How are the ancient texts saved?

[Bereta_Eder]

whatever che

[chequita guevara]

If we're lucky, out in the Egyptian desert there are still some scrolls from the Great Libraries. Anything near moisture would have been destroyed long ago (except stone).

There was a library at Herculenium that "survived." All of the scrolls were turned to carbon, but they are now able to unroll and decifer the texts. These will be the oldest original texts surviving, and I expect a great deal o them will be Greek.

[snoopy369]

iirc, it wasn't until ~800bc that the Illiad was first written down ...

http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Live/Writer/Homer.htm

for example indicates 730bc.

To answer your REAL question, though, the best preserved stuff was written on sheepskin and other more durable mediums. Read "Angels and Demons" (Davinci Code predecessor) for example ... the papyrus that they used in that was very fragile indeed, but the major works that were more durable were on sheepskin (in the Vatican archives). Papyrus from before ~ad 1000 wouldn't have a meaningful shot at surviving, and if it did would have had to have been in the Vatican library, basically - the only surviving institution from that time period (and even that had some issues over the years...)

http://www.scienceinafrica.co.za/200...r/timbuktu.htm explains how papers from ad 1300 were preserved ...

[snoopy369]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
If we're lucky, out in the Egyptian desert there are still some scrolls from the Great Libraries. Anything near moisture would have been destroyed long ago (except stone).

There was a library at Herculenium that "survived." All of the scrolls were turned to carbon, but they are now able to unroll and decifer the texts. These will be the oldest original texts surviving, and I expect a great deal o them will be Greek.

Good point; desert can be a very effective preservative. Still, I'd be surprised if almost any papyrus from BC survived ... most documents i've ever seen were either on leather-like scrolls, or on stone ...

[Odin]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
If I could go back in time, I would go to the Great Library and make copies of all the works there. Could you imagine being able to read and see the complete works of Sophicles and Aristophenes?

Or have more stuff from the Pre-Socratics

[MrFun]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
If we're lucky, out in the Egyptian desert there are still some scrolls from the Great Libraries. Anything near moisture would have been destroyed long ago (except stone).

There was a library at Herculenium that "survived." All of the scrolls were turned to carbon, but they are now able to unroll and decifer the texts. These will be the oldest original texts surviving, and I expect a great deal o them will be Greek.

What exactly do you mean by turned to carbon, considering that everything is already made of carbon at the most basic level?

[chequita guevara]

It's the difference between charcoal and wood, dude.

[MrFun]

DUDE!!!!!!!


Far out!!!!!

[Sandman]

They found a bit of a lost Greek play in the wrappings of an Egyptian mummy in the nineties, according to Wikipedia.

[Whaleboy]

I doubt the originals would survive... take Plato's Republic, translated into various languages, saved by the Muslims during the European middle ages, translated back and so forth...

[duke o' york]

Ctrl and S. it's obvious!

[MrFun]

Originally posted by duke o' york
Ctrl and S. it's obvious!

Wow, you're smart.

[Mr. Harley]

Bark can also be preserved, especially in very dry and cool climates.

From Library Journal
In 1994, the British Library received a collection of 29 birch bark scrolls from Gandhara, an area in northern Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan. Written in Kharosthi script, the scrolls are believed to be the oldest Buddhist manuscripts as well as the oldest Indian manuscripts known to exist, estimated at nearly 2000 years old.

Just think, a few years later the Taliban would have burned at least part of them, if they had remained in Afghanistan.

Then again, some of the Gnostic Texts that were found in Egypt just prior to WW2 were burned by the man's mother to start fires.

[Ecthy]

Didn't the arabs save many copies of the old sources before we re-learned of them?

[DeathByTheSword]

eh...any one forgetting the great libary at constantinople? that was the place were most copies of the greek text were kept...first under the christians after memhed the conquerer by the persians...the vatican was even afraid memhed would destroy the libary and the world would lose the wealth of knowledge from the ancient times...but memhed was very fond of books so from that moment most books were under persian care...were most books were also translated...now i usually dont try and protect christian churches but it wasnt as dark as some people in this thread said