CONCLUSIONS From its first recorded exhibition in France in 1357, this cloth has been the object of mass veneration on the one hand, and scorn on the other. Appearing as it did in an age of unparalleled relic-mongering and forgery and, if genuine, lacking documentation of its whereabouts for 1,300 years, the Shroud would certainly have long ago been consigned to the ranks of spurious relics (along with several other shrouds with similar claims) were it not for the extraordinary image it bears. The Shroud of Turin has a double image—that is, a superficial discoloration on the front surface of...