In several articles, Daniel Scavone, professor Emeritus of history at the University of southern Indiana, puts forward a hypothesis which identifies the Shroud of Turin as the real object that inspires the romances of the Holy Grail.D. Scavone: "Joseph of Arimathea, the Holy Grail, and the Edessa Icon," Arthuriana vol. 9, no. 4, 3–31 (Winter 1999) (Article and abstract);Scavone, “British King Lucius, the Grail, and Joseph of Arimathea: The Question of Byzantine Origins.”, Publications of the Medieval Association of the Midwest 10 (2003): 101–42, vol. 10, 101–142 (2003).
