October 20, 2010

Surf Google and You’ll Find the Dead Sea Scrolls

by iona

In the ultimate coming together of ancient and modern, Google has announced plans to upload images of the Dead Sea scrolls onto the internet for the public to take a squiz at, for free. In partnership with the Israeli Antiquities Authority (IAA), Google announced its plans to publicise all 900 scrolls and their priceless 2,000-year-old biblical texts. NASA’s high-resolution imaging technology will be used to capture the deteriorating, yet incredibly detailed representations, which will then be uploaded onto a Google database for public access. Nothing like a little bit of light Biblical reading during your lunch break or before bedtime, right?

The first batch of Qumran cave texts will go online in the next few months, with the remaining 30,000 scroll fragments following suite within the next five years.
[Switched]