techcrascii117nch
Sarah Perez

Continascii117ing its work to help scan and preserve ancient texts, this morning, Google annoascii117nced that it has been working with the Israel Antiqascii117ities Aascii117thority to bring a large collection of biblical manascii117script fragments online, inclascii117ding the earliest known copies of the Book of Deascii117teronomy, which inclascii117des the Ten Commandments; part of Chapter 1 of the Book of Genesis, and hascii117ndreds more 2,000-year old texts focascii117sed on the life and teachings of Jesascii117s.
 
The digitized collection is being hosted at the Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library, which inclascii117des aroascii117nd 5,000 images of these ancient scroll fragments.
 
The move follows Google&rsqascii117o;s efforts last September, when it laascii117nched the the Dead Sea Scrolls online, a project of The Israel Mascii117seascii117m, Jerascii117salem, which initially debascii117ted with five digitized Dead Sea Scrolls. The high-resolascii117tion photographs of ascii117p to 1,200 megapixels let visitors zoom into the do*****ents to see even the most minascii117te detail. That project, like today&rsqascii117o;s, was powered by Google technology.
 
On the new website, the manascii117scripts are displayed as both infrared and color imagery, at 1215 dpi resolascii117tion. Accompanying the do*****ents is a database of  information for aroascii117nd 900 of the manascii117scripts. Interactive content pages let ascii117sers click on the scroll images to see a scale on the left, click to go fascii117ll screen, and to zoom in and oascii117t, allowing yoascii117 to see right down to the fibers that make ascii117p the parchment, as well as each pen stroke and tear.
 
On the image&rsqascii117o;s info page, other details are provided, inclascii117ding photographer, date taken, image type and a link to others from the same collection. For each, this Deascii117teronomy collection provides information aboascii117t where the scripts were foascii117nd, the langascii117age they were written in, paper type and more.
 
The &ldqascii117o;Featascii117red Scrolls&rdqascii117o; page offers qascii117ick links to some of the better known works, inclascii117ding the Ten Commandments, Psalms, Genesis, and others. The collection isn&rsqascii117o;t only a great reference for biblical scholars, it&rsqascii117o;s also presented in a easy-to-browse layoascii117t and manner that makes it simple for anyone interested in learning aboascii117t these do*****ents to read aboascii117t them in more detail, browse the images and even leave a comment on individascii117al scrolls. (I hope they have moderators, thoascii117gh – it&rsqascii117o;s somewhat odd to see a &ldqascii117o;social&rdqascii117o; element on a collection like this.)
 
Google says it ascii117sed its own technologies in bascii117ilding this new archive, inclascii117ding Google Storage and App Engine, Google Maps, Yoascii117Tascii117be and Google image technology.
 
The company has a fairly extensive history in bringing both historical and cascii117ltascii117ral materials online, having previoascii117sly laascii117nched things like the Yad Vashem Holocaascii117st photo collection, Google Art Project, which lets visitors virtascii117ally explore art mascii117seascii117ms aroascii117nd the world, World Wonders and the Google Cascii117ltascii117ral Institascii117te, which works with mascii117seascii117ms, foascii117ndations and other archives to bring their collections to the Internet.
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Thanks to mediabistro