In 1988 three labs dated the Shroud of Turin to 1260-1390. So why does its faint image behave like a photographic negative, show real wounds, and resist every attempt to reproduce it?
A 14-foot linen sheet bearing the front and back image of a crucified man. Revered, tested, and argued over for centuries.
When Secondo Pia first photographed the shroud, his negative plate showed a startling positive face, as if the cloth itself were a negative. That riddle still has no agreed answer.
A measured overview of the evidence on both sides, from the weave and pollen to the blood and the dating controversy.
One of the three labs explains how the radiocarbon test placed the linen in the Middle Ages, and why it stands by the result.
Critics say the tested corner was a later repair, and a court-ordered reanalysis questioned the statistics. The counter-arguments and the rebuttals, laid out.
The 1978 team ran the cloth through every instrument they had and reported finding no pigments, dyes or stains. How the image was made remains the hardest question of all.