Dead Sea Scrolls to be published on net

ACADEMICS and boffins in Israel are attempting to put the Dead Sea Scrolls, the oldest copies of the Hebrew Bible (AKA Bible 1.0) online.

Putting the 2000 year old documents on the Internet, Joseph of Nasr told Reuters, widens the general access to the public and researchers. More importantly, it preserves a record before the materials dissolve.

The scrolls shed light on the lives of Jews and early Christians at the time of Jesus. But first the Israel Antiquities Authority, custodian of the scrolls, has some lighting challenges of its own.

It’s mission is to take digital photos of the entire works. The problem is, the scrolls are in bits, and have been since Bedouin shepherds discovered them in caves near the Dead Sea in 1947.

They must use powerful cameras and lights, without emitting any damaging heat or ultraviolet beams. But Israeli boffins have deciphered sections and letters from the scrolls that were invisible to the naked eye.

The challenge is to take four thousand pictures of the 9,000 fragments that make up the 900 scrolls.

"We can see detail that no one has before," said Simon Tanner, a digital expert from King's College London, who is on data collection duty.

Scientists hope going online using advanced imaging technology will preserve the scrolls for posterity once humidity and heat cause further deterioration. µ