Abstract.
The TS (Turin Shroud) is a linen cloth which enveloped the dead body of a tortured
and crucified man that is believed by many to be the burial cloth of Jesus Christ. The linen
fabric has been radiocarbon dated in 1988 to the Middle Age but a recent robust statistical
analysis shows that the resulting age appears flawed by a systematic effect. The present paper
discusses the results obtained using innovative dating methods based on the analysis of
mechanical parameters (breaking strength, Young modulus and loss factor) and of opto-
chemical ones (FT-IR and Raman). To obtain mechanical results it was necessary to build a
particular cycling-loads machine able to measure the mechanical parameters of single flax
fibers 1-3 mm long. A least squares multi linear regression (MLR) has been applied to the
measured mechanical data estimating a TS age equal to 260 AD. Furthermore, two opto-
chemical methods have been applied to test the linen fabric, obtaining a date of
250 BC by a FT-IR ATR analysis and a date of 30 AD by a Raman analysis. These two dates combined with
the mechanical result, weighted through their estimated square uncertainty inverses, give a final
date of the Turin Shroud of 90 AD ±200 years at 95% confidence level. While this date is both
compatible with the time in which Jesus Christ lived in Palestine and with very recent results
based on numismatic dating, it is not compatible with the 1988 radiocarbon measurements that
should be repeated after the necessary clarifications relative to the possible environmental
factors that could have biased the results.
