This fragile, ancient Hebrew scroll has been digitally unwrapped for the first time, thanks to modern scanning technology GALI TIBBONGALI TIBBON/AFP/GETTY IMAGESCharred in a fire, crushed into charcoal, the En-Gedi scroll was thought unreadable. What was contained on its remaining 1,700-year-old pages was considered lost to the world. However, using x-ray scans and sophisticated algorithms it has now been “virtually unfurled” and the Hebrew script has become readable once more. The words reveal it to be part of the Bible’s Book of Leviticus. The scroll, so fragile it can barely be touched, was found in 1970 in then remains of a synagogue in En Gedi, a town near the Dead Sea that was destroyed in a fire 1,400 years ago.

Source: The Times September 21, 2016 23:15 UTC