From discovery.com: Shroud of Turin’s Authenticity Probed Anew.
The Shroud of Turin, the 14- by 4-foot linen believed by some to have been wrapped around Jesus after the crucifixion, might not be a fake after all, according to new research.
The director of one of three laboratories that dismissed the shroud as a medieval artifact 20 years ago has called for the science community to reinvestigate the linen’s authenticity.
"With the radiocarbon measurements and with all of the other evidence which we have about the shroud, there does seem to be a conflict in the interpretation of the different evidence," said Christopher Ramsey, director of England’s Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, which carried out radiocarbon dating tests on the cloth in 1988.
Venerated by many Catholics as proof that Christ was resurrected from the grave, the yellowing cloth is kept rolled up in a silver casket in Turin’s Cathedral.
Scientific interest in the linen, which has survived several blazes since it was discovered, began in 1898, when it was photographed by lawyer Secondo Pia. The negatives revealed the image of a bearded man with pierced wrists and feet and a bloodstained head. [continue]
Let’s suppose the Shroud of Turin is approximately 3,000 years old and that it can somehow be proved that it was used to wrap a person who was crucified.
How does that prove the resurrection of that person? Or that the person crucified was Jesus of Nazareth? Is the provenance that solid?
But it’s a fascinating story to anyone raised in the tradition, I guess. I know I’d like to see the outcome of the latest tests–minus the media hype.