NOVA scienceNOW : 23 - Papyrus

Summary

The NOVA scienceNOW episode, 'Papyrus,' explores the compelling intersection of archaeology and technology. Narrated by Neil deGrasse Tyson, it takes viewers on a journey of how ancient secrets buried in papyrus fragments are uncovered through advanced multispectral imaging. Hidden within the dusty archives of Oxford University are countless pieces of papyrus uncovering 2,000-year-old mysteries. These fragments, many unreadable by the naked eye, can reveal invaluable ancient texts when viewed with this innovative technology. This episode highlights the tireless efforts of researchers in unlocking historical words, illustrating both the perseverance required in the scientific community and the technological marvel aiding their mission.

Highlights

• 🕵️‍♂️ Neil deGrasse Tyson compares solving ancient papyrus mysteries to discovering secret passwords from a childhood game.
• 🏺 Hidden in Oxford's archives are countless dusty boxes housing papyrus, waiting to reveal their secrets.
• ⚒ Marvel at sophisticated multispectral imaging—NASA tech sees what the eyes can't, a boon for scholars decoding ancient handwriting.
• 🔍 Watch discoveries come to life as illegible fragments are translated into historically significant texts like St. Paul's 'Epistle to the Romans.'
• 👩‍🔬 Scientists race against time to decode papyri before degradation, shedding light on past civilizations.
• 📖 Papyrus fragments from Oxyrhynchus, a city dump, contain literary jewels awaiting scholarly interpretation.

Key Takeaways

• 🗝 Papyrus secrets unlocked: Utilizing multispectral imaging, scientists are uncovering 2,000-year-old texts from scraps found in ancient Greek-Egyptian dumps.
• 📜 Ancient lifestyles revealed: The papyri hold a treasure trove of documents detailing ancient daily life—from dinner invites to love notes.
• ❌ Ink's fascinating durability: Unlike paper today, papyrus and its ink boast incredible longevity, making ancient documentation retrievable after millennia.
• 🥽 Innovative imaging: Technology developed by NASA transforms unreadable fragments into legible texts, revealing stories thought lost forever.
• 🌟 Historical marvels waiting: With around 500,000 fragments unearthed and only 1% deciphered, the potential for ancient discoveries remains vast.
• ⏳ Race against time: Thousands of valuable papyrus fragments risk being lost forever unless they are decoded before they disintegrate.

Overview

In the NOVA scienceNOW episode 'Papyrus,' Neil deGrasse Tyson takes us back in time with a blend of nostalgia over childhood games and the thrill of modern scientific breakthroughs. The narrative kicks off with a playful metaphor: discovering hidden passwords, reminiscent of buried words on ancient papyrus. As the episode progresses, we follow enthusiastic researchers like Beth Nissen and Roger T. Macfarlane who are dedicated to bringing forgotten papyri back to life. Their endeavors illuminate the texts that have long been obscured by the ravages of time, transporting us to the epochal junctures of human history as preserved in papyrus.

The episode dives deep into the utility of papyrus as a writing medium in antiquity. It uncovers intriguing details about how strips of this reed were transformed into durable sheets on which crucial historical records, like marriage contracts and dinner invitations, were scribbled. Joshua D. Sosin masterfully encapsulates the fascinating process, likening it to creating a natural glue! Staggeringly, half a million fragments lie waiting in Oxford's vaults. With only a small fraction of these having been perused by scholars, the trove teases the potential riches in unread stories.

One cannot help but marvel at how multispectral imaging, a gift from NASA designed for space exploration, now assists historians in unlocking narrative mysteries never thought possible. We see the magic unfold as obscured fragments under multispectral lenses reveal legible writings of great significance. Highlights include the discovery of an earliest copy of New Testament text within a Jackson Pollack-like fragment. The episode underscores an urgency: rescuing thousands more texts from oblivion before they degrade. This enthralling blend of history, science, and technology celebrates human curiosity and its relentless search for knowledge.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 01:30: Introduction and Background The chapter titled 'Introduction and Background' opens with Neil deGrasse Tyson reminiscing about a childhood game, Password(TM), where secret words were revealed through a special sleeve. This concept is paralleled with ancient manuscripts that hold hidden messages. Beth Nissen, a correspondent, explores this idea with investigators who are uncovering these secret messages from manuscripts that have remained hidden for 2,000 years. The setting is the vaults at Oxford, where important discoveries are being made.
• 01:30 - 03:00: Discovery and Historical Context Chapter 1: Discovery and Historical Context - This chapter delves into the discovery and historical significance of ancient manuscripts, which are over 2,000 years old, and play a crucial role in understanding Western Civilization. The chapter highlights the findings at the University setting, notably a large page of Homer's Odyssey, still partially covered in mud and sand, as described by Roger T. MacFarlane from Brigham Young University. Additional faded fragments were also uncovered near the city's outskirts which add to the historical narrative.
• 03:00 - 04:30: Challenges with Ancient Papyri The chapter discusses the challenges faced in dealing with ancient papyri discovered in the ancient city of Oxyrhynchus in Greek-ruled Egypt. These papyri were found in rubbish mounds and are believed to contain works of famous authors such as Homer, Sophocles, and Euripides. The unpredictability of what can be discovered and whether the findings are legible pose significant challenges.
• 04:30 - 08:00: Multispectral Imaging Technology The chapter discusses multispectral imaging technology by focusing on the preservation challenges of ancient papyri fragments. Joshua D. Sosin from Duke University and Beth Nissen talk about the natural elements such as abrasion, dirt, clay, and silt, which threaten the preservation of artifacts buried underground for thousands of years. Despite these challenges, nearly half a million papyri fragments have survived underground in Egypt due to the protective environment created by being buried above the water tables and beneath dry sands for centuries. These papyri are ancient papers made from papyrus, a reed plant that grows predominantly along the Nile River, underscoring the technology's significance in studying and preserving such historical materials.
• 08:00 - 09:30: Case Study: Oxyrhynchus Papyri The chapter titled 'Case Study: Oxyrhynchus Papyri' describes the ancient method of making papyrus. The process involves shaving the papyrus stalk into thin strips and laying them in parallel layers, with another layer of strips laid perpendicularly. The layers are then pounded or pressed to break down the cell walls, releasing cellulose that acts as a natural adhesive. This forms a durable sheet that can be polished for writing. Papyrus, as described, is a surprisingly durable writing material compared to modern paper.
• 09:30 - 11:00: Significance of Discoveries The chapter 'Significance of Discoveries' highlights the discovery of tons of papyrus from Oxyrhynchus, an ancient city, which sheds light on its daily life, markets, and social structures. It includes documents like marriage and divorce contracts, tax and census records, personal letters, and invitations, revealing the rich tapestry of ancient life. Many fragments remain unreadable due to grime and soil.

NOVA scienceNOW : 23 - Papyrus Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON: When I was a kid, I used to play this game, Password(TM). And the secret password is always invisible, hidden until you slid the paper into this sleeve, and then the secret word is revealed. Well, what if the secret words aren't part of a kids' board game, but instead are on a crumbling, ancient manuscript? Correspondent Beth Nissen caught up with investigators who are uncovering secret messages that have stayed hidden for 2,000 years. BETH NISSEN (Correspondent): In these vaults, on these shelves, in these boxes at Oxford
• 00:30 - 01:00 University, ancient cluesó2,000 years oldóto a glorious human past; wrapped in printed paper, fragments of ancient paper, pieces of the D.N.A. of Western Civilization. ROGER T. MACFARLANE (Brigham Young University): Here's one that contains a large page of Homer's Odyssey, still with quite a bit of mud and sand clinging to it. BETH NISSEN: These are only a few of the faded fragments found buried near the outskirts
• 01:00 - 01:30 of what was, at around the turn from B.C. into A.D., a mid-sized capital city in Greek-ruled Egypt, the city of Oxyrhynchusóactually, found buried in the Oxyrhynchus city dump, in rubbish mounds. ROGER MACFARLANE: There can be more Homer, new pieces of Sophocles, Euripides, other authors who were being read in antiquity. You never really know what's going to come out of the box. BETH NISSEN: Or whether what comes out of the box can be read.
• 01:30 - 02:00 JOSHUA D. SOSIN (Duke University): Abrasion, dirt, clay, silt: an awful lot can go wrong, when something is buried underground for 2,000 years. BETH NISSEN: Yet somehow, buried above the water tables and beneath the dry sands of Egypt, for all those centuries, almost half a million of these papyri fragments survived, these pieces of ancient paper made from papyrus. JOSHUA SOSIN: Papyrus is a plant. It is a reed that grows almost exclusively along the banks of the Nile.
• 02:00 - 02:30 You shave the stalk into thin strips, lay them parallel to each other, lay strips running perpendicular to them; you pound it or press it, such that the cell walls break down. Cellulose seeps out, creating a kind of gooey natural glue that binds the strips together, which can then be pressed, polished and written on. The stuff is really quite durable, in a way, more durable than the paper you're used to
• 02:30 - 03:00 taking notes on today. BETH NISSEN: The tons of this reedy paper found at Oxyrhynchus documented the daily life of an ancient city's markets and businesses and courts. JOSHUA SOSIN: We have marriage contracts, divorce contracts, tax declarations, census registers, hate mail, dinner invitations. We have letters-home-to-Mom. You name it, we have it on papyrus. BETH NISSEN: Thousands more of the Oxyrhynchus fragments were unreadable, soiled, grimy.
• 03:00 - 03:30 BENJAMIN HENRY (The University of Texas at Austin): Because this was a rubbish dump, things get charredóif burning waste was put on top of them óor stained. BETH NISSEN: Or, like this fragment, which looks, at first, like the work of, say, Jackson Pollack of Crete. The only readable word of Greek is just visible at the very bottom. You can read "Christos." BENJAMIN HENRY: Yeah, there's "Christos," kind of a row sigma with a bar above it. So that's the abbreviation for "Christos," you know it's a Christian text.
• 03:30 - 04:00 But much of it is totally illegible. BETH NISSEN: And papyrologists assume there are letters there. Papyrus was too expensive to throw away unused and often had writing on both sides. But texts like this were a tantalizing, frustrating mystery. BENJAMIN HENRY: Really, you're never going to be able to publish a text like this. You can look at that under the microscope as much as you like, but it's just a complete mess. BETH NISSEN: What papyrologists really needed was thisóan equivalent to Superman's x-ray
• 04:00 - 04:30 visionóa way to see through whatever was on the surface of papyrióancient food stains, burn marks, mummy paintósee through to the writing underneath. As the ancient Greek scientist Archimedes is said to have said from his bath: Eureka! It's called multispectral imaging, a technology developed by NASA to "see through" clouds of gas in space. ROGER MACFARLANE: It was a significant step forward, when a scholar at NASA's Jet Propulsion
• 04:30 - 05:00 Laboratory decided to apply the technology to texts. BETH NISSEN: Ancient texts, written on papyri. The project today: see if multispectral imaging can help scholars at the University of California at Berkeley read part of an account of the Trojan War, by the poet Dictys of Crete, a part obscured by a large reddish stain. ROGER MACFARLANE: Some people think it's a spill, a chemical spill perhaps, or a spot
• 05:00 - 05:30 of wine that was dropped on it. Even the best papyrologists who've worked on this are usually not able to pick out any more than a few scattered letters in here, and even at that, they feel like they're guessing. BETH NISSEN: The fragile fragment is put on a moving imaging bed under a scientific-grade digital camera, which captures high-definition images of the fragment, through a succession of color filters, one filter at a time, a dozen different filters in all.
• 05:30 - 06:00 ROGER MACFARLANE: Each individual filter allows only a certain portion of the light spectrum through. BETH NISSEN: The light in the range of the spectrum visible to the naked eye, reflects off whatever is on the surface of most of the papyri pieces, the stains, dirt, mummy paint, whatever. The camera can't see much more through these filters than the eye can, which isn't much. But results tend to be better, using the filters that let in the range of the light spectrum
• 06:00 - 06:30 the human eye cannot see. ROGER MACFARLANE: I've seen the best results in the infrared at 950 nanometers. BETH NISSEN: Light in the infrared part of the spectrum, invisible to the naked eye but not the camera, is more likely to pass through what's on the papyrus surface to the ink underneath. Surface stains and dirt fade away. The inked letters appear; black magic. BENJAMIN HENRY: Ink, which is pretty much pure carbonóit's made out of soot mixed with
• 06:30 - 07:00 glueówill absorb all of the infrared, and so it will come out black. BETH NISSEN: Every time they see this 21st century technology work on first or second century fragments, papyrologists are thrilled, or as thrilled as papyrologists get. ROGER MACFARLANE: None of us is really inclined to give high-fives and celebrate too much, but we were really pleased. BETH NISSEN: They've been pleased with multispectral imaging at Oxford, tooó home of the world's
• 07:00 - 07:30 largest collection of ancient papyri: all those fragments excavated from the Oxyrhynchus city dump. They have as many as 500,000 fragments, but only about one percent have been read and published by the few scholars working on them. Uncounted thousands are illegible, in shreds, soiled. BENJAMIN HENRY: There are fragments there that we'd pretty much completely given up all hope of ever being able to read. BETH NISSEN: Like that Jackson Pollack-y fragment that had the word "Christos" on it.
• 07:30 - 08:00 BENJAMIN HENRY: We put it under the multispectral imaging camera, and, all of a sudden, the background completely drops out, and wherever there was ink, you can read the ink as clear as the day it was written. BETH NISSEN: And what was written? A passage from the New Testament, St. Paul's "Epistle to the Romans," Chapter 14, Verses 7-9. BENJAMIN HENRY: And then "Eis touto gar Christos apethanen," "for this reason did Christ die." And it is now our earliest copy for these verses.
• 08:00 - 08:30 We did have another third century papyrus of the "Epistle to the Romans," but it actually is very fragmentary. But now, we've got a complete text of these verses in a late second and early third, perhaps, century copy. JOSHUA SOSIN: I don't know how long we have, until the things sitting in shoeboxes in this or that university turn to dust, but we've got to get rolling. There are a great many, I mean, many thousands of papyri that are sitting in boxes in dark
• 08:30 - 09:00 hallways, waiting to be read.