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| -Short Attention Span Theater- |
| Satellite-Imaging Techniques Unlock Ancient Documents/Secrets |
| 2005-04-17 |
| Interesting stuff Thousands of previously illegible manuscripts containing work by some of the greats of classical literature are being read for the first time using technology which experts believe will unlock the secrets of the ancient world. Among treasures already discovered by a team from Oxford University are previously unseen writings by classical giants including Sophocles, Euripides and Hesiod. Invisible under ordinary light, the faded ink comes clearly into view when placed under infra-red light, using techniques developed from satellite imaging. The Oxford documents form part of the great papyrus hoard salvaged from an ancient rubbish dump in the Graeco-Egyptian town of Oxyrhynchus more than a century ago. The thousands of remaining documents, which will be analysed over the next decade, are expected to include works by Ovid and Aeschylus, plus a series of Christian gospels which have been lost for up to 2,000 years. |
| Posted by:Frank G |
| #5 Agreed, M.Div., but it was a fun read -- cotton candy for the brain, if you will. ;-) |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2005-04-17 8:47:54 PM |
| #4 The DaVinci Code was a mishmash of half-digested gnostic stories and current pop culture projected into the past. Elaine Pagels' books on the diversity of cults, thought and practices in the first century AD is the real thing, although she has watered down the scholarship to make it readable. We'll see if what these palimpsets have actually include new gospels, or if they are the full versions of gnostic and other writings which are excerpted in the early church Fathers. It would be great to find some of the missing books of Greek writers, especially. |
| Posted by: M.Div. 2005-04-17 3:55:00 PM |
| #3 Here is a longer article. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2005-04-17 3:52:36 PM |
| #2 a series of Christian gospels which have been lost for up to 2,000 years. Well... 1800-1900 years anyway ;-) I've heard talk about this before, but it's very exciting to know how much material they have to draw on. This will enrich our understanding of the historic earth our present is rooted in -- in a way that The DaVinci Code couldn't possibly. Even more will be discovered, no doubt, when they apply similar techniques to over-written parchment palimpsets. What wonderful times we live in! |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2005-04-17 3:47:10 PM |
| #1 Only a tiny amount of the work of the ancient Greeks has come down to us. The rest was thought lost forever. There are people the Greeks themselves thought important thinkers that we only know about becuase someone else mentions them in their writings. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2005-04-17 3:45:54 PM |