The professor believes he has convincing evidence but sceptics will take much persuading. Almost everybody accepts that it is legend. I'd put it on the same level as seeing the face of Muhammad in a potato. She has become the patron saint of photographers. Ever Told - it does not appear in the Bible.
Most experts conclude that it was invented to explain the relic.
But whether it dates back to early events is another matter. Scientific tests might shed further light on the veil's origins, but they could well destroy the small and delicate cloth without necessarily solving the mystery. Furious debate still surrounds the origin of the Turin Shroud, for example, even though carbon-14 tests in 1988 dated it between 1260 and 1390.