Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Digital Access To Dead Sea Scrolls Opening Up

By Cornelius Nunev


The Dead Sea Scrolls are among the best-known and most essential historical documents found in generations. The ancient files are mostly located in museums in the Middle East. The largest assortment of Dead Sea Scrolls has been housed in the Israel Museum. The museum has faced criticism about the limited admittance they supply to the files. Now, through a relationship with Google, the Dead Sea Scrolls are being digitized and offered online.

Website will soon see the Dead Sea Scrolls

The Dead Sea Scrolls digitization project has been ongoing within the last few years. There was development of a new camera. This was done so that the photos will not be deteriorated with a special environment while also taking pictures at 1,200 megapixels. Each scroll and fragment is being carefully photographed, then gathered and placed online in a searchable database. The idea is to offer admittance to the scrolls to as large an audience as possible. It will not be long before the scrolls can be accessed. In a few more years, or in 2016, they will be accessible.

Google will be helping too

The Dead Sea Scrolls digitization job is something Google will spend a lot of time with. The database of scroll photos is stored on Google Storage, and the site is run on the Google Apps motor. The pages are all searchable, transcribed and indexed for search results. That is one thing the Google team has been working on. This is not something very different from what Google has done in the past. It is just like Google's Art Job, Prado Museum and holocaust photo collection.

Digitized versions allow remarks

It is very strange for something such as the Dead Sea Scrolls to allow comments. This will be allowed with the scanned version. Viewers will be allowed to comment on the specific sections of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Over time, researchers are likely to be keeping an eye on what amateur researchers find in the scrolls as potential further areas for research. This could be particularly helpful in deciphering the tens of thousands of scroll document fragments and pieces as they become accessible. Not all pieces and fragments are owned by the Israel Museum. That is why Google has supplied to digitize any files that it doesn't currently have for anyone who wants to make them accessible.




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