abstract:A sudarium (Latin) was a "sweat cloth", used for wiping the face clean. Small cloths of various sorts, for which sudarium is a general term, played a role in Ancient Roman formal manners and court ceremonial, and many such uses transferred to Christian liturgical usage and art.
Avinoam Danin (a researcher atthe HebrewUniversityofJerusalem) concurred with this analysis, adding that the pollengrains in theSudariummatch those of the shroud.