The Keramion, Lost and Found

A Journey to the Face of God

By Philip E. Dayvault

Morgan James Publishing

Copyright © 2016 Philip E. Dayvault
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-63047-642-7

Contents

Preface,
Acknowledgments,
Chapter 1: The Journey: Preparation,
Chapter 2: No Middle Ground,
Chapter 3: Could This Be the Face of Jesus Christ?,
Chapter 4: Historically Shrouded in Mystery,
Chapter 5: The Legend of King Abgar V,
Chapter 6: Turkiye: The Odyssey Begins,
Chapter 7: Sanliurfa, Turkey,
Chapter 8: “ISA! … ISA!”,
Chapter 9: Artful Connections to History,
Chapter 10: The Western Gate of the Citadel,
Chapter 11: Pillars of Faith,
Chapter 12: The MUÄGLA Statue: Redemption in Marble,
Chapter 13: Summary of Research in Turkey,
Comments from a Peer Reviewer,
Epilogue,
Recommended Reading,
Select Bibliography,
Websites,
About the Author,

CHAPTER 1

The Journey: Preparation

Dateline: Friday afternoon, April 28, 2000, Raleigh, North Carolina.

As always, slight anticipation arose as I walked down the driveway to check the mailbox — the same kind of anticipation one gets at Christmastime when you are about to open the presents. You feel sure something is in the package, but you just don’t know what.

It was a beautiful spring day in Raleigh: low humidity; white, wispy clouds; a gentle breeze. I was beneath a Carolina-blue sky, so called because the color of the sky was that of the school colors of the University of North Carolina, my alma mater of many years past. The birds were chirping and spring flowers were in full bloom, as if to welcome me to the mailbox. I jokingly wondered what was inside: more bills or more junk mail. Surprisingly, only a dog-eared antiquities catalog, and a flyer advertising yard work awaited me. Junk mail, I thought, as I went back inside.

I always like to thumb through something before it gets trashed or round filed. When I glanced inside the catalog, something immediately caught my attention. I sat down at my desk and began methodically to check each and every page of this antiquities dealer’s catalog. The dealer, with whom I have dealt over the years, is reputed to sell only authentic artifacts. What surprised me and caught my attention — almost jumping off the page — was a picture of several oil lamps. These were not just any ancient oil lamps, but ones which had been carved from stone. They were allegedly from Upper Mesopotamia (southeastern Turkey) and also allegedly from circa second century AD. But, that is not what got my attention. What got my attention was the fact that each lamp bore the facial image of a man, one which strikingly resembled the face of the Man of the Shroud of Turin, the traditional burial cloth of Jesus Christ. After reviewing the entire catalog, I was able to find a total of nine oil lamps that appeared to be related and from the same group. Each one had a carved face that distinctly and remarkably resembled the face on the Shroud of Turin. I should know, as I have studied the Shroud since 1973 and the image of the Man of the Shroud is indelibly etched into my mind. So, when I saw these several lamps bearing a similar image, my attention was at once captivated. This type of fortuitous moment had occurred in the past, and I knew I had to take it seriously.

This book invites you to accompany this investigator and my intrepid guide as we experience, firsthand, the anticipation, frustration, and exhilaration involved in this fascinating and intriguing investigation. My quest is international in scope and universal in theological implication. The intent of this book is not an attempt to prove the Resurrection, but rather it is an attempt to date, accurately, the Shroud to the actual time of Jesus Christ. After all, if the Shroud is authentic, it must first be proven to be from that time period (i.e., first century AD) and associated with Jesus Christ.

The 1978 debacle with the carbon-14 dating concluded the cloth originated sometime between 1260 and 1390. At least, that is what made the headlines in print. However, a later statement in 1990 from Vatican spokesman, Joaquin Navarro, calling the results “strange” and indicating further scientific studies would be considered, appeared only on page 6 — right next to the appliance ads.

The Shroud of Turin is the traditional burial cloth of Jesus Christ. If it is authentic, it is undoubtedly the most important archaeological artifact in human history — and certainly the most important one in Christendom. If not authentic, it is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated by man and would be even more miraculous to fabricate as a forgery because of its uniqueness. It has captured the interest of millions for many centuries and has long been venerated by the faithful.

“Datum point” is an archaeological term used to describe the central reference point at an excavation site. It has a definite location, is stationary, and is readily accessible. It is the true “reference point,” or anchor, on site from which all measurements are made. It is the standard. Its elevation is utilized to determine both vertical height and horizontal distance. This is an appropriate phrase because of the archaeological items being researched, as well as the “reference point” it indicates, vertically and horizontally (i.e., the Cross). Additionally, “enterprise” means a difficult or demanding challenge. Therefore, DATUM ENTERPRISE, LLC, is the name chosen for my company, meaning “a challenge to seek reference points, or evidence, of the greatest event of all time: the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.”

Some of the lamps pictured in the antiquities catalog were in the shape of a cruciform, or cross. Others had different motifs carved on each side. However, each lamp bore an exquisite facial image strikingly similar and based on the face of the Man of the Shroud. A couple of the lamps even bore inscriptions in Greek and Latin, with Christian meaning when translated.

Within the next two years, I was able to arrange a trip to Turkey to the same region these lamps allegedly originated. I was attempting to locate in a museum other similarly dated oil lamps with an established provenance, which could, quite possibly, securely associate the Shroud to a first century date. Fortunately, I was able to travel with a professional guide and translator, Hafize, whom I met online while inquiring about the lamps. She is fluent in English, although she speaks it with a Turkish accent, and she served as an excellent guide, translator, and contact person for the various museums I lined up to visit. I spent over a year obtaining a special Resident Permit Card, which permitted me not only to visit the museums, but also to visit the depots, or storerooms, where the really priceless artifacts were kept. The Resident Permit Card also permitted me to take photographs and video clips of museum items that bore similar images to those depicted on the oil lamps.

According to synthesized versions of the legend of King Abgar V, a legend surrounding early Christianity, a ceramic tile, historically known as the Keramion and bearing the same facial image from the Image of Edessa (the purported Shroud of Turin), was placed over the entranceway, in commemoration, through which St. Thaddaeus allegedly carried the special cloth to see King Abgar V, circa AD 30. Reportedly, upon seeing the mysterious cloth, King Abgar was miraculously healed of his gout and leprosy. The king, his family, and the local citizens soon converted to Christianity, reportedly making Edessa one of the first Christian communities outside of Jerusalem. This story is fascinating, if true.

In 2002, I traveled to Turkey, looking for specific ancient oil lamps, but the Good Lord had other plans. In a museum in a faraway land in the same city where the Shroud allegedly was kept for over nine hundred years, I rediscovered a beautiful mosaic tile, which I called the ISA Tile, bearing the facial image of a Man that was surely derived from the Shroud of Turin, considered by many to be one and the same as the “Image of Edessa.” Could the ISA Tile actually be the historical and legendary Keramion? Quite possibly!

Throughout this entire research endeavor, I have fully utilized the investigative and forensic comparative skills I learned while formerly serving with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), coupled with the scientific method. I also used a healthy dose of common sense, logic, and reason to arrive at my evidence-based conclusions.

The Keramion, Lost and Found chronicles this remarkable rediscovery and its subsequent implications and significance to Christianity, the Shroud of Turin, archaeology, and art history. Hopefully, all who read this book will feel the same challenges, excitement, exhilaration, frustration, and jubilation Hafize and I experienced. The reader will also, hopefully, realize that this discovery represents physical evidence that confirms, in part, the vital key elements of a 1,700-year-old legend. It is my desire that this book will be as much of a blessing to every reader as it was for me to research and “write it down.” I refer here to Habakkuk 2:2–3, which has ultimately served as a personal mandate for this and my other Shroud research: “And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.”

Is the Shroud of Turin authentic? Is it the actual fine linen cloth that was once used to envelope the bloodied and crucified body of Jesus Christ for burial in the tomb? Does the Shroud now contain His holy Blood and image? Or, is it a counterfeit dirty old cloth masterminded by an ingenious forger to fool people into just thinking it contains an image of the body of Christ? A scientific radiocarbon-14 dating test was conducted in 1988. The results indicated an AD 1260–1390 time of origin. However, in 2005, several scientists disproved the test. A few scoffers have even claimed the great artist Leonardo da Vinci somehow produced this enigmatic image; yet, obviously unknown to them, the same Shroud had been on public display some one hundred years before Da Vinci was even born in 1452. For centuries, the mystery has continued, and more recently, thanks to scholarly research, it is considered the single most studied object in history. Still, the question of its authenticity should ultimately be contemplated and answered individually, after one has carefully studied solid scientific, historical and forensic evidence — circumstantial, documentary and physical in nature. Only then can a reliable conclusion be supported and justified in the heart of each man. This book reflects my humble attempt to provide such evidence.

The Shroud of Turin is either authentic or not. If authentic, it is the greatest and most important archaeological and religious object ever known to man because it bears the actual Blood and Image of Jesus Christ. If not authentic, it is the most elaborate hoax ever perpetrated by man. As scholar John Walsh once said, “It is one or the other; there is no middle ground.”

Further, “The … Shroud of Turin … (is) without a doubt … the most picked at, probed, x-rayed, examined, revered, reviled, tested, studied, scanned, and photographed artifact in the world today.”

Regardless of new and exciting research over recent years, three fundamental questions, among others, still continue to linger concerning the Shroud: (1) When did the Shroud image originate? (2) Where was it kept? (3) Who is depicted in the image? This decade-long quest has required me to take expeditions to Turkey and Italy to find these and other answers. These new findings have the potential to catapult the reader over the fence of doubt, where he will ultimately appreciate the Shroud for what it actually is, namely, the first century burial cloth of Jesus Christ.

Since 1973, I have followed and studied the Shroud of Turin. Actually, I prefer to call it the Resurrection Cloth in that, apparently, the blood stains were present before the image appeared because no image is present underneath the stains. This important attribute, therefore, suggests the image-formation mechanism occurred sometime after entombment following His death on Good Friday. Thus, if authentic, the Shroud contains the first image of Yeshua HaMessiach, Jesus Christ, and illustrates the genesis of eternal life, made, perhaps, at the actual moment of Resurrection!

Christianity rises or falls on the veracity and historicity of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. If He did not rise from the dead, then all of Christianity is in vain (1 Corinthians 15:14). However, He is risen, indeed! Over five hundred eyewitnesses saw Him after He rose. All but one of His faithful disciples was martyred for their belief in Him. One does not willingly die for a lie but, rather, only for something he knows and believes, beyond doubt, to be true. The Shroud is evidence that Jesus did what He said He would do, when He said He would do it: “We heard him say, I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and within three days I will build another made without hands” (Mark 14:58). The image on the Shroud of Turin is known as the acheiropoietos, the image or icon “not made by human hands.”

Over the centuries, skilled masons have built magnificent cathedrals all around the world in order to worship the risen Lord, Jesus Christ. However, the great cathedrals of Europe and churches elsewhere are virtually useless buildings and devoid of substantive meaning if He did not rise from the dead. But, fortunately for mankind, that is not the case. He did rise, and there is extant evidence which shows His visage, or imprint, and even contains His sacrificial blood.

He Who is raised has left a sign so that all may believe. The eyewitness accounts and the mountains of existing evidence all serve to prove that what Jesus did and everything He said is all true. However, that still may not be enough for many to believe in His Deity; therefore, Jesus Himself said, “But if I do his work, believe in the evidence of the miraculous works I have done, even if you don’t believe me. Then you will know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father” (John 10:38, NLT). “And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book; but are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name” (John 20:30–31).

What you are about to read in the following pages is only a portion of independent investigative research I have conducted since April 2000. This research has accumulated much new data for sindonology, the dedicated scholarly research and study of the sindon, or Shroud of Turin. However, it is much more than just new data discovered by a dedicated scholar.

This new, unique, historical, never-before-seen, and — until now — globally undisclosed research could greatly impact the world by corroborating the authenticity of the most important object in the history of mankind: the Shroud of Turin. This book depicts the amazing rediscovery of a mosaic tile which could have profound influence on Shroud studies and art history. This is an extremely important work with major implications — but certainly not because I had anything to do with it. Rather, it is important because Yehovah God Almighty had everything to do with it. Because of that fact alone, this research has the awesome potential, via the Holy Spirit, to influence the eternal destiny of multitudes throughout the world. This is my humble attempt to portray accurately this remarkable new discovery and its vital and related message.

Thus far, numerous insights and other divinely inspired discoveries have been revealed to me since April 2000. Obviously, because they are progressive, some are stronger than others, and all are not of the same import. They all, however, are new, unique, historical, and never before seen. This book will cover only several of these. It is important to note that each and every one of these new insights, albeit very disparate in nature, points ultimately and vividly to the Man of the Shroud of Turin, namely, Jesus Christ, Yeshua HaMessiach.

This book is not a religious book, per se, but rather one that deals with the discovery of a Christian object and its worldwide implications. It is the chronicle of one man’s adventure, an odyssey, and a quest for truth about certain oil lamps. Remarkably, the quest simply led to the Truth, to “the Light of the World” (John 8:12). It is religious only in the sense that, as a Christian and while investigating historical aspects of early Christianity, I made new discoveries concerning the main subject of Christianity, namely, Jesus Christ. This book is replete with frustration, excitement, discoveries, and inspiration that occurred throughout this remarkable journey. I hope you will join me in this chronicled journey and share the excitement that I had in 2002, a journey that I have relived many times since. Now, looking back, I can only hope and pray that something like this incredible adventure will happen to me once again in the future.

I am neither an art historian nor a mystic nor a theologian. I am an investigator and researcher who has experienced firsthand the divine grace of God. My forensic science and investigative skills, acquired through almost eight years of service as a former Special Agent and Physical Science Technician with the FBI, coupled with the proven scientific method, other related methodologies of research, and peer review, have been fully utilized during this research. The nexuses between numerous “dots” of historical, scientific, and/or religious data points have been found, and I have attempted to interpret them to the best of my ability. The forensic conclusions — determined from cumulative data and personal experimentation and comparisons — proclaimed in this book are, of course, my professional opinion. One is certainly free to accept or reject them. I only ask that you apply scrutiny and rigorous examinations before doing so.

(Continues…)Excerpted from The Keramion, Lost and Found by Philip E. Dayvault. Copyright © 2016 Philip E. Dayvault. Excerpted by permission of Morgan James Publishing.
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