Book excerpt: Is the world-famous Shroud of Turin an authentic relic of the Passion and death of Jesus Christ or is it the product of one of the most cunning hoaxes ever perpetrated? In 1978, scientists established that the relic's image was not created by paint, and, in 1988, the relic's fabric was radiocarbon-dated to late-medieval times, a conclusion which was subsequently determined to be unreliable. In this book, Jack Markwardt, an internationally-renowned Turin Shroud historian, discloses and discusses the relic's entire hidden history, from the time of its discovery in Jesus' tomb to the time of its first exhibition in Western Europe, detailing why and how its history became obscured and negating the dubious 1988 radiocarbon-dating results.