The Dead Sea Scrolls in digital library

The Israel Antiquities Authority and Google Israel have registered on a digital internet library, the first part of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The Dead Sea Scrolls or the Qumran Scrolls (named like that for being found in a cave located at Qumran, on the shores of the Dead Sea), is a collection of about 800 Jewish writings, written in Hebrew and Aramaic by members of the Jewish congregation of the Essenes, and found in eleven caves in the rugged environs of the Dead Sea.

Fragment of the Dead Sea Scrolls

The tens of thousands of scroll fragments in high resolution will be gradually added to the Google servers.

At the moment, about 4,000 infrared photographs taken just after its discovery in the 1950s have been uploaded to the library. These photographs allow the observation of ancient letters, wrinkles, scorched margins, ink spills and letters and words which cannot be seen by the human eye.

It is expected that the 30,000-piece “final puzzle” of 2,000 years old, can be reconstructed with a team from the University of Tel Aviv, which is currently developing a software that will allow reconfiguring the enigmatic manuscripts.