How was the Turin Shroud carbon dated

The Turin Shroud is a long linen sheet housed in Italy s Turin Cathedral. Many people believe that the surface of the cloth bears the image of Jesus Christ (see 

An accurate knowledge of the Turin Shroud s age would allow us to differentiate between these two simplistic extremes of ad 33 and ad 1345, effectively distinguishing between a certain fake and a possible relic of enormous value. 

The age of the cloth was ascertained in 1988 when the Vatican (which has jurisdiction over Turin Cathedral) allowed a small piece of the cloth to be analysed by radiocarbon dating. By this means, the shroud was found to date from ad 1320 65. Even after taking account of the uncertainty of 65 years, the age of the shroud is consistent with the idea of a medieval forgery. It cannot be genuine. 

But the discussion about the shroud continues, so many people now assert that the results of the test itself are part of a cover up , or that the moment of Jesus s resurrection occurred with a burst of high-energy sub-atomic particles, which upset the delicate ratio of carbon isotopes. 

The physicochemical basis behind the technique of radiocarbon dating is the isotopic abundances of carbon s three isotopes 12C is the normal form and constitutes 98.9 per cent of all naturally occurring carbon. 13 C is the other naturally occurring isotope, with an abundance of about 1 per cent. 14C does not occur naturally, but tiny amounts of it are formed when high-energy particles from space collide with gases in the upper atmosphere, thus causing radiochemical modification. 

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