By Liz Seward

The technique employs Britain's new facility, the Diamond synchrotron, and could be used on works such as the Dead Sea Scrolls or musical scores by Bach.  Intense light beams will enable scientists to uncover the text in scrolls and books without having to open -- and potentially damage -- them.  The research was presented at the British Association science festival.  Iron gall ink, which is made from oak apples, has been in use from the 12th Century, but causes parchment to deteriorate rendering precious documents unreadable.  Both paper and parchment -- thinly stretched skins from cows, sheep or goats -- contain collagen, which reacts with iron ink to become gelatine.  When dry, gelatine is very brittle; but as soon as it gets wet, it turns into jelly, destroying some documents if they are disturbed.

Now, scientists from the University of Cardiff have developed a technique that uses a powerful X-ray source to create a three-dimensional image of an iron-inked document.  The team then applies a computer algorithm to separate the image into the different layers of parchment, in effect using the program to unroll the scroll.  Professor Tim Wess, who led the research, said: "We've folded up a real piece of parchment and then done a process of X-ray tomography on it. We've been able to recover the structure where we can see the words that are written inside the document."  The team now plans to use the Diamond synchrotron's powerful X-ray source to penetrate many layers of parchment.  The synchrotron, which covers the area of five football pitches, generates light beams that can probe matter down to the molecular and atomic scale.  Professor Wess explained: "The letters have got iron in them, so you shine a band of X-rays through, and you end up with an absorption image, rather like your bones would absorb on an X-ray. . .

 

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By Ian Sample

Ancient writings from the Dead Sea scrolls are to be read for the first time by British scientists using powerful x-rays.

The team will examine rare and unread fragments of the scrolls, which are believed to shed light on how the texts came to be written in caves along the north-west coast of the sea nearly 2,000 years ago.

The technique will give scientists from Cardiff University a first opportunity to read ancient texts considered too fragile to open.

They will look at the texts using x-rays produced at the £360m Diamond Light Source in Didcot, Oxfordshire. The machine works by propelling electrons at great speeds around a giant tunnel. As they corner they emit x-rays 100 billion times brighter than a medical x-ray.

Researchers led by Tim Wess have developed computer software that can "unravel" x-ray images of rolled up parchment documents to reveal the writing, even if the parchment has text on either side. . .