The Shroud of Turin carries the DNA of many people, plants and animals

DNA analysis has identified vast amounts of animal, plant and human material contaminating the Shroud of Turin, complicating the story of a mysterious relic believed to be the cloth in which Jesus Christ was wrapped after his crucifixion 2,000 years ago.

Measuring 4.4 meters long and 1.1 meters wide, the Shroud is one of the most famous and controversial Christian artifacts in the world. Its first documented location was in France in 1354, and it remained in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Turin, Italy, for nearly half a millennium.

In 1988, researchers used radiocarbon and accelerator mass spectrometry dating techniques to determine that the shroud was made sometime between 1260 and 1390, ruling out the possibility that the person seen imprinted on the fabric could be Jesus. However, this dating of the Shroud to the later medieval period remains contested by some Christian scholars.

in 2015 Gianni Barcaccia at the University of Padua in Italy and his colleagues analyzed material collected from the relic in 1978 and first proposed that the fabric may have come from India.

Now Barcaccia, who declined to be interviewed for this story, has led a new study reanalyzing the material from 1978. He and his team have found that the mantle has preserved a huge variety of medieval and modern DNA.

Sources of genetic material include domestic cats and dogs, farm animals including chickens, cattle, goats, sheep, pigs and horses, and wild animals such as deer and rabbits.

The team also found traces of some fish species, including gray mullet, cod and rays. Marine crustaceans, flies, aphids and arachnids such as dust and skin mites and ticks have also been identified.

Some of the most common plant species whose DNA has been preserved on the mantle are carrots and various types of wheat, as well as peppers, tomatoes, and potatoes—plants likely brought to Europe after explorers began traveling to Asia and the Americas.

However, it was not possible to determine the exact timing of these plant and animal contamination events.

The team also found human DNA from many of the individuals who handled the mantle, including the 1978 team that did the sampling. “The canvas came into contact with many individuals, thus calling into question the ability to identify the original DNA of the canvas,” they write.

Nearly 40 percent of the human DNA found on the mantle is of Indian lineages, which “may have been the result of historical interactions or the importation of Roman lineages from areas near the Indus Valley,” Barcaccia and his colleagues report.

“The traces of DNA found on the Shroud of Turin indicate a potentially widespread exposure of the fabric in the Mediterranean region and the possibility that the yarn was made in India,” the team writes.

Anders Götherström at Stockholm University in Sweden claims that earlier research dated the shroud to the 13th centuryThursday century is generally accepted in the scientific community. “Although there is some debate about the radiocarbon dating of 1988, most researchers consider it robust enough,” he says.

Götherström is unconvinced by the suggestion that the fabric may have come from India. “I still see no reason to doubt that the shroud is French and dates from the 13th-14th century,” he says.

“The cloak has its own history as an important relic, and that history may be more interesting than a legendary origin… without scientific support.”

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