Discovered in 1947, the Dead Sea Scrolls have been available only for display in a museum in Israel ... so far.
Thanks to digital photography experts and a project created by Google,
high-resolution photos of five of the seven original manuscripts from
the Dead Sea can now be viewed online. The Dead Sea Scrolls Digital
website offers a look into the distant past, allowing users to view and
examine the rolls in detail.
Photographed by digital
photographer Ardon Bar-Hama, the images contain about 1,200 megapixels,
according to Google, so that people can come to get a detailed view of
historical manuscripts.
Opening the page of one of the
parchments, as the Great Isaiah Scroll, greets you with a description of
the manuscript, its history and its meaning. By clicking zooms the
photo of the scroll itself so that you can not only read the words but
feel the texture and age of the scrolls themselves. Zoom far enough even
reveals some of the cracks, tears and holes that have invaded the paper
in the last 24 centuries.
You can easily scroll from one page
to another or from a specific page. Move your mouse over any part of the
parchment shows the specific verse you are reading. Clicking on the
verse provides an English translation of the ancient Hebrew text.
The rolls are supposed to be searchable through standard search engines
of Google, the company said. Dead Sea Scrolls Google followed a
specific verse should lead to the location of that verse in the
photograph of the scroll. But when I tried, I received only a series
standard search results without any link to the book.
The
project to bring the Dead Sea Scrolls digital life came last year when
Google was asked to photograph the manuscripts of a project with the
Israel Museum in Jerusalem, home of real parchment.
Natural
concern was expressed about the vulnerability of the rolls of film after
being exposed to light and air for so long. Using his own unique method
for the capture of sensitive documents, the photographer Ardon Bar-Hama
was able to take photographs of the scrolls in a quick once the
process, which protects them from prolonged exposure to the elements .
Written sometime in the third century to the first century BC (Before
Common Era), the seven scrolls were discovered in a series of caves near
the Dead Sea, between 1947 and 1956. The rolls themselves "offer a
critical perspective on life and religion in ancient Jerusalem,"
according to Google, "including the birth of Christianity."
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