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Lost Languages Discovered in One of the World's Oldest Continuously Run Libraries (smithsonianmag.com)

Saint Catherine's Monastery, a sacred Christian site nestled in the shadow of Mount Sinai, is home to one of the world's oldest continuously used libraries. Thousands of manuscripts and books are kept there -- some of which contain hidden treasures. An anonymous reader shares a report: Now, a team of researchers is using new technology to uncover texts that were erased and written over by the monks who lived and worked at the monastery. Many of these original texts were written in languages well known to researchers -- Latin, Greek, Arabic -- but others were inscribed in long-lost languages that are rarely seen in the historical record. Manuscripts with multiple layers of writing are known as palimpsests, and there are about 130 of them at St. Catherine's Monastery, according to the website of the Early Manuscript Electronic Library, which has been leading the initiative to uncover the original texts. With the rise of Islam in the 7th century, Christian sites in the Sinai Desert began to disappear, and Saint Catherine's found itself in relative isolation. Monks turned to reusing older parchments when supplies at the monastery ran scarce. To uncover the palimpsests' secret texts, researchers photographed thousands of pages multiple times, illuminating each page with different-colored lights. They also photographed the pages with light shining onto them from behind, or from an oblique angle, which helped "highlight tiny bumps and depressions in the surface," Gray writes. They then fed the information into a computer algorithm, which is able to distinguish the more recent texts from the originals.

6 of 164 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Down with hateful Islamophobia by swb · · Score: 4, Funny

    Clearly such "facts" are fake news and the byproduct of white nationalist agitation.

    By repeating such facts you inflame the sensibilities of everyone oppressed by the rise of fascist right-wing movements.

  2. Re: Down with hateful Islamophobia by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Dude, you are harassing Allah. Your coworker doesn't want to be caught in the wrath that is meant for you.

  3. Re:Christian by bugs2squash · · Score: 3, Funny

    It's not another language, it's just scribes writing random things over the old text a million times to obscure what was originally there.

    --
    Nullius in verba
  4. You know it's going to happen... by magusxxx · · Score: 2, Funny

    Current Text: Jesus wept...
    Recovered Text: ...and said, "Damn those hot wings are spicy!"

    --
    Care killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.
  5. Re:Are you trying to tell me... by Daetrin · · Score: 5, Funny

    I believe if you're going to take down religions you have to do so in order.

    After you defeat Scientology you get to fight Mormonism. Then Protestant Christianity, then Islam, then Catholicism, then Confucianism, then Buddhism, then Judaism, then Hinduism. And then you get to the good part! You have to fight Bahamut, Gilgamesh, Ra, _and_ Tiamat. And only after you've beaten those four do you get to fight Cthulhu.

    --
    This Space Intentionally Left Blank
  6. Re:Christian by Carewolf · · Score: 5, Funny

    If he is referring to Gregor Mendel(d. 1884), the founder of modern genetics, no they didn't.

    They did promote him to be abbot of his abbey, where he didn't have time from science. I guess that's technically a confirmation of the Peter Principle.

    If the Peter Principle is divinely proven, does that mean it applies to God as well??

    That would explain sooo much.