Digitizing the Dead Sea Scrolls

Dead Sea ScrollsWhen they were discovered in caves in the Judean Desert near the Dead Sea in the 1940s and 1950s, the Dead Sea scrolls caused a sensation among scholars of the ancient Near East. The scrolls, which date from 150 BC to AD 70, include the oldest known surviving writings that correspond to biblical texts. They also include other religious texts that are not included in the Bible, along with texts considered to be secular. From the time of their discovery, the scrolls have been of great interest to scholars and a focus of debate and controversy.

Now scholars are preparing to get a closer look at the scrolls. Photos of the documents have been available for many years, details can “disappear” from delicate ancient fragments of parchment and papyrus. Those details have been restored and will now be revealed, thanks to a project led by the Israel Antiquities Authority. All of the scrolls are being digitized, using multispectral imaging technology originally developed by NASA. This process captures data at specific frequencies across the electromagnetic spectrum. That is, it uses more than visible light to record images. Letters and other details that have faded become apparent. The resulting images may actually be clearer than even the originals. These images will be posted online, where anyone can examine them free of charge.

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8 Comments

  1. caroline says:

    thats good

  2. aj says:

    yeah 🙂

  3. kisten says:

    that was a good book

    • Ugurcan says:

      Hey this is great!! Very cool the only problem now is that I will need to learn annecit Hebrew and Aramaic so that I can read them when they do come out. I had a couple of professors in school who will probably be VERY excited about this possibility!!

  4. bonifa says:

    thats boringg

  5. Lusi says:

    JohnIf you are at all honest you must cefnoss that you cannot even account for your own seeming appearance here. Because to do so you would have to take into account how the entire cosmos with all of its incomprehensible space-time paradoxes somehow coalesced into creating the body-mind complex that you now identify as you ( where do you begin and end?) And thus indeed how//why , beginning at presumed day one, the entire world process with all of its space-time paradoxes arises and appears in each and every moment (because you are not in any sense separate from that unfathomable/unexplainable process)And yet you presume to know so much about what may or may not have occurred in Palestine approximately 2000 years ago.When and where was Palestine 2000 years ago!Herod the Great ????????????

  6. Mind-Blown Chick says:

    whoaaaa….

  7. Mani says:

    Well, I don’t think postseason reocrd should really be taken into consideration by the HOF, that is what led to the terrible inductions of guys like Bill Mazeroski and Kirby Puckett. And if you look at Schilling’s comparables they are: Kevin Brown, Bob Welch, Orel Hershiser, Freddie Fitzsimmons, John Smoltz, Milt Pappas, Don Drysdale, Dazzy Vance, Jim Perry, and Catfish Hunter. Only three current HOFers and one likely (Smoltz). I think the names Kevin Brown, Bob Welch, and Orel Hershiser are the ones that stand out more to me here. Those guys are his comparables and while each is borderline, none of them are getting in. If you are going to put Schilling in because of his postseason performance, then what about Orel’s postseason performance? Outside of 1985 (very early in his career) and 1997 (very late in his career), the guy was an absolute ace. Look at his numbers in the World Series for the Dodgers in 88 and even though he took the losses, his two starts in 95 for the Indians were great! He just had the misfortune of facing vintage Greg Maddux in the first game, but did beat him in game 5. The WHIP and Ks of Schill are better, but the ERAs and Ws are just about the same, plus Orel won a Cy Young (something Schill never did) and set the reocrd 59 consecutive scoreless innings pitched.