Distinctive Limestone Dust
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Limestone particles have been vacuumed off the Shroud and analyzed. They are from an uncommon form of limestone: travertine aragonite. [Antonacci 2000, 109]
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This form is the same as the limestone (of tombs) near Jerusalem.
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“When soil traces from the foot region of the Shroud were analyzed for their composition with a scanning ion microprobe at Chicago’s Enrico Fermi Institute, the graph of the results almost completely matched the graph read-out for the aragonite soil of Jerusalem.” [Baltz 2022]
Distinctive Pollen
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In 1973, Dr. Max Frei collected samples of 58 species of pollen grains from the Shroud using adhesive tape. He died before publishing his findings, but others have continued examination since. The pollen samples are associated with plants that grow in all the places that the Shroud reportedly has traveled. [Antonacci 2015, 76-79]
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Most samples are native to the Middle East—including Israel and Turkey. Only 17 species are found in France or Italy. Six pollen species are consistent with the Shroud being in both Edessa and Constantinople—evidence that the Mandylion (Image of Edessa) and the Shroud are the same object. [Antonacci 2015, 76-79]
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Significantly, one pollen is from a plant growing only within 50 miles of Jerusalem. This pollen could have been introduced, for example, during the retting of the flax woven into the Shroud’s linen. [Antonacci 2000, 109]