Israel 2012 The Shroud of Turin Exhibit (permanent exhibit in Jerusalem)

Monday 21 May 2013
The Shroud of Turin.

Shroud notes transcribed from information given at the exhibit.

In 1954 Francis L Filas SJ., of Loyola University in Chicago, examing enlargments of the phtographs taken by G Enrie in 1931, discovered the imprint of the letters U C A I on the right eyelid.

1978, scientists.including John P Jackson and Eric J Jumper, working with NASA's  VP-8 3D Image Analyser also discovered what appeared to be raised, button-like shapes over each eye.

Three years later, Fr. Filas, working with Michael Marx, an expert in classical coins, interpretated the letters he had identified in 1954 as part of the inscription UCAI from TIBERIOUS CAISAROS.

They also found a lituus design (an augurs's staff), Filas concluded that this was a dilepton lituus, a coin minted by the Procurator Pontius Pilate between 29 and 32 AD under the Emporor Tiberias.

Though the Lepta (plural of lepton) minted in Palestine were Roman-produced coins, the inscription of TIBERIOU KAISAROS. Was the C, where a K would be expected, a mispelling?

This was a problem that seemed to preclude postitive identification until a actual dilepton lituus was discovered with the errant spelling. Several more have since been found. The anomoly, therefore, actually gives credence to the identification of the coin. The word Lepton means 'small' or 'thin' and in Roman times a lepton was always a low value coin, ususally the smallest available denomination of another currency.

The Roman mite was informally called lepton in the Greek speaking parts of the Roman Empire: this use is found in the New Testament.

The Lituus was the wooden staff which the augurs held in the right hand: it symbolised their authority and their pastoral voation. It was raised towards heavens while the priests invoked the gods and made their predictions. Legend records that Romulus used it at the itme of Rome's foundation in 753 BC. It is interesting to note that the bishop's crozier used in present times is the direct descendant of the lituus.

 Over the left eye, Fr Filas also identified what he believed to be a lepton simpulum coin minted by Pontius Pilate around 29 AD (the simpulum was a ritual cup used by the priests during their religious ceremonies). This discovery was confirmed by Prof. Baima Bolloneo and Nello Balossino in 1996.

A fairly frequent symbol from the Roman religion of the time, the simpulum was a little ladle provided with shaft and handle. The priests used it to taste the wine which they poured on the head of an animal destined for sacrifice, after which the soothsayer was empowered to examine the animal's entrails for signs and portents sent to men by gods through the medium of the interpreter.

This wasn't the first time that the simpulum appeared on Roman coins, but it was the first time it figured alone: a fact that renders Pilate's coins all the more distinctive, not only in the context of Judea but in relation to all the other coins of the Empire.