Dear Editor,
Regarding your article on the Shroud of Turin in the July 25 issue of The Reminder, I’d like to add some pertinent information.
Some years after the 1988 radiocarbon test was run on the shroud, it was discovered that bacteria can build up in ancient linen to the extent that its weight can exceed the weight of the linen itself.
Thus, the radiocarbon test sample included the much younger bacteria. I say “much younger” because bacteria growth, like all populations, does not increase linearly with time, but exponentially.
No information is available on the initial amount of bacteria in the linen, nor the amount of bacteria in the 1988 sample.
Until this becomes available, the age of the linen itself cannot be calculated. All that can be said now is that is much older than the 1988 radiocarbon test said.
Anthony McDonald
Flin Flon
