Half a century after American scientists pressed sticky sampling material against the Shroud of Turin in 1978, a new reading of those old traces reveals a cloth that has gathered the lives of many hands, animals, and markets around it. The shroud has long been an object onto which people project their hopes about the ancient past, and this DNA study offers a humbling reminder of how much the centuries leave behind. Its authors hint at an Indian origin, but the wider record and the dust of later handling still point to a medieval European story, one that awaits the slower verdict of peer review
Shroud of Turin's Carrot and Coral DNA Points to Centuries of Contamination, Not Ancient Origins
A cloth some believe wrapped Jesus carries the DNA of carrots and cats
Mark
So what did they actually find on the shroud?
Mimi
A crowd. Human DNA from several people, bacteria, cats, dogs, farm animals, fish, and plants from carrots to tomatoes, all from samples taken in 1978.
Mark
Why do tomatoes and potatoes matter so much?
Mimi
They reached Europe mainly in the 16th century or later. If their DNA is on the cloth, it got there long after any first-century date.
Luke
Worth saying plainly: this is a preprint on bioRxiv, posted March 22, not peer-reviewed. The species list is the team's finding, not a settled one.
Mark
The team still suggests an Indian connection, though.
Mimi
They read nearly 40% of the human DNA as Indian lineages and raise the possibility the yarn was made in India. Nicolotti doesn't think that's likely.
Luke
And that's an interpretation, not a measurement. Human DNA can arrive with or without touch, so what it says about where the cloth was made is unclear.
Mark
What about the red coral?
Mimi
The authors read it as Mediterranean origins or transit. Nicolotti points to coral crucifixes and rosaries known to have touched the cloth.
Luke
Neither reading is demonstrated. The coral's source doesn't tell us where the shroud was.
Mark
Does any of this change the 1989 carbon dating?
Mimi
Nicolotti says nothing here contradicts it. That dating put the cloth between 1260 and 1390.
Il Polso
- A preprint DNA study from the University of Padova has surfaced traces of carrot, red coral, cats, dogs, and many human donors on the centuries-old shroud.
- Tomatoes, potatoes, and peppers from the Americas appear in samples that predate their arrival in Europe, unsettling any claim of first-century origin.
- Researchers suggesting Indian lineage are being pressed by outside experts who point to missing Middle Eastern plants and a carbon date of 1260 to 1390.
- The findings have not been peer-reviewed, so the Indian-origin interpretation hangs in limbo while scholars wait for validation.
Half a century after American scientists pressed sticky sampling material against the Shroud of Turin in 1978, a new reading of those old traces reveals a cloth that has gathered the lives of many hands, animals, and markets around it. The shroud has long been an object onto which people project their hopes about the ancient past, and this DNA study offers a humbling reminder of how much the centuries leave behind. Its authors hint at an Indian origin, but the wider record and the dust of later handling still point to a medieval European story, one that awaits the slower verdict of peer review.
In 1978, a team of American scientists pressed sampling material against the Shroud of Turin and lifted away what had settled there. Nearly fifty years later, those samples were read again with modern genomic tools, and the cloth some believe wrapped Jesus turned out to hold the DNA of carrots, red coral, cats, dogs, and many people.
The study comes from Gianni Barcaccia and colleagues at the University of Padova. Their earlier work had suggested the shroud might have been made in India, and this new analysis, posted as a preprint on bioRxiv, aims to identify exactly which species left their traces. The human DNA seems to come from several individuals, including the person who collected the samples in 1978.
The plant list is what troubles any ancient reading. Tomatoes, potatoes, and peppers reached Europe mainly from the Americas in the 16th century or later, and the carrot DNA resembles orange cultivars grown in Western Europe centuries after the cloth was supposedly made. Barcaccia attributes this diversity to environmental contamination in recent centuries.
Outside experts are not persuaded by the Indian claim. Some note what is missing, such as olives, dates, and myrrh, which would be expected from the Levant. Others suggest the coral and vegetables match the coral reliquaries and nearby markets where the cloth was displayed. The shroud's documented history begins in 1354, and the 1989 carbon dating places its creation in the Middle Ages.
Until peer review, the Indian-origin claim remains one team's interpretation, set against evidence that still points to medieval Europe.
In 1978, a team of American scientists pressed sampling material against the Shroud of Turin and lifted away traces of whatever had settled on it. Nearly five decades later, those samples have been read again with modern genomic tools, and the cloth some believe wrapped Jesus has turned out to carry the DNA of carrots, melons, red coral, cats, dogs and a good many people.
The work comes from Gianni Barcaccia, a professor of genetics and genomics at the University of Padova, and his colleagues. In 2015 the group suggested, from an earlier genetic analysis of the same 1978 samples, that the shroud might have been made in India. This time they ran a newer DNA and metagenomic analysis to identify which species the traces came from. The results were posted March 22 to the preprint server bioRxiv and have not been peer-reviewed.
The human DNA appears to come from multiple people, one of them the person who collected the samples in 1978. Bacteria made up between 10% and 31% of the DNA. Among the animal traces, cats and dogs accounted for about 44%, alongside chickens, cattle, goats, sheep, pigs, horses, deer, rabbits, skin mites, ticks and various fish. Carrot supplied about 31% of the plant DNA, with wheat, maize, rye, peppers, tomatoes, potatoes, melons or cucumbers, peanuts, grasses, bananas, almonds, walnuts and oranges also present. The team also found Mediterranean red coral, Corallium rubrum, which they said suggests Mediterranean origins or transit through Mediterranean regions.
The plant list is what troubles any ancient reading. Bananas, potatoes, peppers and tomatoes reached Europe mainly from the Americas in the 16th century or later. The carrot DNA resembles cultivars bred from orange carrots first grown in Western Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries. Barcaccia told Live Science by email that the diversity of species points to significant environmental contamination in recent centuries, particularly after the voyages of Marco Polo and Christopher Columbus. Two threads the team dated fell between 1451 and 1622 and between 1642 and 1800, matching repairs made in 1534, not long after a fire damaged the cloth, and conservation work in 1694.
Outside researchers noted what was missing. Hugh Farey, an independent researcher who runs the blog The Medieval Shroud, said the mix does not indicate any particular environment, and pointed to the absence of olives, dates, pomegranates, camels, myrrh and aloes. Andrea Nicolotti, a historian at the University of Turin who was not involved, said the coral may say little about where the cloth has been. It makes him think of coral crucifixes, rosaries and reliquaries known to have been placed in contact with the shroud. The vegetables, he said, recall a market 100 meters (330 feet) from the Turin square where the cloth was publicly exhibited for centuries, or the dust of Chambéry, where it was shown along a tree-lined avenue.
The larger record points the same direction. The first documented mention of the shroud dates to 1354 in Lirey, a village in northern France, and even then its authenticity was disputed. The cloth measures 14.4 by 3.6 feet (4.4 by 1.1 meters). A carbon-dating analysis in 1989 placed its creation between 1260 and 1390, and work last year indicated the human image likely resulted from the cloth being laid over a low-relief sculpture. Nicolotti adds that the weave requires a four-shaft loom, invented in medieval Europe, and there is no evidence such looms existed in Europe, India or the Levant 2,000 years ago. None of the new findings, he said, contradict the 1989 dating.
The most contested claim is the authors' interpretation that nearly 40% of the human DNA comes from Indian lineages, suggesting the yarn may have been produced in India. Nicolotti does not find that likely and remains convinced the shroud is a medieval European forgery. Nor is he surprised by the human DNA, given how many people have handled the cloth, the instruments used in 1978, and even those who made and used the brushes that periodically dusted it.
What happens next is peer review. Until the preprint passes it, the Indian-origin claim remains one team's interpretation, set against a body of evidence that experts say still points to the Middle Ages.
Citazioni salienti
All the vegetables make me think of the market that is 100 meters from the square where public exhibitions were held for centuries in Turin.— Andrea Nicolotti, historian, University of Turin
The diversity of species highlights significant environmental contamination likely occurring in recent centuries, particularly after the voyages of Marco Polo and Christopher Columbus.— Gianni Barcaccia, University of Padova (paraphrased)
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