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Having read St. Philip the Apostle Tomb's discovered in Turkey, I wondered about the claims of antiquity of similar relics.

Are radiometric dating tests (i.e. like radiocarbon dating, but for 2000 year old items) typically performed on the sacred relics?

Sklivvz
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Özgür
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    There is a question here on the [Shroud of Turin](http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/1052/shroud-of-turin-is-it-absolutely-and-definitively-debunked). Even though it is thoroughly debunked, some people still believe that it's real. Same thing would apply here. You cannot use logic to talk people out of something they didn't use logic to arrive at in the first place. – Lagerbaer Jul 27 '11 at 14:55
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    I've removed the "what are the effects on believers" part because it's completely off-topic for this site. – Sklivvz Jul 27 '11 at 23:10
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    I'm confused by the question. Do you mean "Has radio-carbon dating tests been performed on the relics (allegedly) of St Philip the Apostle?" or "Has radio-carbon dating tests been performed on relics in general?" I am trying to decide whether to vote Sklivvz up, or ping him for not answering the question :-) – Oddthinking Jul 28 '11 at 03:28
  • @Oddthinking, since my question has a simple present tense, I mean the general methodology, not particular to this Tomb. Go for it, downvote him :)) I also wondered the possible outcomes of such testings but that part is deleted by Sklivvz??? – Özgür Jul 28 '11 at 07:02
  • Ah, looking at the edit history I see you asked a hypothetical question about how people's beliefs might change. (1) That's a completely separate question, (2) it isn't about a claim anyone has made, (3) it doesn't seem to be one that could be answered with science. So, yes, off-topic. I'm with Sklivvz there. – Oddthinking Jul 28 '11 at 07:19
  • I've substantially edited the question (again) to clarify the question, and to ensure that there is a particular claim to be investigated, in an effort to keep it on topic. (If you question is merely a trivia one "How do they date relics?" it is out-of-scope as not an issue for skeptics. An odd rule, but it is our charter.) – Oddthinking Jul 28 '11 at 07:22

3 Answers3

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The tomb of Philip was not opened, it's therefore impossible that any carbon dating has been performed on the remains.

However, apparently the inscriptions on the tomb confirm the authenticity of the site.

In 2008, the Italian team had already identified the tomb of the apostle. "For years we try to find the tomb of the saint," said D'Andria, a professor at the University of Lecce. The structure of the tomb and its inscriptions show that the tomb belonged to Saint Philip.

For now, the tomb was not opened. "One day maybe I will," concluded D'Andria.

(via Google translate)

More in general, though, relics of particular interest are certainly dated, see for example the question on the Holy Shroud.

Community
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Sklivvz
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Radiocarbon dating is destructive testing, which means that some of the sample has to be destroyed in the process of testing.

If an artifact is considered sacred, it is hard to convince the owners to give enough of a sample to do adequate testing. It doesn't take a lot, but it does take something. So, whether it is "typically" done probably depends on whether the relic is something small, or whether there is adequate extra material available that does not diminish the value of the relic itself.

For the shroud of Turin, there was successful radiocarbon dating done, after a lot of convincing, and a small amount of the shroud was used. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiocarbon_14_dating_of_the_Shroud_of_Turin.

thursdaysgeek
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    Thursday, so does your answer mean that the testing was made, or not? The shroud of Turin was indeed dated, and that's a pretty important relic. – Sklivvz Jul 27 '11 at 23:09
  • I don't have the links or sources, but I do recall that they finally gave a very small piece of the shroud of Turin for dating. I'll have to see if I can find the source. (It was something I read, not online, at least several years ago.) Perhaps my husband, the radiochemist, can come up with a source more quickly. – thursdaysgeek Jul 27 '11 at 23:22
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    No, no, we already have an answer for the shroud. I was just pointing out you were not answering the question. – Sklivvz Jul 27 '11 at 23:28
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiocarbon_14_dating_of_the_Shroud_of_Turin, under the heading History, mentions "required lower quantities of source material", and later on mentions how much material was taken for the tests (more than radiocarbon tests were done). – thursdaysgeek Jul 27 '11 at 23:29
  • Ah, I see. The answer is "Yes, radiocarbon tests are performed on sacred relics." At least sometimes, when the owners are convinced to give enough of a sample to do testing. – thursdaysgeek Jul 27 '11 at 23:30
  • Please note: while dating is always destructive, in many cases it's enough to burn some other item and not the original artefact. To date a tomb, it's often enough to date some of its contents, and not necessarily the body... – Sklivvz Jul 28 '11 at 10:12
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Radio carbon dating is sometimes performed on relics; but it isn't typical because, well, they're relics - and radio carbon dating destroys part of it.

For example, radio-carbon dating was performed on the Shroud of Turin, believed to be the burial cloth of Jesus Christ, several decades ago. The testing done on the Shroud dated it to some time in the Middle Ages, which if correct would mean the cloth isn't the burial cloth of Jesus. But the results of the test are highly questionable and by no means conclusive, as Lagerbaer seems to believe.

The procedure was basically invalid because all of the samples were taken from the same section of the Shroud when they should have been from different parts. More importantly, that section of the Shroud had been repaired in modern times and the samples were very likely contaminated.

The Shroud has been damaged over the centuries by fires, etc. and has been repaired many times. Many, but not all of these repairs have been documented.

For more information about the carbon dating performed on the Shroud, see here: http://www.shroud.com/pdfs/chronology.pdf

Also, http://www.shroud.com has a large collection of scientific articles about the Shroud, including high-resolution photos of it, for those who are interested.

virbots
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    As far as I can tell, that pdf is 40 pages of nonsense and cherry-picked quotes, vainly trying to support the notion that all three of the dated samples were either "rewoven", from a repaired section of the cloth, or that the tests were themselves flawed. This is not acceptable evidence here, and your answer is off-topic either way - you should have commented in response to @Lagerbaer directly. – John Lyon Jul 29 '11 at 04:59
  • @virbots, so only possible solution for you to believe the genuinity of these Scientific Tests is to perform RadioCarbon Test to all The Shroud? Have you ever seen this chart? http://img.chan4chan.com/img/2010-12-29/1293659931432.jpg – Özgür Jul 29 '11 at 18:00