The Shroud of Turin was not Jesus’s burial cloth, new research has claimed.
The 14.5-foot by 3.7-foot linen bears the image of a crucified man – and is securely housed in a chapel in northern Italy.
It is kept hidden away for decades at a time, having last been available for pilgrims to view in 2015.
But now, fresh studies published in the journal Archaeometry suggest the iconic shroud was instead a medieval work of art – flying in the face of centuries of religious belief.
Brazilian 3D digital designer Cicero Moraes employed advanced modelling software to demonstrate that the shroud’s markings align with artistic techniques rather than the impressions a dead body would leave.
“The Shroud’s image is more consistent with an artistic low-relief representation than with the direct imprint of a real human body,” Moraes said.
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If the shroud was really draped over Jesus’s body, it would have looked like the image on the left, Moraes says
To investigate the origins of the shroud, Moraes constructed two digital models: a 3D human form and a shallow relief sculpture, typical of medieval art.
He then virtually “draped” fabric over both figures.
The researcher then compared his digital mockups against photographs of the actual shroud taken in 1931.
His findings revealed that the shallow relief model produced an exact match with the historical photographs.
In contrast, the three-dimensional body simulation generated entirely different patterns, with the fabric distorting significantly around the human form.
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PICTURED: Pope Francis prays in front of the Shroud of Turin, when it was last placed on public view in 2015
Moraes likened this distortion to what he termed the “Agammemnon Mask Effect”, referencing the unnaturally broad golden funeral mask discovered in a Greek tomb.
The phenomenon resembles what occurs when someone paints their face and presses it against fabric – the resulting impression appears warped and bears little resemblance to actual facial features.
This effect makes it highly improbable that the pristine image on the shroud represents a genuine facial imprint from Christ’s body.
“The image on the Shroud of Turin is more consistent with a low-relief matrix,” Moraes told LiveScience.
“Such a matrix could have been made of wood, stone or metal and pigmented – or even heated – only in the areas of contact, producing the observed pattern.”
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PICTURED: The mask of Agammemnon. Moraes likened distortions on the shroud to what he termed the ‘Agammemnon Mask Effect’
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PICTURED: One side of the Turin Shroud, appearing to show a relief of Jesus’s front
The researcher acknowledged a slight possibility that the image could represent “an imprint of a three-dimensional human body”, though he maintains the shroud represents “a masterpiece of Christian art” created for funerary purposes.
Carbon dating analysis has previously placed the shroud’s creation between 1260 and 1390, coinciding with a period when shallow relief sculptures of religious figures were commonly produced for tombstones.
However, Professor Giulio Fanti from the University of Padua has argued that bloodstain patterns on the shroud provide genuine evidence of Christ’s crucifixion.
Fanti pointed to “different directions of blood flow from the side wound” and the possible presence of pulmonary fluid on the shroud to “prove” that it is, in fact, real.
