Aug. 4, 2006 — Ancient writings by the legendary Greek mathematician Archimedes were revealed for the first time in 1,000 years in a live webcast Friday.
Scientists at the Stanford University Linear Accelerator Center used an intense X-ray to reveal the text as part of an ongoing study of the famous scholar's hidden work. The archived footage of the webcast is available at http://www.exploratorium.edu/archimedes/index.html.
"We’re getting a vastly better understanding of one of the greatest minds of all times," said Uwe Bergmann, a scientist involved in the project.
Bergmann added, "We are also showing it is possible to read completely hidden texts in ancient documents without harming them."
The document, in this case, is The Archimedes Palimpsest, a goatskin parchment upon which a scribe copied seven important treatises of the Greek scholar, who lived from 287-212 B.C.
The hidden text was part of a work Archimedes called "The Method of Mechanical Theorems," which proved to contain diagrams, equations, and previously unkhnown letters.
It's surprising to historians that the manuscript even exists. Someone may have rescued the original papyrus version when the Royal Library at Alexandria, which contained monumental works by scholars from the ancient world, suffered a series of fires beginning at around 89 B.C.
Many scientists believe that if all of the works of early scientists and mathematicians had survived, greater progress would have been possible during the Renaissance, since academics then had to rediscover principles already documented.
It will take some time to determine, exactly, what the newly unveiled text means. But the rest of the document contains some of the earliest known references to geometry, physics and the concept of infinity, which later contributed to the invention of calculus. It also describes a puzzle game that was somewhat similar to Rubik's cube.
In the 13th century, Greek monks recycled the parchment into a prayer book. Twentieth century forgers painted gold foil imagery onto the recycled pages in an effort to increase the manuscript’s value.
As a result, Archimedes' original text is buried beneath both the gold image and the prayers. Only the underside of the parchment hints at its original content.
