The C14-Dating
In 1988 the Catholic Church gave the permission to cut a piece from the shroud and to carry out a dating according to the radiocarbon method. The shroud piece was divided and sent to 3 well known institutes.
Result: the cloth originates from the Middle Ages.
On October 13th 1988 the result was announced in a press conference: The shroud comes with certainty from the 13th or 14th century. The cardinal of Turin, Ballestrero explained shortly later that now it is proven that the shroud is a medieval forgery.
False measurement?
The Sindologists (science of the shroud) out cried, because all other research results speak for the authenticity. Thus theories have been developed to explain a false measurement of 1300 years.
Did the samples come from the original cloth?
Dr. Ray Rogers, who has made intensive research on the shroud in his life, succeeded to come into the possession of threads, which came from the piece of cloth, which has been cut from the shroud in 1988 but has not been used during the test. He found out that their chemical characteristics do not agree with the characteristic of threats from the original cloth, which he had got during the STURP investigation in the 70th . Thus he was able to provide the scientific proof that the samples, which have been sent to the 3 research institutes in Arizona, Cambridge and Zurich in 1988 could not come from the original cloth. Rogers assumes that in the Middle Ages skillfully a patch has been woven into the original cloth, which was not recognized during the cutting process and thus unfortunately a medieval piece has been tested.
The answer from Turin came fast and was: There are no darns in the cloth, Rogers must have made a mistake.
Nevertheless, Rogers article appeared in an important and well known scientific technical periodical (Thermochimica Acta), his text was submitted to a careful examination by independent experts (peer reviewed). Therefore his results count as secure scientific knowledge.
In the test of 1988 as well as in the Holland cloth (cloth on which the old shroud was sewn on in 1532 after the fire) Rogers found the chemical product vanillin, but not in the original cloth. Vanillin is found in linen fibers; it dissolves in time, so that the concentration of vanillin allows a rough dating. Rogers writes: „The fact that there is no vanillin in the fibers of the shroud exactly as in other old linen materials indicates that the shroud is likewise very old ".
Have the samples been fraudulently exchanged
Turin is probably right, if it is stated that there are no darns in the shroud. There are several indications for the assumption that the test samples have been exchanged fraudulently. E.g., the weights of the pieces incoming at the institutes did not match with the values which were measured after cutting out in Turin. There are many contradictions in the statements of the actors, which have been made public in several books.
You can find a collection in Holger Kerstens book: “The Jesus Conspiracy”.
Many shroud researchers do not want to think about a fraudulent exchange of the samples, because then immediately the question concerning the motive would come up. Who has an interest in the fact that the shroud is dated in the Middle Ages? But there is a motive, if it is taken into account that the shroud contains information that the man under shroud has still been alive, which points to the assumption that Jesus has survived the crucifixion, which paves the way for a new interpretation of the reports of eyewitnesses having him seen alive after the crucifixion.