Archaeology & History

Ancient burnt scroll is 'virtually unwrapped'

By T.K. Randall
September 22, 2016 ·  8 comments

The scroll was badly damaged in a fire. Image Credit: CC BY 2.0 LearningLark The ancient text, which was crushed and burned in a fire which ravaged the town of En-Gedi on the western shore of the Dead Sea around 600 AD, is so fragile that it has barely ever been touched.

To find out what is written on the scroll, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) in Jerusalem took a series of high-resolution x-ray scans and sent them to Brent Seales, a computer scientist at the University of Kentucky, who used computer software to reconstruct its original appearance.

The technique, which is known as 'virtual unwrapping', succeeded in revealing that the charred remains actually contained a copy of the book of Leviticus written in Hebrew."We know now that the scroll from En-Gedi is biblical," said Seales. "We've identified it as the same text from the book of Leviticus. Anything that is still inside the scroll is now possible to view."

It is hoped that this same method can also be used to reveal other damaged ancient texts.

"Although this approach is bespoke at present, this type of technology will become more and more available in the future, potentially unlocking ancient libraries thought lost forever," said Melissa Terras, Director of the UCL Centre for Digital Humanities.


Source: The Guardian | Comments (8)

Tags: Scroll, Hebrew