It is almost certainly real because

There is no doubt now that the carbon 14 test in 1988 were flawed. A paper in the peer-reviewed science journal Thermochimica Acta, in 2005,  explains why. All indications are that the cloth is decidedly much older. Moreover, recent tests show that all vanillin has disappeared from the cloth's fibers, proving that the cloth is much older.

Peer-reviewed science journal articles, some as recent as the last two or three years, show beyond any doubt that the images on the Shroud are not paintings, proto-photographs or any other artistic method.

The images are wholly contained within a thin coating of starch fractions and saccharides like those found in soapwort: glucose, fucose, galactose, arabinose, xylose, rhamnose, and glucuronic acid. The images are formed by a selective browning of this coating.

Historical documents from Constantinople and Mesopotamian locales provide solid evidence that the Cloth of Edessa, traceable back to the sixth century and before, is the same cloth we now call the Shroud of Turin. This is supported by a mountain of forensic evidence.

The forensic pathology picture is clear. The image is of a man in rigor with puncture wounds, contusions, abrasions and blood marks that only a modern pathologist can comprehend. This is the image of a man who was scourged and crucified. Some of the fine pathological details are imperceptible to the unaided eye in the faintness and the negativity of the images. They become apparent only with help from modern image enhancement technologies.

The Shroud of Turin is certainly not a medieval fake relic. That much is clear from the evidence. All things considered, it is probably, at the very least, a burial cloth of a crucifixion victim.

If this is a burial wrapping -- and it is hard to imagine what else it might be -- we must confront a simple reality. Burial cloths do not survive tombs. Certainly, the only way that this burial cloth could exist is if it was separated from the body before decomposing flesh ravaged it. That would happen within just a few days. And it goes without saying that the tomb must have been open in order to retrieve the cloth.

And there is the startling, unexplained 3D encoding of the Shroud. and the peculiar variegated banding and its optical illusions.

Speaking of history . . .

Within the Hymn of the Pearl, (ca 50-300 CE) are these lines; the two images segment:

Suddenly,
I saw my image on my [burial ^a] garment
like in a mirror

Myself and myself through myself
[or myself facing outward and inward ^b]

As though divided, yet one likeness

Two images
but one likeness of the King [of kings ^c]

It is hard to imagine that these words do not describe the Shroud of Turin (pictured to the right).

1. justifiably, burial garment from other references to burial garment; also, "And when I had put it on, I was lifted up unto the place of peace (sahltation or heaven) . . ."

2. see various translations.

3. translation by Hans Jonas