Raes, Gilbert
Gilbert Raes was a French textile scholar, professor and director of the Ghent Institute of Textile Technology (Department of Textiles. Faculty of Engineering of Ghent University) in Belgium. After examining the shroud and threads that he removed in 1973, he reported that the shroud was three-to-one herringbone twill with Z-twist thread. He compared it to highest quality mummy linens. He also identified cotton fibers in the thread as Gossypium herbaceum type, a cotton that existed in the Middle East of the first century.