Shroud of Turin, claimed to be Jesus' burial cloth, contaminated with carrot and red coral DNA

Is the famous "Shroud of Turin" a fake? (Image credit: Philippe Lissac via Getty Images) Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Sign up for the Live Science daily newsletter now Get the world’s most fascinating discoveries delivered straight to your inbox. By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. You are now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful Want to add more newsletters? Join the club Get full access to premium articles, exclusive features and a growing list of member rewards. Explore An account already exists for this email address, please log in. Subscribe to our newsletter The Shroud of Turin, which some people claim is Jesus' burial cloth, contains the DNA of multiple people, along with a huge array of other species, including carrots, melons and red coral. Some of the DNA traces suggest there's an influence from India, which could mean the cloth originated there, researchers argue in a new study. However, there was a notable absence of species traditionally associated with the Levant region and stories in the Bible. What's more, some of the plant species detected on the shroud did not arrive in the Old World until the 16th century, which suggests the shroud was contaminated centuries later, experts told Live Science. Overall, the scientific evidence still firmly supports arguments that the Shroud of Turin is a medieval fake , they said. Likely a fake The famous shroud has moved around Europe for centuries, but the first documented mention of the shroud was in Lirey, a village in northern France in 1354, and even then, there were debates about whether it was an authentic relic from the crucifixion . The rectangular cloth measures 14.4 by 3.6 feet (4.4 by 1.1 meters) and bears the faint image of a man and numerous stains, some of which are claimed to be blood. The most robust evidence for the shroud's age comes from a carbon-dating analysis carried out in 1989 , which placed the shroud's creation between 1260 and 1390, firmly in the medieval period. And last year, work revealed that the human image on the shroud probably resulted from the cloth being laid on a low-relief sculpture . Some Christian scholars still believe the shroud is genuine and dates back 2,000 years. Yet there is no evidence that the multishaft looms required to manufacture the type of cloth in the shroud existed in Europe, India or the Levant region 2,000 years ago. Sign up for the Live Science daily newsletter now Get the world’s most fascinating discoveries delivered straight to your inbox. "These structures need a loom with four shafts that was invented in the Middle Ages [in Europe]," Andrea Nicolotti , a historian at the University of Turin who wasn't involved in the work, told Live Science. Analyzing the DNA In 2015, Gianni Barcaccia , a professor of genetics