Evidence For Authenticity:
• The cloth was an actual burial cloth with a man enshrouded within.
• It is an expensive well-made cloth of flax with a 3 over 1 herringbone weave. It is a single piece of linen cloth measuring about 14’ 3” by 3’ 7”. This corresponds with loom technology of the first century Palestine measurements of 2 cubits X 8 cubits.
• The burial is consistent with ancient first-century Jewish burial customs in all respects, including the attitude of the body (hands folded over loins), and type of burial clothes. The cloth (es) has been determines to be rapped in a specific manner around the body. The Sindon is the shroud itself, which wrapped the body. The Sudarium was a handkerchief like cloth that covered the face out of respect after death. It also protected the eyes from scavenged birds. There were chin bandages to keep the month closed and strips of cloth to bind the wrists and legs called the Othonia.
• Archeological evidence including the Shroud cloth itself is quite similar to the hem of a cloth found in the tombs of the Jewish fortress of Masada. The “Masada Cloth” dates to between 40 B.C. and 73 A.D. This kind of stitch has never been found in Medieval Europe.
• Several bouquets of flowers are found around the head and body (waist up) comprising hundreds of flowers. Many are vague or incomplete but Professor Whanger of Duke University in the States claims to have found "twenty-eight" different species of "plants whose images are sufficiently clear and complete to make a good comparison with the drawings in Flora Palaestina" and of those, "Twenty grow in Jerusalem itself, and the other eight grow potentially within the close vicinity of Jerusalem" and "Twenty-seven of these twenty-eight bloom in March and April, which corresponds to the time of Passover and the Crucifixion". "Twenty-eight" different species are found on the Shroud and all twenty-eight grow in Israel. Twenty grow in Jerusalem itself, and the other eight grow potentially within the close vicinity of Jerusalem, either in the Judean Desert or in the Dead Sea area or in both. All twenty-eight would have been available in Jerusalem markets in a fresh state.
• Pollens evidence shows that it spent time in Turkey and Palestine. A total of 58 different pollens were identified on the Shroud. These pollens are native to four distinct areas around 1) the Dead Sea and the Negev, 2) the Anatolian Steppe (Edessa) of central and western Turkey, 3) the immediate environs of Constantinople, and 4) Western Europe. This shows that the object spent time in all these areas.
• The Pollen Evidence coincides with the Flower image Evidence.
• The wounds at the top of the head where created by a crown of tumbleweed a planet named gundelia tournefortii. It is an insect-pollinated plant that blooms in modern day Israel between March and May. The pollen spores lodged in the Shroud’s surface, as well as floral images mysteriously “imprinted” on the face of the cloth, could only have come from plants growing in a restricted area around Jerusalem.
• Dr. Garza-Valdes discovered oak tubules (microscopic splinters) in the blood of the occipital area (back of the head) as well as natron salts.
• Spectral Analysis of the rock dust taken from the foot area of the Shroud image is a specific Travertine matched exactly to stone found only at the Jerusalem Gate in Jerusalem and no where else. (Optical Engineer Sam Pellicori - 1978) (Dirt particles on the nose as well as on the left knee and heel.)
• Dr. Eugenia Nitowski (Utah archaeologist) in her studies of the cave tombs of Jerusalem noted the presence of Calcium Carbonate (limestone dust), the same as the limestone hills that tombs around Jerusalem were carved out of.
• The images are of the man enshrouded, coins of Pilate circa 29-32 CE. The coin images on the eyes are from the first century. They are Pilate Coins from 29 – 31 CE, specific coins of Jerusalem during the Crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth. It was a coin used in Jerusalem and nowhere else.
• The images were imprinted on the cloth after the blood and serum stains (forensic evidence).
• The mountains of forensic evidence and computer mapping of the wounds on the cloth outline clearly a picture of a brutally tortured man, one crucified in a manner specific to the biblical stories of Jesus, which was not the norm according to historians. This evidence includes the specific weapons used to inflict the wounds.
• Science deduces that there is no evidence of initial decomposition of the body, none. Even though the other evidence indicates a real corpse with rigor mortis lay within the cloth at the time of physical imprinting.
• The blood was on the Cloth before the image. The bloodstains on the Shroud are composed of hemoglobin and give a positive test for serum albumin. Numerous tests confirm this. The blood on the Shroud is real human blood, type AB (typed by Dr. Baima Ballone in Turin and confirmed in the U.S.). This blood type is rare (3.2% of the world population according to Dr. Leoncio Garza-Valdes), the highest percentage being found in northern Palestine.
• No dyes or paints or oils have been found on the Cloth. Reflectance spectra of image areas, scorched areas, and aged linen were identical (Gilbert and Gilbert, 1982). The conclusion is that all the observational methods applied by STURP failed to detect any of the historically known painting vehicles, media, or pigments, suggesting that the image was not a painting in any normal sense (Schwalbe & Rogers, 1982).
• Researchers believe that at least 50 artists were commissioned to paint replicas of the Shroud. When this process was completed the artist was allowed to then lay they're painting over the Shroud to "sanctify" them. Many excellent artists have attempted to recreate the image many of the times. These copies look like child stick drawings when compared to the original. These highly regarded paintings look nothing like the original. And why paint a shadow like negative image of Christ in the first place? And why not paint two or three, why is there only one Shroud.