A carbonized scroll from Herculaneum
Getting words out of those sticks of charcoal seemed an impossible task until scientists at Brigham Young University (BYU), in Utah, devised a revolutionary new multi-spectral imaging technology.
The technology, originally developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab to study planet surfaces, can distinguish microscopic variations in the chemical composition of substances — such as ink on the burned scroll parchment — and turn them into clear images.
"Where conventional photography has failed, multi-spectral imaging, with its uniquely designed filter system and a modified digital camera, has provided readable images of these carbonized scrolls. Basically, we are able to take out the blackness of the papyri and enhance the ink because they have different reflective characteristics," Steven Booras, imaging project manager of the BYU Institute for the Study and Preservation of Ancient Religious Texts, said.
Instead of taking two or three weeks to read a few letters on small, frail scrolls, the new technology, described in the recent documentary Out of the Ashes: Recovering the Lost Library of Herculaneum, allows scholars to read the papyri very easily. Text is visible where no ink was previously detected.
"We are finding new readings on almost any papyri we are looking at. As long as the page itself is not broken, we can expect to find some dramatic improvement," Roger Macfarlane, director of the BYU Herculaneum Papyri Project, said.
Among the works scholars hope to read using the new technology are Aristotle's lost 30 dialogues, philosophical work by Epicurus, erotic poems by Philodemus, Virgilius' lost eclogue, scientific work by Archimedes and lesbian poetry by Sappho.
After imaging more than 10,000 scroll fragments, the BYU team is now working to create a permanent digital library of the papyri and make it available on the Internet.
"Scholars around the world will be able to sit in front of their computers and study these papyri," Macfarlane said.
A carbonized scroll fragment is read under a microscope at the National Library in Naples, Italy.
Picture: Mark Philbrick/Brigham Young University/courtesy Biblioteca Nazionale, Naples, Italy |
"Modern-day Ercolano sits on top of it. Several buildings, including the town hall, would have to be pulled down to make way for the digging," Pietro Giovanni Guzzo, Pompeii's archaeological superintendent, said.
Villa of the Papyri under excavation