X-rays Illuminate Ancient Archimedes Text

Tuesday, May 31, 2005
Image provided by Will Noel, The Walters Art Museum
Image provided by Will Noel, The Walters Art Museum

An early transcription of Archimedes' mathematical theories has been brought to light through the probing of high-intensity x-rays at SSRL's BL6-2. The text contains part of the Method of Mechanical Theorems, one of Archimedes' most important works, which was probably copied out by a scribe in the tenth century. The parchment on which it was written was later scraped down and reused as pages in a twelfth century prayer book, producing a document known as a palimpsest (which comes from the Greek, meaning 'rubbed smooth again'). Some of the text has been read previously, using everything from magnifying glasses to ultraviolet light, which highlights the hidden ink. Some of the text has been solidly obscured by some twentieth-century forgeries of medieval art that were slapped on top of a few pages. Working with curators at the Walters Art Museum and collaborators at Stanford University, SSRL staff scientist Uwe Bergmann suggested using synchrotron x-rays to peer through the forgeries. When hit by the x-rays the iron pigment in the original ink fluoresced and allowed researchers to see the text for the first time. Additional information on the Archimedes palimpsest and how x-rays read medieval ink can be found in the May 20 edition of the SLAC Interaction Point at:
http://www2.slac.stanford.edu/tip/2005/may20/archimedes.htm

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Contacts: 
Uwe Bergmann
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