Is the blood on the Shroud real?
Despite claims by Joe Nickell, a paranormal investigator for the Skeptical Inquirer magazine, that no blood has been found (a bold, unsubstantiated assertion sometimes repeated in the press), blood has been found. The claim is often accompanied by the erroneous statement that all old blood turns black.
All of the material cited below and their publishing journals are peer reviewed scientific journals.
It is human blood:
- S. F. Pellicori analyzed the spectral
properties of the Shroud's image, the bloodstains, and non-image
areas using ultraviolet-visible reflectance and fluorescence
spectra. These are highly reliable quantitative measurements
based on reflectance and not visual interpretation. This is
documented in Applied Optics (1980). pages 1913-1920.
- Alan Adler, an expert on porphyrins, the types
of colored compounds seen in blood, chlorophyll, and many other
natural products concluded that the blood is real. In collaboration
with John Heller, the conclusions that the blood is real was
published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Applied Optics
(also 1980). The heme was converted into its parent porphyrin, and
this was confirmed with spectral analysis.
- Baima Bollone also found both the heme
porphyrin ring of blood and the globulin in flakes of blood from
Shroud samples, independently confirming the work of Adler.
- X-ray-fluorescence spectra showed excess iron
in blood areas, as expected for blood.
- Qualitative microchemical tests for proteins were positive in blood areas but not in any other parts of the Shroud. Definition of Qualitative microchemical tests.
Various chemical tests by E. J. Jumper, A. D. Adler, J. P. Jackson, S. F. Pellicori, J. H. Heller, and J. R. Druzik are documented in a peer-reviewed scientific papter "A comprehensive examination of the various stains and images on the Shroud of Turin," ACS Advances in Chemistry, Archaeological Chemistry (1984)
Other analysis by J. H. Heller and A. D. Adler in "A Chemical Investigation of the Shroud of Turin," Canadian Society of Forensic Science Journal and by L. A. Schwalbe and R. N. Rogers, Analytica Chimica Acta (1982)
- Why is the blood red or brown? Shouldn't it be black?
- What is the significance of Pellicori's discovery that some blood was brown?
- Did the blood go on the Shroud before the images?
- What evidence is there that the Image of Edessa had bloodstains?