Monks to use hyperspectral imaging to retrieve ancient texts
By Marc Perton 
posted June 19th 2005 3:50PM
posted June 19th 2005 3:50PM
Monks at the oldest Christian monastery in the world — St.
Catherine's Monastery on Mount Sinai in Egypt — plan to use digital cameras to extract hidden information from
ancient bibles. Using hyperspectral imaging, which takes pics of the pages at different wavelengths, the monks
will attempt to extract hidden text from the 1,600-year old Greek Codex Sinaiticus, the oldest existing Christian
bible. The monks hope to be able to use the method to retrieve faded revisions that were made to the parchments by
hand over the years by ancient scholars. Sure beats trying to do it with lemon juice and blow dryers.
lol, silly christians.
I've always thought this would be plausible to retrieve missing information as well - there is most likely "rub off" of ink on the preceding page (or place where contact was made with ink and rolled scroll)
What was the point of that, norebonomis?
Christians are silly.
haha, silly christians. I mean, who in their right mind uses technology to recover information lost in time?
Hahaha Americans would never do such a thing.
What happens is that norebonomis is a devot MUSLIM that hates Christians.
What happens is that Emma is a stupid christian that can't spell devout.
lol, silly nerds!
Don't ya love how Bush has brainwashed all of his little Christian sheep into believing that Muslims and Jews are all evil terrorists?
Well, I guess that Jesus was a terrorist.
This proves it- God is a hacker.
I fail to see what is "silly" about digitizing some of the earliest written records humanity has. This is a fantastic project and may result in increased understanding of the history of one of the main religions on the planet.
To an atheist religion is a fascinating subject. Only to the willfully ignorant and those caught in dogma and bigotry could such an undertaking ever be regarded as "silly".
It's amazing how a story about retreiving ancient texts can turn into a Holy War. I am a Christian, and I don't believe Muslims are terrorists. But, that is the overall consesus of Americans these days sadly enough.
ko123 You should be reported to the administration.
and for your information I am much more smarter than you and your stupid mother. And I am not christian I am a Sientologist.
I am not christian nor Muslim. I don't get why there are stupid forum trolls saying that ditigizing the Bible is silly. What is silly is the Muslim belive that they must fight the "Holly War" and kill everybody that does not belong to their religion like Bin Laden did in 9/11 that is stupid.
And FYI I am Buddisth (Zen)
John, very realistic that you can identify what is fascinating for an entire group (or perhaps you only meant yourself), though I do agree with the rest of your comment. However, those who deem it "silly" might be referring to the extensive odyssey the monks are willing to go for something that may not produce very much results, and not necessarily towards christianity or any other religion.
Tyler, I'm not sure what's the source of your information, but I don't have the same consensus that Americans believe Muslims are terrorists as you do. Perhaps you are confusing the word muslim with Al-Qaeda or like the media, only concentrating on the negative issues.
why should he be reported to 'the administration'? i vote for closing these comments, this is a trolls wet dream.
This has been done before... Multi-spectral imaging has been used on the scripts of the library of Herculaneum. Brigham Young University has a done this for others as well. A sequence of images taken at all ranges of the light spectrum are then put together, and the result often is a document of startling clarity. The technique for adapting NASA's technology to the reading of ancient manuscripts was developed at Brigham Young University in Utah, which is assisting Oxford with the Oxyrhynchus project.
where did the Muslims come in to this conversation?
and for the record, "the Muslims" dont beleive they need to have a holy war, muslim extremists who read too much into the religion do
Witness the magic of trolls.
The general mood today is "muslim=terrorist" in America today. Similar to "Japanese=attack" shortly after pearl harbor.
lol, silly trolls.
What all of you have failed to mention was the BLOODY BRILLIANT National Treasure reference hidden in the post. Little things like that are what keep me reading Engadget. It's like Where's Waldo for nerds. Er, more so than usual.
I guess Emma Torrez doesn't take her religion seriously enough to know it's spelled Scientologist. But hey, I guess you don't have to be smart to get out of paying taxes.
John says: I fail to see what is "silly" about digitizing some of the earliest written records humanity has.
While I agree with his sentiment, two thousand years is far from "some of the earliest written records humanity has."
There are collections from Assurbanipals's library, where the Assyrian king had ancient Sumerian writings translated into "modern" Assyrian around 2600 years ago.
Then there are extant poems attributed to Enheduanna, daughter of Sargon, who wrote approximately 2300 years BC, making them 4300 years old.
Similarly, the better known Egyptian hieroglyphic writing has examples that go back around 5200 years.
Anyway, I could go on, but I think I've beaten this horse well nigh unto the death.
Look, jerk. Just because you are serious about a religion, a career, a lifestyle, whatever, doesnt mean you have to be able to spell every fucking word about it correctly.
You (close minded) people are missing the point. It's a beautiful thing, this isnt so much about religion, its about what the monks are attempting. What their goal is, and that is to learn about the past using technology of the present. It doesnt matter what the person who's trying its religion is. Muslim, Christian, buddhist, doesn't matter, because of what it really stands for.
So fuck all of you!
Libelle, your point is... well pointless. Just because it's not the earliest example of written history doesn't define it as insignificant or without meaning and it certainly doesn't say we should ingore it.
22, I agree completely with what these monks are doing. As an atheist, I identify 100% with #11's view. My only fault is not considering Scientology one of the most "profound" religions. Not to mention, those who rely on "your mother" references don't deserve a mouth.
@alfj
Insert "me" to clear up the confusion.
With the benefit of hindsight many things can appear "silly". For example 1000 years from now this gadget web log and indeed the whole concept of capitalism may appear "silly" to some.
@Libelle
I suppose to me the fact that it is
1) Written on a relatively fragile medium. (And cannot be studied because of that)
2) May have significant current cultural impact. (May in fact contradict current doctrines)
3) Would be widely read. (If it does prove relevant)
4) Would be scanned in a way revealing more than has ever been seen
adds to the imperative for its digitisation. I agree however with your general sentiment. In fact I can't see why it is not a pressing concern to get all text which are out of copyright digitised. Thank god for Google. LOL. http://print.google.com/googleprint/library.html.
it is pointless to bring up religion in a tech forum. most nerds are anti-christian/atheist. You will be running in circles. Though i do applaud those who stand up to the criticism and defend Christianity, you cannot breakthrough their liberal shells.
I guess Emma Torrez doesn't take her religion seriously enough to know it's spelled Scientologist. But hey, I guess you don't have to be smart to get out of paying taxes.
There is a lot of talking going on here, but not a lot of communicating. One hopes for tolerance and respect for other points of view besides your own.
Amen to that.
(Kudos if you caught the irony.)
Well Emma, I feel bad for your mother, raising somebody dumb enough to misspell the name of their own "religion". Note that religion is in quotes.
Haha, scientology, LMFAO, yeah, because aliens really flew to Earth in DC-8s that traveled in space. LMAO.
Oh, and Emma, give your stupid mother my regards.
ko123, if your only contribution to this site is to point out spelling errors then feel free to stop posting comments and spare us the insight on the depth of your stupidity. A spelling mistake is just that, a MISTAKE(everyone makes them, I know, surprising isn't it?). This is a blog not an essay.
Awesome. In these blasphemous, morally relativistic times, now more than ever we need the strict moral guidance of some ancient goat herder to help us through till The Rapture when the flying saucers will come to take us all to Jebus
I hate to say it but this thread should be closed, as I see a select few out of this whole discussion following the comment rules...
religion = submission, exploitation and death, period.
I can't wait for it to be destroyed.
And Mephisto, suck my booboozz, a buddhist? yeah right.
You should watch this :
"The Power of Nightmares, The Rise of the Politics of Fear" an incredibly bleak but real BBC Documentary
Downloadable here in torrent file :
http://www2.digitaldistractions.org:8080/torrents/The%20Power%20Of%20Nightmares%20-%20The%20Rise%20Of%20The%20Politics%20Of%20Fear%20(3-Part%20Miniseries).torrent
Full page :
http://www2.digitaldistractions.org:8080/torrents.php?showid=documentaries
if you're dumb enough to say that its silly to spread their religions ; religions are like the army, they're always recruiting, that's what they're all about (remember the Spaniards in south america, the Brits&co and their Crusades, the Ottomans and their almost successfull invasion of europe etc etc etc = ALL THESE TIMELESS SHITS EQUAL DEATH OPPRESSION AND A COMPLETE DENIAL OF HUMANITY!)
THEY INDUCED RACISM, SEXISM, MACHISM and a whole shitload of stuff used to crush the pesant and fatten the monks and their powerfull allies.
Silly are trolls.
Silly are all religions.
Silly are all religious people.
Silly are the dumb monks who failing to attract people any more, now wanting for technology to dig some dirt for them.
Not silly are the dudes who hack the ancient blah blah bible and who might come up with a way to prove the 2000 year old scam.
I fail to see how Christianity is a scam. Maybe you're just a troll who has too much free time. In that case I'll ignore you.
Congratulations, guys. I'm closing comments because none of you know how to stay on topic. Keep up the good work.
Congratulations, guys. I'm closing comments because none of you know how to stay on topic. Keep up the good work.