The shroud, which is said to have been the burial linen of Jesus, purportedly shows what appears to be his face and body after the crucifixion.
The Telegraph reports that Oxford University carried out radiocarbon dating in 1988 and said it was only 728 years old. Then last year, University of Padua scientists dated it to between 300BC and AD400 -- still hundreds of years after Christ.
But a new study claims than an earthquake in Jerusalem in 33AD may have not only created the image but may also have skewed the dating results.
Italian scientist Alberto Carpinteri led a group of scientists at the Politecnico di Torino University in Torino, Italy. He and his team believe the 8.2-magnitude earthquake would have been strong enough to release neutron particles from crushed rock. Those neutron emissions caused the image on the shroud to look like Jesus' face, the study claims.
The study is published and explained in the journal Meccanica.
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