Shroud of Turin's fascinating – and much-debated – history

+ rewriting the origins of horse domestication US Edition - Today's top story: What is the Shroud of Turin and why is there so much controversy around it? [View in browser]( US Edition | 8 September 2024 [The Conversation] [The Conversation]( Happy Sunday − and welcome to the best of The Conversation U.S. Here are a few of our recently published stories: - [As eastern equine encephalitis spreads, a neurologist explains how to stay safe during this latest outbreak of the ‘triple E’ virus]( - [Kamala Harris’ purported Irish ancestry highlights complicated backstory of identity and enslavement]( My mother pinged me the other day to suggest we do a story on claims of authenticity regarding the Shroud of Turin, which some Catholics believe is the cloth used to bury Jesus. The cloth bears the “shadowy image of a man who appears to have been crucified,” which believers say was miraculously imprinted when he was resurrected. A 2022 study that suggested the shroud could be 2,000 years old recently got a lot of attention from backers of this claim. I mentioned it to our always-on-the-ball senior religion editor, Kalpana Jain, who already had a story in the works examining the controversy and evidence surrounding the Shroud of Turin. My mother clearly also has a good nose for news, as the article became one of last week’s top stories in terms of reader engagement. In it, Eric Vanden Eykel, a scholar of early Christianity, [explores the history of the shroud]( – which first appeared publicly in 1354 – and explains the context from which it emerged as well as the scientific investigations to determine its age. As for the 2022 study, he noted that the scientists emphasized that the dating method they used held up only if the shroud had been stored in relatively constant temperature and humidity for all those centuries – “highly unlikely” for an artifact that old. “Ultimately, the Shroud of Turin will continue to intrigue and draw both believers and skeptics into a debate that has spanned centuries,” Vanden Eykel writes. “But I believe that the shroud encourages viewers to think about how history, art and belief come together and influence how we see the past.” [ [The Conversation has no ads or paywalls, thanks to support from our readers](. ] Bryan Keogh Managing Editor Readers' picks [What is the Shroud of Turin and why is there so much controversy around it?]( Eric Vanden Eykel, Ferrum College Many believe the Shroud of Turin to be the cloth used to bury Jesus after his crucifixion. 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