Posted on 04/26/2007 6:32:04 AM PDT by blam
Text reveals more ancient secrets
By Rebecca Morelle
Science reporter, BBC News
The commentary on Aristotle lay hidden within the parchment
Experts are "lost for words" to have found that a medieval prayer book has yielded yet another key ancient text buried within its parchment.
Works by mathematician Archimedes and the politician Hyperides had already been found buried within the book, known as the Archimedes Palimpsest.
But now advanced imaging technology has revealed a third text - a commentary on the philosopher Aristotle.
Project director William Noel called it a "sensational find".
The prayer book was written in the 13th Century by a scribe called John Myronas.
But instead of using fresh parchment for his work, he employed pages from five existing books.
Dr Noel, curator of manuscripts at the US-based Walters Art Museum and a co-author of a forthcoming book on the Archimedes Palimpsest, said: "It's a rather brutal process, but it means you can reuse parchment if you are short of it.
"You take books off shelves, you scrub off the text, you cut them up and you make a new book."
In 1906 it came to light that one of the books recycled to form the medieval manuscript contained a unique work by Archimedes.
Archimedes was a mathematician from Ancient Greece
And in 2002, modern imaging technology not only provided a clearer view of this famous mathematician's words, but it also revealed another text - the only known manuscript of Hyperides, an Athenian politician from the 4th Century BC.
"At this point you start thinking striking one palimpsest is gold, and striking two is utterly astonishing. But then something even more extraordinary happened," Dr Noel told the BBC News website.
One of the recycled books was proving extremely difficult to read, explained Roger Easton, a professor of imaging science at Rochester Institute of Technology, US.
"We were using a technique called multispectral imaging," he said.
This digital imaging technique uses photographs taken at different wavelengths to enhance particular characteristics of the imaged area.
Subtle adjustments of this method, explained Professor Easton, suddenly enabled these hidden words to be revealed.
"Even though I couldn't read Ancient Greek, just the fact that I could see the words gave me shivers," he said.
Foundations of logic
An international team of experts began to scrutinize the ancient words, explained Reviel Netz, professor of ancient science at Stanford University, US and another co-author of the palimpsest book.
The paintings and words in the prayer book cover the hidden works
A series of clues, such as spotting a key name in the margin, led the team to its conclusion.
"The philosophical passage in the Archimedes Palimpsest is now definitely identified as a relatively early commentary to Aristotle's Categories," said Professor Netz.
He said that Aristotle's Categories had served as the foundation for the study of logic throughout western history.
Further study has revealed the most likely author of this unique commentary is Alexander of Aphrodisias, Professor Robert Sharples from the University College London told BBC News.
If this is the case, he said, "it gives us part of a commentary previously supposed lost by the most important of those ancient commentators on Aristotle".
A provisional translation of the commentary is currently being undertaken.
It reveals a debate on some aspects of Aristotle's theory of classification, such as: if the term "footed" is used for animals, can it be used to classify anything else, such as a bed?
The passage reads:
For as "foot" is ambiguous when applied to an animal and to a bed, so are "with feet" and "without feet". So by "in species" here [Aristotle] is saying "in formula".
For if it ever happens that the same name indicates the differentiae of genera that are different and not subordinate one to the other, they are at any rate not the same in formula.
Dr Noel said: "There is no more important philosopher in the world than Aristotle. To have early views in the 2nd and 3rd Century AD of Aristotle's Categories is just fantastic."
"We have one book that contains three texts from the ancient world that are absolutely central to our understanding of mathematics, politics and now philosophy," he said.
"I am at a loss for words at what this book has turned out to be. To make these discoveries in the 21st Century is frankly nutty - it is just so exciting."
There will be a live webcast of Dr Noel and Professor Easton presentation of this latest discovery at the Annual General Meeting of the American Philosophical Society on 1415 BST (0915 EDT) on Thursday 26 April.
Uh . .for me this article mostly highlights the modern glut of plentiful paper and how we mostly take it for granted; and I’m sure there’s a wealth of academic enlightenment that I’m not quite all that sure about. Twinkie
ping
Now to get public attention, someone needs to write a novel claiming that an illegitimate child of Aristotle's was the ancestor of Judas Iscariot, or maybe of Demetrius the silversmith.
This is the trouble that comes from recycling.
You're not the only one.
To me the story underscores the "taken for granted" aspect of our modern existence.
(And the related idiotic tendency to judge historically distant events by our current cultural state, but that's another story.)
Just suppose that paper did not exist, or that it existed in outrageously expensive form; say, $1000 a page.
You have stacks and stacks of old books and you need to write a new one.
It is surprising that you would recycle the handiest thing you could find?
If you were an ordinarily educated person of the time, at that particular place, Aristotle and Alexander of Aphrodisias weren't on your top 10 hit parade list.
Wow! Imagine if we had the scrolls from Alexandria destroyed in the great fire!
The oldest paper ever found was found with these (The Curse Of The Red-Headed Mummy) 4,000 year old Caucasian mummies found in China. It had the extinct Indo-European language Tocharian A written on it.
Thanks for the ping. This is a very interesting find, and the technology that found it is a great new tool for research.
Very interesting stuff.
I suspect that these discoveries will lead to a whole lot of scientists racing to reexamine old parchment books to see if the parchment has been recycled.
Uh . .for me this article mostly highlights the modern glut of plentiful paper and how we mostly take it for granted...
That’s why you should only use one square! ;-)
Ping!
Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on or off the
"Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list or GGG weekly digest
-- Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)
Archimedes’ hidden writings revealed with particle accelerator (Stanford)
ap on San Diego Union - Tribune | 8/4/06 | Terence Chea - ap
Posted on 08/04/2006 10:39:30 PM EDT by NormsRevenge
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1678104/posts
related:
Imaging Technology Restores 700-Year-Old Sacred Hindu Text
[ Sarvamoola granthas ]
RIT University News Web | Tuesday, September 19, 2006 | Susan Gawlowicz
Posted on 09/19/2006 12:13:54 PM EDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1704296/posts
Nam Vet
“Wow! Imagine if we had the scrolls from Alexandria destroyed in the great fire!”
I assume you are speaking about the Great Library, correct? The Greeks and Romans were testing the theories of magnetism whne it burned down. Many speculate that if the Great Library hadn’t burned down, electricity would have been invented by the 2nd century and you would have had our current modern age happening at that time. It was probably better it burned all things considered. Could you imagine for example what Muhahmed would have done with advanced technology in the 6th century?
Well, you and I would be bowing to Mecca’s black rock demon five times per day for one thing.
|
|
|||
Gods |
Just updating the GGG info, not sending a general distribution. |
||
|
· Mirabilis · Texas AM Anthropology News · Yahoo Anthro & Archaeo · · History or Science & Nature Podcasts · Excerpt, or Link only? · cgk's list of ping lists · |
|||
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.