Movies and paintings depict Jesus to be carrying the cross on one shoulder.
Historians claim that the customary way of carrying the cross was entirely different.
The cross is made of two pieces of wood, the vertical beam called the stipes crucis and the horizontal beam called the patibulum . Historians say that the stipes crucis was already fastened in Golgotha, while the Romans would load the patibulum on the shoulders of the criminal and tie each outstretched arm to it. The prisoner would carry the patibulum this way across town, all the way to where he was to be executed. The shroud shows a wide area of bruises on each shoulder. If the cross were carried similar to how painters depicted this scene, the bruised area should have been narrower.