An Irish scientist is among a crack team of archaeologists and scientists who say they have found a burial shroud from the time of Jesus in a Jerusalem tomb.

The researchers say the shroud is very different than the Shroud of Turin, with a much more simple, two-way weave — not the twill weave used on the Turin cloth, which textile experts say was introduced more than 1,000 years after Christ lived.

Many Christians believe the Shroud of Turin is Christ's burial cloth, but the new discovery bolsters the view of many scientitists and scholars who say it could not be.

Ireland's Helen Donoghue and the team of scientists found the body of a man wrapped in the newly discovered shroud in a tomb that clearly dates form the time of Jesus near the Old City of Jerusalem.

It was found in a cemetery called the Field of Blood, where Judas is thought to have killed himself.

The researchers say the body was that of a Jewish high priest or a member of the aristocracy who died of leprosy — the earliest case they have found.

TThe researchers say that the clothes and shroud are typical of the burial cloths used during the life of Christ