IN THE MUSEUM...Dead Sea Scrolls Brought to Life

The Dead Sea Scrolls were found in a cave in Palestine in 1948. The ancient parchments contain many materials in the Bible and related to the Bible. The scrolls have recently become available to experts all over the world. One problem, however, is that many of the scrolls look totally ruined to the naked eye. The black ink is invisible against the ancient blackened parchment.

Some of these parchments were supplied to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) by research groups. JPL used technology earlier for document monitoring at the National Archives, as described in the Historic Documents article, above. They examined the fragments with highly sensitive electronic cameras and computerized image processing techniques. JPL was able to increase the contrast between the ink and the parchment. A line of Hebrew letters brought to light by NASA technology translate into "he wrote the words of Noah."