The Shroud of Turin

Record summary

The Shroud of Turin is a linen cloth bearing a faint front-and-back human image and venerated by many Christians as Jesus’s burial cloth. Its secure historical documentation begins in medieval France, while a 1988 radiocarbon study dated tested samples to the medieval period; later critics have disputed sampling and contamination. The object matters for studying relic circulation, image formation, devotional practice, and the interaction between scientific testing and religious tradition. Its identity and image-making process remain contested in public discussion. AI-recalled, not a statement of miraculous authenticity.