A robust statistical analysis of the 1988 Turin Shroud radiocarbon dating results

Using the 12 published results from the 1988 radiocarbon dating of the TS (Turin Shroud), a robust statistical analysis has been performed in order to test the conclusion by Damon et al. (1998) that the TS is mediaeval. The 12 datings, furnished by the three laboratories, show a lack of homogeneity. We used the partial information about the location of the single measurements to check whether they contain a systematic spatial effect. This paper summarizes the results obtained by Riani et al. (2010), showing that robust methods of statistical analysis can throw new light on the dating of the TS. Keyword: ANOVA, Forward Search, Robust methods, t-statistics, Turin Shroud.