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The following spring, Anthony Tamasi \u2013 a computer science undergraduate in the College of Engineering<\/a> \u2013 began working on the data. Using cutting-edge technology, he was able to virtually unwrap five layers of the multi-layered fragment \u2013 revealing clear images of ancient writing.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I first saw the text inside the scroll, it felt like I was a kid again \u2013 like digging through the sand for fossils at one of those museum exhibits and actually finding one. I was so excited,\u201d Tamasi said. \u201cI was the first person to see the contents of the scroll this millennium. There aren\u2019t many opportunities like that.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n [\/vc_column_text] Scholars from the Jewish Studies Program<\/a> in the UK College of Arts and Sciences<\/a> were also excited by the results of the imaging technology and the newly-discovered letters.<\/p>\n \u201cThe script itself is Aramaic “square” style<\/strong> (Ashurit script), which is the same writing system as what one would recognize as written Hebrew today,\u201d said Jim Ridolfo, an associate professor in Jewish studies and Writing, Rhetoric and Digital Studies<\/a>. \u201cBut at the time the Dead Sea Scrolls were penned, Ashurit script could be used to write Aramaic (the language) or Biblical Hebrew. Qumran also contained palelo-Hebrew manuscripts such as 11QpaleoLev, as well as Aramaic texts written in Ashurit, so both scripts and languages were present at the site.\u201d<\/p>\n For now, what can be said is that Seales\u2019 team has revealed a set of clearly defined characters in the square Hebrew script \u2014 which is very similar to the modern Hebrew square script \u2014 that is typical of Hebrew and Aramaic manuscripts of the time. Because Hebrew and Aramaic use the same script, individual characters are not sufficient evidence on their own to draw conclusions about the language used to pen the text.<\/p>\n \u201cFor an example, if we revealed the letters NEC, I couldn\u2019t conclude that the language of the document was English or Spanish, because I could very easily be looking at \u201cNECESSARY\u201d or \u201cNECESARIO,\u201d Eric Welch, a senior lecturer in the Lewis Honors College<\/a>, added.\u00a0 \u201cIn the same way, a small set of characters makes it difficult to determine which biblical text this might be.\u00a0What Brent\u2019s team has done is marvelous and it\u2019s only a matter of time before we can start to answer these questions.\u201d<\/p>\n Such questions inspire the young computer scientists on Seales\u2019 team. \u201cWorking on the Dead Sea Scrolls project has encouraged me to be more open to computer science opportunities in different fields \u2013 like the digital humanities,\u201d Tamasi continued. \u201cThe experience helped me realize that computer scientists and software engineers can make a direct digital impact on just about anything, including things like scrolls that have been thought of as explicitly physical.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n [\/vc_column_text] In 1970, archaeologists unearthed the scroll in En-Gedi, the site of an ancient Jewish community near the Dead Sea that flourished during the Byzantine period. According to researchers, a fire destroyed the site in 600 CE \u2013 leaving behind charred scrolls of parchment.<\/p>\n The\u00a0animal-skin document was badly burned, rendering it so delicate that just touching its surface sent pieces flaking off. Attempting to read it by physically unwrapping the layers would destroy the artifact beyond repair.<\/p>\n The\u00a0scorched En-Gedi fragments remained in storage for more than 40 years. Meanwhile, archaeologists believed the contents \u2013 if they could ever be read \u2013 would be significant.<\/p>\n That turned out to be the case, when Seales was asked by the IAA to attempt his newly developed “virtual unwrapping” method. In doing so, he discovered the beginning of the Book of Leviticus. Believed to have been written between the 2nd<\/sup> and 3rd<\/sup> centuries CE, the text represents the oldest copy of a book of the Bible discovered in Israel after the Dead Sea Scrolls.<\/p>\n The discovery solidified Seales\u2019 reputation as \u201cthe man who can read the unreadable,\u201d as dubbed by New Yorker <\/em>writer John Seabrook.<\/p>\n “The text revealed from the En-Gedi scroll was possible only because of the collaboration of many different people and technologies,” Seales said. “The last step of virtual unwrapping \u2013 done through the hard work of a team of talented students \u2013 is especially satisfying, because it produced readable, identifiable, biblical text from a scroll thought to be beyond rescue.”<\/p>\n <\/p>\n [\/vc_column_text] The first stage, \u201csegmentation<\/strong>,\u201d isolates the surfaces of the document from within the scan and produces a 3D model for each page. Next, the \u201ctexturing<\/strong>\u201d stage searches the dataset for ink signal and embeds that signal onto the surface model. The final stage of the pipeline, \u201cflattening<\/strong>,\u201d transforms the 3D surface into 2D images that scholars can easily read.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n [\/vc_column_text] The team is continuously developing new algorithms<\/strong> designed to better address old and new challenges. Their latest approach utilizes convolutional neural networks and machine learning techniques to automate the segmentation process and to identify signals for carbon ink, which is notoriously difficult to detect using micro-CT.<\/p>\n And though, at times, progress is slow, and breakthroughs seem distant \u2014 Seales always remains steadfastly optimistic. He\u2019s confident that it’s only a matter of time before artifacts deemed \u201cunreadable\u201d succumb to modern technology and, more importantly, to his team\u2019s determination.<\/p>\n \u201cOur next step is to grow the Digital Restoration Initiative into a world-class imaging and restoration lab,\u201d Seales said. “Overcoming damage incurred during a 2,000-year span is no small challenge. But facing big challenges with grit and innovation\u00a0\u2014 and inventing a new way forward \u2014 is exactly why students like Anthony Tamasi come to the University of Kentucky.”<\/p>\n The scans of the fragments were made possible thanks, in large part, to a generous gift from\u00a0Lee and Stacie Marksbury. Both UK alumni, Lee graduated from UK with bachelor’s degrees\u00a0in economics<\/a> and history<\/a>, while Stacie earned a bachelor’s degree in elementary education<\/a>.<\/p>\n “After seeing Seales\u2019\u00a0and his team’s work, Stacie and I were absolutely blown away. The technology and technique were fascinating and something we had not imagined possible,” Lee said.\u00a0“Beyond that, however, was the information that could be successfully unlocked. The idea of these documents being read for the first time since antiquity was something we did not hesitate to get behind.”<\/p>\n To complete the Dead Sea Scrolls project, funding remains imperative. More information about the Digital Restoration Initiative, and how you can get involved, can also be found here<\/a>.<\/em>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row rt_row_background_width=”fullwidth” rt_row_content_width=”default” rt_row_style=”default-style” rt_row_borders=”” rt_row_paddings=”true” rt_bg_effect=”classic” rt_bg_image_repeat=”repeat” rt_bg_size=”cover” rt_bg_position=”right top” rt_bg_attachment=”scroll” rt_bg_video_format=”self-hosted”][vc_column rt_wrp_col_paddings=”false” rt_border_top=”” rt_border_bottom=”” rt_border_left=”” rt_border_right=”” rt_border_top_mobile=”” rt_border_bottom_mobile=”” rt_border_left_mobile=”” rt_border_right_mobile=”” rt_bg_image_repeat=”repeat” rt_bg_size=”auto auto” rt_bg_position=”right top” rt_bg_attachment=”scroll”][vc_column_text]<\/p>\nBreakthrough Unlocks New Challenges : Reading The Documents<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>[vc_column_text css=””]\u201cSome thirty characters<\/strong> have been recovered from the various unwrapped layers. The beautiful letters can be easily deciphered, but the extant text is still not enough to recognize whether it is written in Hebrew or Aramaic,\u201d said Oren Ableman and Beatriz Riestra, the scholars from the IAA who are charged with deciphering the text. \u201cThe continued research of the digital restoration and the possible detection of any further traces of ink recovered using the imaging analysis of the Digital Restoration Initiative<\/a> will make it possible to read a text that is still a mystery.\u201d<\/p>\n
Seales And Team Make Unprecedented Breakthrough, Reveal Biblical Text<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>[vc_column_text css=””]The work follows Seales\u2019 breakthrough in 2015, when he used his revolutionary \u201cvirtual unwrapping\u201d technology<\/strong> to read an ancient Hebrew scroll \u2013 part of the IAA’s state collection of scrolls \u2013 for the first time.<\/p>\n
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The Technology Behind The Discoveries<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>[vc_column_text css=””]Seales\u2019 unprecedented work to restore damaged manuscripts culminated with the development of the Volume Cartographer \u2013 a revolutionary computer program for locating and mapping 2D surfaces within a 3D object. The software pipeline, which is the engine that drives virtual unwrapping, is used on extremely high-resolution micro-CT images\u2014 enabling scholars to read a document without ever needing to physically open it<\/strong>.<\/p>\n
Moving Forward<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>[vc_column_text css=””]While the first-of-its kind software has profoundly impacted history and literature, not all damaged artifacts are created equal.<\/p>\n