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It is fourteen feet long and three-and-a-half-feet wide and obviously very old. The cloth is linen, hand-woven in what is known in the textile trade as a three-to-one herringbone twill. Experts say that this technique is over two millennia old, and used by weavers even before the time of Christ. The cloth has been around since the late 14th century, that much is certain. Under any circumstances, its antiquity alone would, therefor, be of historical interest. But its age, though a matter of bitter dispute, is not what makes it unique. It is, instead, the image that seems to float on its surface -- the image of a crucified man -- that has intrigued the world for hundreds of years.
