LONDON TIMES - 6 Nov 2000 - The Pope is expected to allow the first scientific test on a piece of walnut wood that for centuries has been venerated as the headboard of the cross on which Christ was crucified. The fragment, displayed in the church of Santa Croce in the Rome suburb of Gerusalemme, is most likely to undergo testing for pollen in an attempt to map its original location.

A similar test on the Turin Shroud, worshipped by millions as the cloth in which Christ's body was wrapped, found pollen from a plant that grows only in the Near East, and could have been used to weave the crown of thorns. Carbon dating of the shroud, however, suggested it was a medieval forgery.

Tests on the headboard, or title, of the cross would be conducted under the supervision of Professor Carsten Peter Thiede, a German New Testament historian and papyrologist. "We are also negotiating with the Pontifical Academy for Sciences, which advises the Pope, to carry out other tests, including taking minute slivers of the wood to analyse its origin and try to date it, much like you can tell the age of a tree from the rings in the trunk," said Thiede.

A headboard is mentioned in all 4 gospels. St John says Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, had the phrase "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews" inscribed. "And it was written in Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin." In a recent study by Michael Hesemann, an author and mysteries researcher, 7 international experts date Greek and Latin inscriptions on the title to between the 1st and 3rd centuries.

Scholars have also found striking similarities between the Latin writing and another inscription, the only one attributable to Pilate, on a stone altar. They conclude that both were probably the work of slaves trained by Pilate in Jerusalem.Sceptics argue that wood said to have come from Christ's cross can be found in churches and convents across Europe. Speaking in the pontiff's name, however, Stanislaw Dziwisz, his private secretary, thanked Hesemann for his research by writing: "Indeed this silent witness of the passion of our saviour is a symbol for the jubilee of the 2,000 years of the birth of Jesus Christ." (The London Times)