Archimedes Text Revealed by X-Ray

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.

The manuscript’s owner, who wishes to remain anonymous, paid $2 million for the document at auction in 1998. Two conservators recently brought the rare text to California for the X-ray scan.

"To my knowledge, this is the first time the Stanford equipment will be used for such an application," said Mary Miller, a science producer at San Francisco's Exploratorium museum, which hosted the event.

Miller explained to Discovery News that the high-tech equipment is often used to study photosynthesis in leaves at the molecular level. The powerful device is now tuned to read iron, which was in the ancient scribe’s ink.

Iron atoms have 26 electrons orbiting around a nucleus. The X-ray beam literally knocks out one of the electrons in the iron atom’s innermost orbit.

Another electron then replaces the missing one, but it has less energy because the nuclear bond is not as tight. The lost energy emitted by the replacement electrons results in the signature X-ray glow.

"The public will be able to see this ancient text for the first time at the very same moment that scholars view it," Miller said before the live webcast. "It will offer the public an opportunity to participate in the discovery experience."