New X-ray machine reveals ancient wisdom

[Dover]

New X-ray machine reveals ancient wisdom


.................. Faded stone inscriptions can be ‘zapped, mapped’ — then read once more


...Cornell researchers developed a process called X-ray fluorescence imaging to recover faded text on stone by "zapping and mapping" the inscriptions.

The group built a machine that generates X-rays a million times more intense than what the doctor uses to image your bones. An X-ray beam is fired at a stone, scanning back and forth. Atoms on the stone's surface emit lower-energy fluorescent X-rays, and different wavelength emissions reveal zinc, iron and other elements in the stone.

Historians know that iron chisels were commonly used to inscribe stone, and the letters were usually painted with pigments containing metal oxides and sulfides. So where letters and numbers are no longer visible to the eye, the newfound minerals trace their shapes.

Tests conducted on stone tablets 100 generations old clearly reveal writing that was lost to the eye.

The study of incised writing on stone and other surfaces is called epigraphy.

"This means restoring thousands of stones, including, possibly, part of the law code of Draco," Clinton said. "It applies to practically any kind of public document you can think of, including many laws, decrees, religious dedications and financial documents."..cont'd

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/8800217/

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Original Draconian Laws may be Revealed by New Machine

http://www.livescience.com/technology/050802_stone_xrays.html

[Desertrose]

1. wow..this is really cool, Dover!

would be cool to check out some old family headstones in the old cemetaries back east.


:hi:Dover
DR

[dwckabal]

2. Why is always assumed

that anything "ancient" is "wisdom?"

It would be funny if the first thing they transcribe with this technique is "ancient" hardcore porn!

[The Doctor.]

3. ...

:rofl:

"Darn... when are we gonna get to the bronze age so I can download these boulders faster!?"

[Ian David]

4. Or maybe, "Bvy Bvrma Shave"? n/t

[wli]

5. Amy Richlin will have to write a sequel to her "Garden of Priapus" book

The fundies will scream bloody murder.