In 1970, Israeli archaeologists have conducted research in a synagogue in the vicinity of the village En-Gedi, on the west coast of the Dead Sea. Written on parchment made from animal skin, the manuscript survived on a boat when a fire destroyed the village around 600 AD Archaeologists have discovered over more than a millennium later. Papyrus of En Gedi, was burned pretty at first, I did the researchers to believe that it was originally a piece of coal.
Inquisitive scholars have wondered what is written on papyrus, but its opening by the classical method would destroy the rural carbonized papyri. In 1970 there was no type of technology which may examine the manuscript without destroying it. So, En-Gedi papyrus from which measurements of carbon-14 dated it as Century III or IV d.Hr, remained untouched, its contents remain a secret.
Decades later, upgrading technology offered researchers a chance to look at some parts of papyrus. Israeli researchers have heard of the existence of a computer program called ,, Volume Cartography '' conducted by researcher at the University of Kentucky, W. Brent Seales. Through the program, the papyrus could be conducted virtually ,, '' for researchers to be able to decode.
Skeptical, Pnina Shor, project manager Dead Sea, called papyrus to be scanned by micro-CT scanner, which is generally used for cancer patients. The image was sent from Israel to Kentucky for examination. Without noticing the original artifact, Seales and his team of researchers have processed image to flatten the manuscript.
After this process, all the lyrics on the five învelituri text could be read ,, Discovery En-Gedi text amazed us, '' said Shor of a teleconference.
,, I was amazed by the image quality since the text was unreadable, '' added Michael Segal, professor at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
What researchers have discovered is En-Gedi first two chapters of Leviticus, a passage from the Bible which ironically refers to the burning of offerings. Because vowels were not developed until the ninth century, the text consists only of consonants. Experts say that writing is remarkable because it is identical to the Masoretic text of the Hebrew Bible version.
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Source: History
