[Swordmaker]

There is pollen on the Shroud, and based on peer-reviewed reports, it can be identified as highly likely coming from the environs of Jerusalem.

More correctly, shroudie: "There is pollen on the Shroud, and based on peer-reviewed reports, some of them can be identified as highly likely coming from the environs of Jerusalem."

In actual fact, there are pollen from everyplace that we know or suspect either the Shroud or the Image of Edessa has been. The European pollens are easily explicable because of its presence in Europe for the last 650 years (known beyond any doubt), but the existence of pollen from the area around Jerusalem would be remarkable IF the Shroud were a medieval pious hoax since we also know, beyond a reasonable doubt, that it has not left Europe since 1352.

[shroudie]

I stand corrected. Thank you.

[orionblamblam]

> the existence of pollen from the area around Jerusalem would be remarkable IF the Shroud were a medieval pious hoax since we also know, beyond a reasonable doubt, that it has not left Europe since 1352.

Remarkable, but hardly inexplicable. There are three reasonable explanations for this:
1: The shroud may be a European pious hoax from 1352... but the shroud itself may be a bit of cloth from the Jerusalem region, from any of a number of sources. A pilgrim may have simply brought it back and sold it to the artist.
2: The shroud hoax painting was created int he Jerusalem region for sale to a gullible pilgrim.
3: The plants that produced the pollen may now be found only in the region of Jerusalem... but 650 years ago, when the climate was different (just getting over the Little Ice Age), that may not have neen the case.

#'s 1 and 2 seem the more likely, of course.