Imaging the scrolls
The imaging of the scrolls continues . So, I’m sitting in this room and someone brings in the Book of Job from the 1st Century AD. I was sitting there and watching them place the scroll on the platten for imaging and it took my breath away when I realized that only a few people on the planet have ever really seen the scroll in person.
The picture above is shows the start of the image of the book of Job from 1st Century. The scroll has to be imaged in sections and then “stitched” digitally. In the picture below, you see the conservator moving the scroll and then covering the area that is no longer needed. The materials that physically touch the scrolls have been scrupulously tested for acid content as well as other potential pollutants. There are four people in the world that can actually touch the scrolls. When a scroll travels to a museum, the conservator travels with the scroll and physically sets the scroll in place in the institution. No one is allowed to move or touch the scrolls except for the conservator.
At the top of every scroll image is the new Color Checker Target that the folks at the Munsell lab built up for me. They will be pleased to learn that the target will be in every color image of the scrolls taken over the next few years.
The scroll is moved from the color imaging station over to the IR station. The IR camera is filtered so extraneous light from the rest of the room has no effect upon the IR image. The speed that we can take these IR images is unprecedented. A typical IR image would take a few days using traditional film techniques. We are done in a minute. This has good production implications, but the most important aspect is that the scroll is subjected to very little time out of the vault.
My Blog
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
