Penetrating Papyri
Just before Easter I heard from a friend of mine from Smith who is a greek scholar. Nancy was brimming with an excitement that fairly hummed in the emails we exchanged. The source of her excitement was the new material to be translated as a result of using MSI on ancient, previously unreadable, papyri. Her enthusiasm rubbed off on me, but I got caught up in my back injury and my vacation and forgot about it until last weekend. I've been busy doing reading and research on the subject, and here is my synopsis:
Years ago, Jet Propulsion Laboratory developed a technology used to image and analyze the surfaces of planets and moons in our solar system. Dr. Greg Bearman, a physicist and member of the team which developed that technology, had a brilliant idea: why not apply the principles of this technology to imaging ancient texts? Dr. Gene Ware, who was a professor of engineering at BYU, ran with the idea. He created the first multispectral imaging (MSI) system, and since then, several MSI cameras have been developed.
Until 2004, the most notable use of MSI technology was its use in examining and imaging a collection of 2,000 greek and latin scolls from Herculaneum, which were essentially carbonized by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE. Beginning in 1999, Steven and Susan Booras, of Brigham Young University's ISPART, accomplished the unimaginable -- they made papyri damaged by fire and time legible. The recovery of text was so successful that they were asked to perform their magic on Oxford's Oxyrhynchus papyri, which were recovered from an ancient trash dump in Egypt. The results have generated a huge amount of excitement amongst scholars of ancient texts, excitement that has been percolating through the Web. There have been a few lectures by Dirk Obbink (of Oxford) on the texts revealed by the MSI, but as of yet, I have not been able to find anything in scholarly publications -- its too early yet. Works by Sophocles, Sappho, Euripides, Hesiod, Lucian, and Archilochos have been deciphered. In some cases, translations are being corrected, blanks are being filled, and new works are being discovered, especially of ancient Christian texts.
The general feeling seems to be that with the translation of the papyri fragments from Herculaneum and Oxyrhyncus we are in store for a second Renaissance.
I am very much looking forward to learning more about what is revealed. I am also looking forward to the application of MSI to other documents, as well as to murals and frescos and cave paintings that have deteriorated over time.
Here are some links to articles and blogs and academic sites that I turned up:
Google search
ColdFury.com
RealOpinion.com
Oxford Papyrology
NPR.org
Slashdot.org
Email from Dr Obbink
Years ago, Jet Propulsion Laboratory developed a technology used to image and analyze the surfaces of planets and moons in our solar system. Dr. Greg Bearman, a physicist and member of the team which developed that technology, had a brilliant idea: why not apply the principles of this technology to imaging ancient texts? Dr. Gene Ware, who was a professor of engineering at BYU, ran with the idea. He created the first multispectral imaging (MSI) system, and since then, several MSI cameras have been developed.
Until 2004, the most notable use of MSI technology was its use in examining and imaging a collection of 2,000 greek and latin scolls from Herculaneum, which were essentially carbonized by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE. Beginning in 1999, Steven and Susan Booras, of Brigham Young University's ISPART, accomplished the unimaginable -- they made papyri damaged by fire and time legible. The recovery of text was so successful that they were asked to perform their magic on Oxford's Oxyrhynchus papyri, which were recovered from an ancient trash dump in Egypt. The results have generated a huge amount of excitement amongst scholars of ancient texts, excitement that has been percolating through the Web. There have been a few lectures by Dirk Obbink (of Oxford) on the texts revealed by the MSI, but as of yet, I have not been able to find anything in scholarly publications -- its too early yet. Works by Sophocles, Sappho, Euripides, Hesiod, Lucian, and Archilochos have been deciphered. In some cases, translations are being corrected, blanks are being filled, and new works are being discovered, especially of ancient Christian texts.
The general feeling seems to be that with the translation of the papyri fragments from Herculaneum and Oxyrhyncus we are in store for a second Renaissance.
I am very much looking forward to learning more about what is revealed. I am also looking forward to the application of MSI to other documents, as well as to murals and frescos and cave paintings that have deteriorated over time.
Here are some links to articles and blogs and academic sites that I turned up:
Google search
ColdFury.com
RealOpinion.com
Oxford Papyrology
NPR.org
Slashdot.org
Email from Dr Obbink
posted by KR | 6/04/2005 01:55:00 PM
6 Comments:
Fascinating. Just one item like this
makes surfing the bloggers' universe
a rewarding experience.
Maybe they can figure out all the intelligence and knowledge that was destroyed by the Muslims as they ravaged Europe. It would be nice to recover all the information destroyed by the religion of peace.
Sorry, that nut musafir showed up.
Heh, yeah right. Muslims preserved knowledge: Medicine, geometry, algebra, etc.
There are convincing arguments that if the Crusades had not occurred, Europe would still be in the Dark Ages.
I minored in history of science, sweets. If you're going to make statements like that on my blog, get it right. *poke*
Just out of curiosity, how did the knowledge disappear from Europe, was it the sacking of Rome and the destruction of the majority of information by the Muslims? Just wondering.
And I majored in Architecture, Muslims set the world back about 600 years in construction and building, but I digress.
To the best of my knowledge, the Muslims never sacked Rome. They invaded the Iberian peninsula in the 8th century CE. I've been to Spain, and the examples of Moorish architecture I have seen floor me with their magnificence and symmetry. But architecture is your area, so... could you direct me to some reading material on the subject of Muslims sacking Rome and setting Architecture back by 600 years?
I am also aware that the Muslims took over the Middle East portion of the Holy Roman Empire, which prompted Crusades to regain Jerusalem. The Turks and the Muslims did have a long-term enmity with the Byzantine Empire--but that area was not originally Christian or European to begin with--both were imported by Constantine.
The Christians invaded their territory. They fought back, pushing the Christians back as far as they could. My recollection of history is that the Moorish occupation of the Iberian peninsula was one of benign tolerance. It wasn't until the Papal Reconquista that persecution of jews and other minority groups (by Christians) became commonplace.
Lastly, Islam is a religion of peace, compassion, and lovingkindness (charity), and it springs from the same roots as Judaism and Christianity. What extremists have done with something so beautiful is a tragedy--but the same can be said of any religion. Read the Koran and then mock Islam. But please, not before, not on my blog.
> Just out of curiosity, how did the knowledge disappear from Europe..?
Something to do with the rise of Christianity, I thought... plague.. the murder of 5 million women... the murder/blinding/maiming of workmen who built extraordinary buildings so their work would not be repeated... the Roman destruction of the Library at Alexandria.. the Roman practice of conquering and then enslaving people and destroying their cultures and their languages, so that within a few generations the knowledge that was collected in libraries was useless because no one could read/understand it.
Lots o' reasons.
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