Reading the unreadable..........

[dimbear]

http://phys.org/news/2013-05-unreadable.html

Pioneering X-ray technology is making it possible to read fragile rolled-up historical documents for the first time in centuries.
.......

Old parchment is often extremely dry and liable to crack and crumble if any attempt is made to physically unroll or unfold it. The new technology, however, eliminates the need to do so by enabling parchment to be unrolled or unfolded 'virtually' and the contents displayed on a computer screen.

Developed at Cardiff University and Queen Mary, University of London with funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the breakthrough means historians will be able to access previously unusable written sources and gain new insight into the past.

(end snip ) It's a shame this technique doesn't yet apply to the literature found at Pompey, because of the difference in inks. Still, the utility for interpreting palimpsests alone would be worth the candle. Science marches on!

[Phillip McCleod]

1. very cool. i wonder if..

..it would've worked on the 'copper scroll' though? dr. allegro of the dead sea scrolls team cut it into strips to lay them out flat, because unrolling it would've turned it to green dust.