More Greek and Latin
According to Wizbang scientists have discovered a way to “decode previously unreadable texts” using a special infrared technique.
There are thousands of ancient documents written on paper that has turned into mush. This technique could make it possible to recover many interesting antiquities:
The original papyrus documents, discovered in an ancient rubbish dump in central Egypt, are often meaningless to the naked eye - decayed, worm-eaten and blackened by the passage of time. But scientists using the new photographic technique, developed from satellite imaging, are bringing the original writing back into view.
Some ancient Egyptian must have done what Misty wants to do to my own library:
The papyrus fragments were discovered in historic dumps outside the Graeco-Egyptian town of Oxyrhynchus (“city of the sharp-nosed fish”) in central Egypt at the end of the 19th century. Running to 400,000 fragments, stored in 800 boxes at Oxford's Sackler Library, it is the biggest hoard of classical manuscripts in the world.
I only have about 90 boxes of books, and they're stored in an airplane hanger, not a garbage dump.
Josh Poulson
Posted Monday, Apr 18 2005 04:27 PM
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