The Shroud of Turin, purported by many to have been the burial cloth that once covered the body of Jesus at the time of his burial, remains one of the most controversial relics in all of history.
For centuries, the shroud was believed to preserve rare historical evidence of the seemingly miraculous events described in the New Testament. However, by the 20th century, a growing number of scholars had come to believe the shroud’s origins were likely to be far more recent: perhaps the result of a clever forgery produced sometime in the Middle Ages.
Now, according to the findings of a new genetic study, it seems the lingering questions over the shroud and its origins are far from being settled, revealing a wide range of encounters the Turin Shroud has had with humans, animals, and other objects, and offering new clues about the environments that it met over time.
Obscure Origins
The mysterious shroud, which has remained a curiosity to scholars for centuries, has been preserved in Turin, Italy, since the late 16th century. The relic depicts the ghostly image of what appears to be a male human body, as well as evidence of markings that indicate blood in the positions on the body that are traditionally consistent with New Testament accounts of the injuries Jesus bore at the time of his crucifixion.
Over the decades, studies have sought to help determine the true origins of the unusual relic, leading to a range of theories about its provenance. After centuries of debate among scholars, in 1978, scientific efforts to determine the shroud’s origins were undertaken, which included samples with remnants of DNA that its woven material has collected over time.
Ultimately, testing completed in 1988 suggested that the shroud most likely dated to no earlier than the 13th century, although the debate over its history has continued.
Reopening the Debate
Now, in a new international study effort led by Italian scientists, recent genetic studies involving the original samples collected in 1978 are helping to shed additional light on the complex nature of the interactions the shroud has had with its environment over the centuries.
The team, whose findings appear in a new preprint paper that appears on the bioRxiv website, reports that their analysis showcases the preservation conditions of the shroud over time, as well as interactions it has had with its environment that reveal “its biological complexity through rigorous DNA and metagenomic analyses.”
According to the study’s authors, “The possible existence of the Shroud prior to the first documented information places the long journey of this artifact into a Middle or Near East geographical context, with a potential historical age preceding the Sacking of Constantinople in
1204.” Sometime later, scholars believe the shroud was moved to a new location in Western Europe, before it resurfaced again near the French commune of Lirey in the early to mid 1350s.
Some of the questions about the shroud’s journey throughout the centuries is evidenced by the genetic material it carries, and through analysis, the study’s authors hoped to learn about the kinds of environments where it had been kept, dividing the chronological history of the relic into a “pre-1204” period that it was believed to have been kept in the ancient Near East, and what the team refers to as “a plausible ‘post-1353’ location in western Europe.”
“These two hypothetical temporal and spatial differentiations may be reflected in the variation of DNA data obtained from the Shroud,” the study’s authors say.
“Multiple Biological Sources”
The team reports that their new analysis of the decades-old samples successfully identified a range of genetic variants originating “from multiple biological sources.” These include human mitochondrial DNA which, in at least one instance, “matches the 1978 official collector’s mitogenome, H2a2,” as well as H1b—a common western Eurasian mitogenome—and H33, which the team says is particularly prevalent today in the Near East, in addition to being “frequent among the Druze,” a sect originally of Islamic origin, now recognized as a distinct religious group mostly found in Syria and Lebanon.
Based on their findings, the researchers report that “the reconstructed microbiome of the Shroud reveals a rich tapestry of multiple microbes commonly found on the human epidermis, as well as archaeal communities adapted to high salinity, and fungi including molds,” all of which point to the preservation methods employed in the housing of the shroud over time.
A Melting Pot of Genetic Information
The researchers behind the new study discovered much more than just human genetic material that the shroud has preserved over the centuries, however. A diverse array of different biological remnants was detected during the team’s new analysis, offering additional clues to the kinds of environments the famous relic has encountered throughout its existence.
According to the new preprint study, “the presence of abundant Mediterranean endemic red coral” was detected, along with plants grown in a variety of environments, such as wheat and corn, carrots, peanuts, and even bananas. Fruits, nuts, and vegetables weren’t the only objects the shroud had encountered; domesticated animals that include cats and dogs, as well as evidence indicating the presence of chicken, pigs, and cattle, were also detected.
Evidence of Ancient Repairs
“Finally,” the researchers write, “radiocarbon dating of two distinct threads collected from the reliquary provides evidence of their use to repair the Shroud in the years 1534 and 1694 of the Common Era (CE).”
The repaired portions of the shroud are obvious features on the famous relic as it appears today and are the result of damage it sustained during a fire that occurred in 1532 while it was being kept in Chambéry, France. At that time, portions of the shroud, which had been folded at the time, were scorched as they came into contact with molten silver, which produced several holes in portions of the shroud.
Two years later, the holes were patched by nuns, which remained in place until restorations that occurred in 2002 to remove portions of the backing that were deteriorating.
New Clues to Unanswered Questions
Fundamentally, the team says its investigations have provided new information that helps to reveal clues to the shroud’s origins, although they note that “genetic and microbial evidence discloses a complex history of the Turin Shroud,” which they say reflects “interactions with a diverse array of individuals and exposure to various agricultural environmental contexts.”
Because of this, they report, “The age of the Turin Shroud cannot be determined through metagenomics because this methodology is unable to provide any robust evidence supporting either a Medieval origin or a history dating back two millennia.”
Despite the questions that remain about the mysterious Shroud of Turing and its origins, the team adds that their findings do still offer “a novel and significant contribution” by helping to demonstrate “the biological traces left by centuries of social, cultural, and ecological engagement,” along with the successful radiocarbon dating of samples from the repaired portions of the cloth.
“Collectively, our findings illuminate important aspects of the Shroud’s preservation history,” the team reports.
The new preprint paper, “DNA Traces on the Shroud of Turin: Metagenomics of the 1978 Official Sample Collection,” by Gianni Barcaccia, Nicola R. Migliore, et al, is currently available at the bioRxiv website.
Micah Hanks is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of The Debrief. A longtime reporter on science, defense, and technology with a focus on space and astronomy, he can be reached at micah@thedebrief.org. Follow him on X @MicahHanks, and at micahhanks.com.