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Sci Tech
Reading rolled up Dead Sea scrolls
IAN SAMPLE
Ancient writings from the Dead Sea scrolls are to be read for the first time by scientists using powerful x-rays. The scientific team, from Cardiff University, Wales, will examine rare and unread fragments of the scrolls, which are believed to shed light on how the texts came to be written in caves along the north-west coast of the sea nearly 2,000 years ago.
An opportunity
The technique will give the team an opportunity to read ancient texts considered too fragile to open.
They will look at the texts using x-rays produced at the GBP360m Diamond Light Source in Didcot, England. The machine works by propelling electrons at great speeds around a giant tunnel. As they corner they emit x-rays 100 billion times brighter than a medical x-ray. Researchers led by Tim Wess have developed computer software that can ‘unravel’ x-ray images of rolled up parchment documents to reveal the writing, even if the parchment has text on either side.
The scientists have so far focused their efforts on reading parchments from the 18th century and found that they are able to read 80 per cent of the words written on documents without unravelling them.
Tests have so far been conducted on legal documents called weedings dating back to 1770 from the National Archives of Scotland.
The team is also set to examine a series of unknown fire-damaged texts recovered from the UK’s National Archives in Kew, west London.
Collagen degrades
Many historical documents are recorded in iron gall ink, a mix of oak apple, iron sulphate and copper, on parchment made from the treated skin of cows, goats or sheep. With time the collagen that holds the parchment together degrades and turns into gelatin, damage that is accelerated by the corrosive nature of the ink.
Using the x-ray machine scientists can examine sheets of parchment in such detail that they can decide how badly degraded they are over distances of one thousandth of a millimetre.
If they are badly degraded the researchers will be able to use the new technique to read them without risk of destroying them.
The team’s first goal is to read hidden texts from the scrolls and the Torah which is said to record the word of God as revealed to Moses.
“There are some parts of the Dead Sea scrolls that haven’t been unrolled, and there are parts of the Torah that haven’t been seen as well,” Prof Wess said.
— Guardian Newspapers Limited 2007
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