Five Digitized Dead Sea Scrolls Now Available Online
Posted on September 26, 2011
Google has announced the launch of the Dead Sea Scrolls online. The website for the scrolls can be found here. The Great Isaiah Scroll - the best known scroll and one of the original seven scrolls - can be viewed here.
The scrolls were written between the third and first centuries BCE. They are the oldest known biblical manuscripts and were found hidden in 11 caves in the Judean desert in 1947,. The scrolls have been on exhibit at the Shrine of the Book at The Israel Museum, Jerusalem since 1965. Now five of the scrolls have been digitized and put online for all to see. The high resolution photographs are up to 1,200 megapixels, which is almost 200 times more than the average consumer camera.
The five Dead Sea Scrolls digitized so far are the Great Isaiah Scroll, the Community Rule Scroll, the Commentary on Habakkuk Scroll, the Temple Scroll, and the War Scroll. All five scrolls can be magnified so that users can examine small detail. Details invisible to the naked eye are made visible through ultra-high resolution digital photography from photographer Ardon Bar-Hama at 1,200 mega pixels each. Take a look:
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