Decoded at last: the 'classical holy grail' that may rewrite the history of the world
The discovery of means and keys to delve into the famous
could prove to be of spectacular consequences for our understanding of times ancient and long deemed lost. Some experts even speak about a "Second Renaissance" due to our better understanding that we could gather in these ancient bits and pieces. Some estimates calculate approx +20% increase of our total knowledge of Classical Times....
For more than a century, it has caused excitement and frustration in equal measure - a collection of Greek and Roman writings so vast it could redraw the map of classical civilisation. If only it was legible.
Now, in a breakthrough described as the classical equivalent of finding the holy grail, Oxford University scientists have employed infra-red technology to open up the hoard, known as the Oxyrhynchus Papyri, and with it the prospect that hundreds of lost Greek comedies, tragedies and epic poems will soon be revealed.
In the past four days alone, Oxford's classicists have used it to make a series of astonishing discoveries, including writing by Sophocles, Euripides, Hesiod and other literary giants of the ancient world, lost for millennia. They even believe they are likely to find lost Christian gospels, the originals of which were written around the time of the earliest books of the New Testament.
"Een tweede renaissance, voorspelden classici in Oxford afgelopen weekend in The Independent on Sunday. Ze scanden met een recente infraroodtechniek delen uit de indrukwekkende databank van 40.000 antieke papyrusfragmenten die bewaard zijn in Oxford, en vonden al meteen een snipper uit een verloren toneelstuk van Sophocles, onbekend materiaal van Euripides, en een Troje-gedicht van een navolger van Homeros" (uit De Standaard Apri192005)
http://www.papyrology.ox.ac.uk/
Wiki Primer on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxyrhynchus
