Reading closed books

There are quite a few ancient texts that cannot presently be read. Some are illegible, while others have become too delicate to be handled: books that cannot be opened, scrolls that cannot be unrolled. But it appears that a breakthrough may be at hand via Britain's Diamond Synchrotron. The BBC reports:

Now, scientists from the University of Cardiff have developed a technique that uses a powerful X-ray source to create a three-dimensional image of an iron-inked document.

The team then applies a computer algorithm to separate the image into the different layers of parchment, in effect using the program to unroll the scroll. . .

Another target of the project is to image documents before they become too damaged, to monitor levels of gelatine.

The team can then advise on the most appropriate conservation methods, depending on the state of the parchment.

Cathedral burglary at Perpignan

Thieves stole more than 20 religious objects dating back to the 17th century from a cathedral in the southwestern French city of Perpignan, the Culture Ministry said. . .

More than 20 pieces dating from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, including plates and chalices for Communion, were taken overnight Tuesday, the ministry said.

From the International Herald Tribune.

Repatriation madness

This is one of those cases that trivializes well-founded requests for return of culturally important properties:

Kenya is demanding that a US museum returns the remains of two lions that killed at least 140 Indian workers in the 1890s before being shot by a famed British railway engineer . . .

The killing of the railway workers by the infamous "Maneaters of Tsavo" over a nine month period briefly halted the construction of the Kenya-Uganda line, a project so perilous it was dubbed the "Lunatic Express."

It's a little late to be putting in a claim now, and more than a little peculiar. Maybe India should join in -- and since the whole construction project was set in motion by British imperialism, London should put a claim in as well. The lions have been a popular attraction at the Field Museum in Chicago for many a year; the Wikipedia entry on the Tsavo maneaters is here.

Tangerine peel fights cancer?

A compound extracted from tangerine peel can kill certain human cancer cells, research shows . . .

Salvestrol Q40 is found at higher concentrations in tangerine peel, than in the flesh of the fruit.

The researchers suggest the modern trend to throw away peel may have contributed to a rise in some cancers.

Was there really ever a time when tangerines were eaten peel and all? Or are they suggesting that in times past the peel would have been used in some other capacity, as orange zest is?

Dr Tan said Salvestrol was found in other fruit and vegetables, such as the brassica family, which includes broccoli and brussels sprouts.

However, the compound tends to be produced at higher levels when infection levels among crops are high.

Another benefit of organic produce, along with greater flavor. From the BBC.

Bamiyan redux: Taliban attack ancient Buddha in Pakistan

Suspected pro-Taleban militants have tried to blow up an ancient carving of Buddha in north-west Pakistan.

The statue, thought to date from the second century BC, sustained only minimal damage in the attack near Manglore in remote Swat district.

The area has seen a rise in attacks on "un-Islamic" targets in recent months.

From the BBC.

Viking exhumation

More Viking news -- and once again, a case of old finds re-examined:

Archaeologists exhumed the body of a Viking queen on Monday, hoping to solve a riddle about whether a woman buried with her 1,200 years ago was a servant killed to be a companion into the afterlife.

As a less gruesome alternative, the two women in the grass-covered Oseberg mound in south Norway might be a royal mother and daughter who died of the same disease and were buried together in 834.

"We will do DNA tests to try to find out. I don't know of any Viking skeletons that have been analyzed as we plan to do," Egil Mikkelsen, director of Oslo's Museum of Cultural History, told Reuters at the graveside.

From Reuters. More on the Oseberg ship burial, originally excavated in 1904, here and here.

Jerusalem escape tunnel found

Israeli archeologists on Sunday said they've stumbled upon the site of one of the great dramatic scenes of the Roman sacking of Jerusalem 2,000 years ago: the subterranean drainage channel Jews used to escape from the city's Roman conquerors.

The ancient tunnel was dug beneath what would become the main road of Jerusalem in the days of the second biblical Temple, which the Romans destroyed in the year 70, the dig's directors, archaeology Professor Ronny Reich of the University of Haifa and Eli Shukron of the Israel Antiquities Authority, told a news conference.

The channel was buried beneath the rubble of the sacking, and the parts that have been exposed since it was discovered two weeks ago have been preserved intact.

From the International Herald Tribune. Compelling as the tunnel's story is, its construction is no less significant:

The discovery of the drainage channel was momentous in itself, a sign of how the city's rulers looked out for the welfare of their citizens by organizing a system that drained the rainfall and prevented flooding, Reich said.

The discovery "shows you planning on a grand scale, unlike other cities in the ancient Near East," said anthropologist Joe Zias, an expert in the Second Temple period who was not involved in the dig.

Viking-era ship (re)discovered?

A 1,000-year-old Viking longship is thought to have been discovered under a pub car park on Merseyside.

The vessel is believed to lie beneath 6ft to 10ft (2m to 3m) of clay by the Railway Inn in Meols, Wirral, where Vikings are known to have settled.

From the BBC. So why did they pay for a ground-penetrating radar survey?

The ship was first uncovered in 1938 when the Railway Inn was being knocked down and rebuilt further from the road, the site of the old pub being made into a car park.

Workers were advised by the foreman to cover the ship over again so as not to delay construction.

I wonder how many other finds could be made by researching similar stories.

ADDENDUM: A bit more background from the Times:

Archaeologists believe they have found the only intact Viking boat in Britain beneath the patio of a Merseyside pub. The 10th-century vessel was discovered in the 1930s by builders excavating the basement of the Railway Inn on the Wirral peninsula, but they covered it up because they feared an archaeological dig would disrupt their work.

The boat would have been forgotten had one of the builders not reported his discovery to his son, who passed the information on to academics at Nottingham University.