I think Ramsey is just willing to perform additional tests to shut up people like Rolfe, who are scared of letting this moneymaker die. Paint me shocked if the new tests produce any result materially different from the previous ones. The fact that the Shroud has no history prior to late medieval times is damning in itself.
The fact that nobody can replicate the Shroud today — in an age when we can land men on the moon, map the human genome, transplant organs, and send people into space with such boring regularity that it barely even makes the news anymore — is a pretty telling indication that there’s something extraordinary about that shroud.
Actually, there is quite a bit of history for the Shroud prior to late medieval times including a drawing of it in the Hungarian Pray Codex which is accurately dated to the 12th Century... 150 years prior to the first display of the Shroud in our documented history. Another example is a medallion showing the Shroud accurately dated to the 11th Century. There is also the Sermon of Gregory Referendarius, the Arch Deacon of the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, in which he accurately describes the Shroud as showing the nude body, both front and back. Gregory's sermon was delivered on the occasion of the Image of Edessa being brought to Constantinople on August 15th 944... 10th Century.
The inventory of the Hagia Sophia included "The Shroud of our Lord" at the time of the sacking of Constantinople by French Knights during the 4th Crusade. One of the primary knights in the leadership of the 4th Crusade was one Geoffrey de Charny... 200 years later the Shroud turns up in the possession of one Geoffrey de Charney.
The younger de Charney was no ordinary knight. He was the author of the French Code of Chivalry and was also the King Philip VI's Standard Bearer, the exemplary knight who had been selected by the King to fight at his side and carry the King's banner in battle.
“moneymaker”?