Why an Atheist Thinks the Shroud of Turin is the Real Deal

Herringbone in History

Herringbone twill has been found in fabric samples dating back as far as 400 B.C., among the mummified remains of a Celtic people found in ancient Hallstatt salt mines near present-day Vienna. Other herringbone cloth, made from horsehair, has been found in Ireland dating from possibly as early as the arrival of Celtic people on the island around 600 B.C.. Other complex twill patterns going back to at least 200 B.C. and probably earlier have been found with mummies discovered in the Tarim Basin in present-day Xinjiang, China. In Northern Italy a six foot long piece of linen cloth was found with twilling and lozenge patterning that is almost certainly from the third millennium B.C.. (17)

Linen itself has been around for a very long time and in diverse parts of the world. Fragments of Egyptian linen at the British Museum in London and the Bolton Museum in Lancashire are over 6,000 years old. The wrappings from the mummy of Rameses II, the pharaoh of the Israelite Exodus from Egypt, are linen, and are still very well preserved. In the Hebrew Bible, what Christians call the Old Testament, we learn that curtains of the Tabernacle were of fine linen. Aaron, the high priest, wore a linen coat and linen miter.

In other words, linen and twill cloth, even herringbone twill, has been around for a long time. We might reasonably suppose that herringbone twill linen was produced in the weaving centers of Alexandria, Antioch, Damascus and in other cities in Hellenistic and Roman antiquity. Claims from some skeptics that a three-over-one herringbone is too elaborate for Roman Palestine, or that a piece of linen could have lasted 2000 years is historically unsustainable.