High-tech tools unveil ancient text

ATHENS, Greece -- The burnt remains of a 2,400-year-old scroll buried with an ancient Greek nobleman may help unlock the secrets of early monotheistic religion -- using new digital technology.

A team of U.S., British and Greek experts is working on a new reading of the enigmatic Derveni papyrus, a philosophical treatise on ancient faith that is Europe's oldest surviving manuscript.


		AP
	Greek Culture Minister Giorgos Voulgarakis examines the 2,400-year old Derveni scroll in Thessaloniki, Greece, Thursday.

More than four decades after the papyrus was found in a grave in northern Greece, researchers said Thursday they are close to uncovering new text from the blackened fragments left after the scroll was burned on its owner's funeral pyre.

Large sections of the mid-4th century B.C. document -- written in ancient Greek -- were read by scholars years ago. But archaeologist Polyxeni Veleni believes U.S. imaging and scanning techniques used to decipher the Judas Gospel -- which portrays Judas not as a sinister betrayer but as Jesus' confidant -- will considerably expand and clarify that text.

"I believe some 10 to 20 percent of new text will be added, which, however, will be of crucial importance," said Veleni, director of the Thessaloniki Archaeological Museum, where the manuscript is kept.

The scroll, originally several yards of papyrus rolled around two wooden runners, was found in 1962. It dates to around 340 B.C., during the reign of Philip II of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great.

Greek philosophy expert Apostolos Pierris said the text might be a century older.

"It was probably written by somebody from the circle of the philosopher Anaxagoras, in the second half of the 5th century B.C.," he said.

Anaxagoras, who lived in ancient Athens, is thought to have been the teacher of Socrates and was accused by his contemporaries of atheism.

Last month, experts from Brigham Young University in Utah used multispectral digital analysis to create enhanced pictures of the text, which will be studied by Oxford University papyrologist Dirk Obbink and Pierris, and published by the end of 2007.

A separate, Greek team is also working to produce a new edition by the end of 2006.

The book contains a philosophical treatise on a lost poem describing the birth of the gods and other beliefs focusing on Orpheus, the mythical musician who visited the underworld to reclaim his dead love and enjoyed a strong cult following in the ancient world.

The Orpheus cult revolved around the soul's fate after death. It raised the notion of a single creator god -- as opposed to the many deities ancient Greeks believed in -- and influenced later monotheistic faiths.

"In a way, it was a precursor of Christianity," Pierris said.