Red flag.
When you look at the actual photographs of the shroud samples you can literally SEE the difference in weave between the original cloth and the patch!
This downloads the actual paper presented in PDF format... you will need Acrobat Reader to see the graphs and photos.
Red flag.
Why does it matter? Will your faith be increased or decreased over the shroud? Do you need evidence that Christ was born, persecuted, and died on the Cross?
This is from the Jerusalem Post dated April 14, 1997.
The Author of the article is Judy Siegler.
Local plant evidence supports authenticity of Shroud of Turinby JUDY SIEGEL
JERUSALEM (April 14) - Powerful evidence supporting the view that the Shroud of Turin - the garment in which Jesus is said to have been wrapped after his crucifixion - originated in the Land of Israel has been provided by researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Duke University in North Carolina.
The scientists have succeeded in identifying 28 species of plants that grow in the Land of Israel among the images of flowers that appear on the shroud. All of them grow in the area between Jerusalem and Jericho, and most are spring flowers that apparently were picked during the period of the crucifixion and placed on the 4.1 meter by 1.1 meter piece of linen.
On the shroud appears the negative image of a man with long hair and a moustache who had been cruelly whipped, and a number of blood spots were spattered on it. The human image is similar to drawings of Jesus that have been seen since the fourth century CE. There are also hundreds of images of flowers and other plants and objects on the shroud.
HU Prof. Avinoam Danin, an expert on the plant life of the Land of Israel, was asked in 1995 by Dr. Alan Whanger - a Duke University medical lecturer - and his wife Mary to study images of flowers on the shroud. They used a special process of photography, along with negatives and ultraviolet light scanning, to increase the contrast and make visible images that are not easily seen by the naked eye.
The Whangers, who are believing Christians, found hundreds of images of plants, particularly in the area of the human figure's head. They then matched these images to drawings in the authoritative botanical work, Flora Palaestina, and in this way identified 28 types of plants.
Danin verified their conclusions and was even able to determine that additional images on the shroud could be associated with plants from the Land of Israel.
"I can't say for certain that it was Jesus's shroud," said Danin, who disclosed his findings in a lecture to biology students last week and is still "very excited" about them. "But this evidence backs up the possibility that it is genuine, and there is no doubt that it comes from the Land of Israel."
The researchers plan to study rock rose pollen grains removed from the shroud in the 1970s and compare them with pollen from the same plants collected in Israel. They will also study the images of other ossified objects found on the burial cloth, including a nail, hammer, broom, rope, a ring of thorns, and a sponge.
If the C-14 tests are the only evidence one looks at, then a person may be skewed.
And that assuming there were no "serious flaws" in the C-14 tests (because of unknown or things unprepared for such as "possibly" testing a part of the Shroud that had been repaired.)