Determining the age of the Shroud of Turin

The Shroud of Turin (see figure below), the purported burial cloth of Jesus Christ, is a piece of fine linen 3 feet 7 inches wide by 14 feet 3 inches long (exactly 2 by 8 cubits, the ancient measurement in Israel). It bears the detailed front and back images of a man who has been crucified in a manner identical to that of Jesus of Nazareth as described in the Scriptures. The Shroud has been in Turin, Italy since 1578. It is brought out for public viewing about once a generation. The last such exhibition was in 1978, and in five weeks, about 31/2 million pilgrims passed by to view this delicate cloth. 

The Shroud of Turin

Also, during this time, the Shroud was intensively studied by a large group of highly skilled scientists, whose main objective was to determine the properties of the image and how it originated. Over 1000 special tests were conducted and over 32,000 photographs were taken. These studies, along with various others, combine to make the Shroud of Turin the most intensively studied single object in history. The tests show clearly that the Shroud images are not any kind of artistic production but are the result of physical/chemical changes in the linen fibers themselves. However, they fail to explain how this occurred. 

Without question, the most spectacular refutation of the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin was the determination that the linen on which the image lies dates from approximately 1325. The Shroud was sampled and the dates determined by the most scrupulous and scientifically-valid techniques and procedures that are possible. Sampling was carefully conducted and witnessed, the samples were properly cleaned and prepared, and three different laboratories performed the 14C dating using blind control samples in addition to the Shroud samples. All the dates were consistent among the labs. The results showed by carbon-14 dating that the shroud dates from between A. D. 1260 and A. D. 1390. Thus the shroud could not have been the burial cloth of Christ.