been shown to be incorrect. The images are now understood to reside within a coating a coating of raw starch and various saccharides.

The images as they appear on the Shroud are said to be negative because when photographed the resulting negative is a positive image.

The Turin Shroud was examined with visible and ultraviolet spectrometry, infrared spectrometry, x-ray fluorescence spectrometry, thermography, pyrolysis-mass-spectrometry, laser­microprobe Raman analyses, and microchemical testing. No evidence for pigments (paint, dye or stains) or artist's media was found anywhere on the Shroud. Nor is any photographic emulsion found on the Shroud.