From Deseret News archives:
Shroud of Turin Local scientist says the cloth covered Christ
In 1986, Nitowski conducted one of many experiments now referenced by shroud scholars in trying to determine whether the cloth a linen containing the image of a man who had been brutally scourged, crowned with thorns, crucified with spikes through his wrists and feet, and speared in the side before death was Christ's burial shroud. (See story below.)
The fine-twined linen Shroud of Turin, approximately 14 feet, 3 inches long by 3 feet, 7 inches wide, has been one of the most closely scrutinized religious icons in history. Owned and conserved by the Roman Catholic Church, it is housed in the Chapel of the Holy Shroud inside the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Torino (or Turin), Italy in the news most recently as the next host of the 2006 Winter Olympic Games.
Though a couple of strokes and failing eyesight have left her unable to actively research with the so-called "shroud crowd," Nitowski will likely be among Utahns watching from afar, curious about any new discussion of the cloth she believes covered Jesus Christ.
Nitowski's efforts to re-create the conditions that would have existed inside an excavated Middle Eastern stone burial chamber have since been cited as another piece of evidence that places the shroud in first-century Jerusalem.
"We rented a tomb there for two weeks," on the grounds of the French School of Architecture in Jerusalem, said Nitowski, who has a bachelor's degree in biblical languages and history, master's degrees in biblical archaeology and medieval history and a doctorate from Notre Dame in medieval history.
As a Middle Eastern archaeologist, Nitowski told the Deseret Morning News, she had previously excavated 17 tombs and knew "pretty well what the environment was like," including the first one she'd ever worked on a "rolling stone tomb dated to the time of Christ."
Recent comments
Shroud may be real or maybe not. But One thing is sure for me that...
Emily Jane Basco | June 10, 2008 at 10:50 a.m.
New C-14 dating would place the Shroud about 310 A.D. when...
Eric Patterson | May 13, 2008 at 11:50 a.m.
The shroud may very well be an authentic burial shroud, but if DNA...
Milt B. | April 29, 2008 at 7:41 a.m.
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