But one singular thing about the crucifixion of Christ is the crown of thorns and on the shroud there are a whole series of puncture wounds where the scalp has bled." And whereas every artist imagined Jesus crucified through the palms, the shroud indicates it was through the wrist, which is the only plausible way the body would have remained on the cross, he says.

But how to explain the photographic negative like print of Jesus's face? The shroud is some kind of negative of the body it's wrapped up.

Voicu, Los Angeles I think that the test must be done again, using samples from reasonably central areas of the cloth; then later tests can look further into what makes the imprint.

Church objections to damaging a thread or two from the main areas can be answered by the major significance of the answer.

But come on, it isn't going to prove anything to unbelievers like me, even if it passes a DNA fingerprint test.

"A further problem was that the shroud was in a serious fire in 1532 and smoke introduces a lot of contaminants.

All of these factors are ways that the carbon dating could have been skewed as it's not infallible," he argues.

So much effort was put into the sample taking procedure." In short, he is convinced that the object dates from the 14th Century.

And yet that doesn't take away from the shroud's power to move people, he adds.