Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T15:20:04.476Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Imaging the past: recent applications of multispectral imaging technology to deciphering manuscripts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Douglas M. Chabries ,
Steven W. Booras  and
Gregory H. Bearman
Steven W. Booras
Affiliation:
ISPART, Brigham Young University, USA
Gregory H. Bearman
Affiliation:
ANE Image, Pasadena, California, USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Multi-spectral imaging (MSI), which was developed to explore the surface of the earth and other planets from space, has been adapted to read and record faded or burnt manuscripts. The authors show how MSI achieved new readings from carbonised and damaged fragments of papyrus scrolls from Herculaneum, Petra and the Judean Desert. The method has potential for investigating the degraded ornamental surfaces of other artefacts.

Keywords

multispectral imagingancient-text imagingscrolls
Type
Method
Information
Antiquity , Volume 77 , Issue 296 , June 2003 , pp. 359 - 372
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2003

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

BEARMAN, G. ZUCKERMAN, B. ZUCKERMAN, K.&CHIU, J..1993. Multi-spectral imaging of Dead Sea Scrolls and other ancient documents (paper presented at the annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, Washington, D.C., 1993) Google Scholar
BEARMAN, G.&SPIRO, S.I..1996. Archaeological applications of advanced imaging techniques, Biblical A rchaeologist 59, no.1.Google Scholar
BEARMAN, G. PFANN, S.J.&SPIRO, S.I..1998. Imaging the scrolls: photographic and direct digital acquisition, in FLINT, W. PETER&VANDERKAM, C. JAMES (eds.), The Dead Sea Scrolls after fifty years. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
BOORAS, S.W.&Seely, D.R..1999. Multispectral imaging the Herculaneum papyri, Cronache Ercolanesi 29. Google Scholar
CHABRIES, D.M.&BOORAS, S.W..2001. The Petra scrolls, in PICS 2001: Image Processing, Image Quality, Image Capture Systems Conference (Montreal, 22 May 2001). Society for Imaging Science and Technology. Google Scholar
ELACHI, C. 1987. Introduction to the physics and techniques of remote sensing. Wiley Series in Remote Sensin New York: John Wiley and Sons. Google Scholar
FAUST, J. BEARMAN, G.&CHRIEN, T..1995. Multispectral imager for the agricultural user, Proceedings of SPIE (—journal of the International Society for Optical Engineering) 2345.Google Scholar
GINNELL, W. 1993. Report on Dead Sea Scroll studie Getty Conservation Institute, Marina del Rey, Calif. Google Scholar
JENSEN, J.R. 1999. Introductory digital image processing: A re-mote sensing perspective. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice-Hall. Google Scholar
KAMAL, O.S. BOORAS, S.W. WARE, G.A. BAKER, D.&CHABRIES, D.M..1998. The Petra church scrolls: Multispectral imaging techniques (paper presented at the Association Internationale de Papyrologues, XXII Congresso Internazionale di Papirologia, Firenze, Italy, 23&—29 August 1998).Google Scholar
MORGENSTERN, M. QIMRON, E.&SIVAN, D..1995. The hitherto unpublished columns of the Genesis Apocryphon, Abr-Nahrain 33.Google Scholar
NIR-EL, Yoram, &BROSHI, M..1996. The black ink of the Qumran scrolls, Dead Sea Discoveries 3, no.2.Google Scholar
PLENDERLEITH, H.J. 1950. Comment on a paper entitled &‘Recent discoveries in biblical manuscripts, Journal of Transactions of the Victoria Institute 82.Google Scholar
SMITH, A.H.&NORMAN, F..1938. Photography of manuscripts, London Medieval Studies 1, no.2.Google Scholar
WARE, G.A. CHABRIES, D.M. CHRISTIANSEN, R.W.&MARTIN, C.E..2000 Multispectral document enhancement: Ancient carbonised scrolls, in Proceedings of IGARSS 2000 (International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, Honolulu, 24—28 July 2000). PISCATAWAY N.J.: IEEE (institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers). 27 July 2000.Google Scholar