Divinity Atlas
Things this atlas does not know. Each entry is a question that specialists
have posed and not settled, recorded with what would actually resolve it and which
expertise the answer needs.
These are kept deliberately, rather than quietly omitted. An atlas that shows
only what it is sure of implies a confidence it has not earned, and the gaps are often where
the interesting work is. Several sit exactly where two fields fail to meet: identifying the
hyssop of the Hebrew Bible needs a botanist and a philologist of Biblical Hebrew, and neither
one settles it alone.
You can send evidence on some of these. A pilot is open on 55 questions in one field, Palaeography. Each says what would resolve it; send something that meets that bar, with a source anybody can check, and an editor will weigh it. Sending evidence does not guarantee the question will be resolved, and it does not have to be your field to read what is being asked. See what is open.
Grouped by the part of the atlas the question sits in. Start here if you know the territory better than the technique.
Filter By Specialty 99 fields, 1 selected
Showing 2 of 608 questions, filtered to 1 specialty.
Metaphysics & Matter 1
Radiocarbon Dating of the Sudarium of Oviedo
Would a radiocarbon assay of the Sudarium of Oviedo on a decontaminated sample give a different age from the seventh century AD result already published?
Open Radiocarbon Dating of the Sudarium of Oviedo
Why It Is Open The published assay came with the laboratory's own caveat that oils absorbed over centuries of veneration could distort the measured age, and that caveat was never tested. No scholar holds a position on what a clean measurement would show, so this is a gap rather than a disagreement: the work was started, it reached no conclusion, and nobody resumed it.
What Would Settle It A repeat assay on material cleaned by a published decontamination protocol, run blind across more than one laboratory, with the sampling location on the cloth recorded. Independent characterisation of the absorbed organic contaminants would show how large a shift they are capable of producing, which is the part the original caveat left unquantified.
Expertise Needed Radiocarbon dating and archaeometry, with textile conservation science for the decontamination protocol.
Question posed in
The Oviedo Cloth, Mark Guscin.
Sacred Objects, Dress & Symbols 1
Sudarium of Oviedo
What is the true age of the Sudarium of Oviedo cloth?
Open Sudarium of Oviedo
Why It Is Open Radiocarbon testing of the cloth returned an approximate seventh century date, but the testing laboratory itself cautioned that oil contamination absorbed by the cloth could distort the result, so the date obtained has never been treated as reliable.
What Would Settle It A repeat radiocarbon dating using a sample cleaned of contaminant oils, of the kind used elsewhere to correct for similar contamination in aged relics.
Expertise Needed Archaeometry, radiocarbon dating
Question posed in
The Oviedo Cloth, Mark Guscin.