I find this investigation to be incredibly hopeful. Thanks!
One of the biggest pieces of evidence against forgery is actually one of the most obvious:
A medieval forger would have based his forgery on the then universal belief that the nails were put through our Lord’s HANDS, he would have based this on everything he had ever heard and ALL artwork and Crucifixes. It wasn’t until much later that scientists realized that nails through the hands wouldn’t support the body’s weight and that the nails were actually put through His wrists, which is what the image in the Shroud shows.