A new method of reading very old scrolls was invented by computer scientists at the University of Kentucky. This method would open the possibility of reading charred ancient scroll found by archeologist nearly half a century ago.
The invention is considered to be the door to read many ancient scrolls too brittle to unfurl such as the 300 carbonized writings from Herculaneum, which were destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE and other Dead Sea scrolls which were left unread because of the fear of destroying them.
This made experts during that time to leave the scrolls unread. They just hoped that time will come that modern technology could invent something that would enable to unlock the scrolls.
The charred ancient scroll which is the subject of this new method contains the two first chapter of the book of Leviticus. This is about the laws of burning of sacrifices that the Jews were told to make as atonement for their sins. Interestingly the scroll has similar writing way as the Masoretic text wherein no vowels were present and only consonants. Presented as fact Jews really wrote this way.
"This is the earliest evidence of the exact form of the medieval text", according to Dr. Emmanuel Tov, an expert on the Dead Sea scrolls at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Two conflicts are about to be resolved this time through this invention. That was the carbon dating measurement which said that the scrolls were copied around 300 AD and the style of writing which suggest that they were written much closer to 100 AD.
The way on how to read the scrolls without touching it is similar to CT scanning which it can pick out blobs of ink in the charred scrolls. Then it is accompanied with virtual unwrapping, a method developed by W. Brent Seales in order to assign the letters read by computer imaging to the surface where they are written. Because without virtual unwrapping it is hard to read the scanned letters because you would not know what surface they are written and so the letters appeared to be jumbled.
This invention would either confirm the claim that the Bible was not really altered after a long period of time or otherwise.
