Decoded at last: the 'classical holy grail' that may rewrite the history of the world

[FrostyBoy]

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_technology/story.jsp?story=630165

Do read this.

The original papyrus documents, discovered in an ancient rubbish dump in central Egypt, are often meaningless to the naked eye - decayed, worm-eaten and blackened by the passage of time. But scientists using the new photographic technique, developed from satellite imaging, are bringing the original writing back into view. Academics have hailed it as a development which could lead to a 20 per cent increase in the number of great Greek and Roman works in existence. Some are even predicting a "second Renaissance".

[Immortal Wombat]

I expect classicists will be happy, having found something new to occupy themselves with. I doubt it will have much impact outside of a very narrow band of academia though.

[Spiffor]

Good

[Richelieu]

Cool!

Can't wait to see if Sophocles managed to spell Tehben's handle properly.

[Agathon]

Great. Some of these have already been decoded.

I really hope they find a complete copy of Parmenides' poem, although it doesn't seem as if there was a lot of philosophy in this.

[chequita guevara]

This is so cool.

[Shi Huangdi]

[Q Classic]

( And it finally gives Classicists something new to debate and argue about! )

[Az]

Tupac Shakur, anyone?

new texts

[Japher]

new photographic technique, developed from satellite imaging

another feather in the cap aerospace... or, why NASA needs another Trillion Dollars!!

[Az]

anti-nasa trolls

It's quite sad when you're dissing the organization that is responsible to one of the top ten of your country's legacy achievements.

[Dr Strangelove]

Originally posted by Az
anti-nasa trolls

It's quite sad when you're dissing the organization that is responsible to one of the top ten of your country's legacy achievements.

Well, it's like this: we had decent maps of the whole earth long before the Apollo space mission wonder was completed, but OTOH 30 years after finishing it we're nowhere close to being able to build modules for an interstellar space ship.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Wow... this is pretty exciting

[child of Thor]

cool! - well found snoopy

from the article and the first time seen by modern eye

'Key words from the master of Greek tragedy

Speaker A: . . . gobbling the whole, sharpening the flashing iron.

Speaker B: And the helmets are shaking their purple-dyed crests, and for the wearers of breast-plates the weavers are striking up the wise shuttle's songs, that wakes up those who are asleep.

Speaker A: And he is gluing together the chariot's rail.'

awesome.

[Dracon II]

A second renaissance??

What do they expect to find on those documents? The unified theory of physics? Research notes on advanced nano-technology?

Unless you're Erich von Daniken I'd hardly think anyone would think the Egyptians would offer anything to us that could spark a new renaissance?