Scientists Using Turin Shroud to Promote New Theory?

Regardless of if you are a Christian or not, the Turin Shroud, purported to be the burial cloth of Jesus (showing his face and body after the crucifixion) is a remarkable artefact. In 2013, scientists at the University of Padua in Italy dated the relic between 300BC and AD400. Although this pushed the date of the shroud back much further in time than sceptics has previously assumed, these tests placed the shroud hundreds of years after the time of Christ (between 30 and 36AD).

An Italian research team now speculates that an earthquake in Jerusalem in 33AD may have may have skewed the dating results. The researchers claim that a magnitude 8.2 earthquake would have been strong enough to release neutron particles from crushed rock which may have imprinted the X-ray-like image onto the linen cloth. Along with this, the radiation emissions would have increased the level of carbon-14 isotopes in the Shroud, which would make it appear younger.

"We believe it is possible that neutron emissions by earthquakes could have induced the image formation on the Shroud's linen fibres, through thermal neutron capture on nitrogen nuclei, and could also have caused a wrong radiocarbon dating," said Professor Alberto Carpinteri, from the Politecnico di Torino.

Frankly, this is a rather bizarre explanation as it would of been the only time in history that  nuclear fission occurred from an earthquake. Or perhaps they are claiming that fussive radiation from the center of the earth escaped because of an earthquake? This 'scientific' explanation would be about as likely a scenario as the linen cloth being the actual burial shroud of Jesus Christ. If one reads between the lines, it appears that the same group of scientists previously wrote a paper proposing this piezonuclear effect, and now they are promoting it by speculating that this effect created the famous religious relic.

Another issue is, if there was indeed a massive earthquake in Jerusalem at the time of Jesus' crucifixion, then why has no-one mentioned it until now? Where are the Roman records of the catastrophe? The shroud is almost certainly a brilliant fake. The cadaver appears to be the wrong race, height and his injuries do not match up with Roman crucifixion techniques of the era. Even so, how this relic was made remains for me - as an artist - an intriguing mystery. This mystery alone makes the Turin Shroud a remarkable and extraordinary artefact.