In an ambitious application of 21st century technology to a first century wonder, the Israel Antiquities Authority and internet search giant Google announced a plan Tuesday to digitize the Dead Sea Scrolls and make the entire collection available to the public online.
Google will be responsible for scanning the 900 manuscripts, which are actually comprised of more than 30,000 fragments discovered in caves around Israel in the 1940s and 1950s. Israeli researchers had come to worry about the ability of the scrolls to endure further photography, as exposure to light and air has a negative effect on the paper.
Google will use spectral and infrared scanning techniques to make a digital copy of the scrolls, which will then be made available to the public online.
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