After years of research, the Archimedes’ Palimpsest is now on display at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland. Like anything more than a thousand years old, it has an intriguing story to tell. But what’s a palimpsest? This confusing word has a very particular definition. A palimpsest is a text written on parchment, vellum or sometimes papyrus that is covered over by another text. The word palimpsest comes from the Ancient Greek word meaning “to scrape again.”Why did scribes write on top of other writing? Hundreds of years ago, parchment was rare and expensive. The word parchment is often used synonymously with paper, but in fact it is a very different material. Parchment is made from animal hides and lasts a long time. In order to save money, irrelevant texts were washed off of parchments, so that the parchments could be reused. (Of course, this all changed with the advent and spread of print in the early 1400s. Learn about one of the earliest printed books, the Nuremberg Chronicle here.)
The original text of this particular palimpsest was a collection of geometric theories written by the ancient mathematician, Archimedes, who may be best known for screaming “Eureka!” He was also the first scientist to accurately estimate the value of pi and theorize that it was an irrational number. The Archimedes’ Palimpsest was likely copied in Constantinople around 900 when a large school of math and science flourished in the ancient Byzantine capital. However, after the sack of Constantinople in 1204, many books were burned, and the age of learning came to an abrupt end. What had been a book of math theorems was washed; the pages were cut in half and then refolded to make a smaller book. On the smaller pages, prayers were written for monks to use.
Parts of the Archimedes’ Palimpsest, like “The Method of Mechanical Theorems,” are new to history. Without the recovery and deciphering of this text, they would otherwise be completely lost to time. Researchers used technology like ultraviolet light and complex x-rays to read the original text.
Other manuscripts, like the Voynich Manuscript, have also mystified us and confused. What do you think of ancient palimpsests?
it’s very interesting knowing that there are still copies of ancient palimpsests until now and was able to go through years.. i’m hoping to see one and decipher those messages:)
To je zanimljivo! Pitam se zašto oni to učinio?
Cool! I wonder how they got away with doing these tests…
Uh….. what is this?
What are you talking about?
Awww, I thought Archimedes was Merlin’s owl…
@Bob Ist Archimedes Deutsch?
@ Robert What language is that?
Intresting information…..I would wan to see one of them deciphered too. 
wow!
Nothing like new discoveries!
Exciting enough!
Truth Victor!
Wow, just imagine if the whole text were found!
It warmed my heart to read that an ancient text has been restored and deciphered thanks to diligence on the part of those researchers and modern technology. Hopefully, I will be able to make it out to Baltimore and see the palimpsest in person. I just wish that more texts like these will be deemed valuable and someone will devote time and resources to introduce anew the vast knowledge and wonders of the ancient world.
Washed off? I’ve always believed they were scraped – and the parchment ended up a bit thinner each time it was done.
On the other hand, some papyrus (i.e. early paper) palimpsests were washed – see https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Palimpsest
wow…It’s really amazing how the people of ancient age made thire record…It’s really great…
Very interesting story
Winston Churchill used the word PALIMPSEST to describe fooling the Germans with hundreds id dummy tanks and vehicles
Winston Churchill used the word PALIMPSEST to describe fooling the Germans with hundreds of dummy tanks and vehicles
Old books are the greatest. All good teachings are coming from those old times. Archimedes was one of the greatest and I hope after the text will be recovered, humans will have a great use of it.
There’s an awesome talk by one of the people who restored the text. It’s part of the O’Reilly Ignite series, so the presentation is only 5 minutes long.
Restoring The Archimedes Palimpsest by Will Noel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3IP_FmGams
EUREKA…WE FOUND IT. your book.
This is very, very interesting. The Walters Art Museum is 2 miles from my home and a wonderful place to spend an afternoon with the kids. I’ll have to stop by to check out the palimpsest while it is on display. If anyone else is in Baltimore, come out and support the zoo, aquarium, and the arts.
[...] Archimedes ‘Palimpsest’ with a Nod to B’More’s Walters, — Once again shows the conflict — Where [...]
Great! And because of that unique material for writing of contemporary time, Archimedes’ theorem lives on.
Eureka!
Interesting….
What did the prayers say – “Oh God – teach us more about mathematics”?
what does To Je mean?
This is awesome information. How can they possibly read both of the texts? When you write a story on top of another one, a palimpsest, then how do you distinguished between both of the stories? Do they loan words from each other? Share particles? Simultaneously use the same honorific prefixes?
It is scary to see how many contemporary Americans are pleased, metaphorically and in actuality, to wash away scientific facts and plaster them over with religiosity, in much the way accumulated learning was sacrificed to prayer books once Constantinople had had it books burned. Sadly, those who don’t know history are doomed to relive it.
zelo zanimiv
Imam ga rad
To nemá nic společného s tímto blogem, já jsem jen vidět, jestli někdo bude dost chytří na to, aby otevřít Google Translator a přeložit to. Pokud ano, odpovězte mi v tomto jazyce! haha
translate.google.com
To nemá nic společného s tímto blogem, já jsem jen vidět, jestli někdo bude dost chytří na to, aby otevřít Google Translator a přeložit to. Pokud ano, odpovězte mi v tomto jazyce! haha….;-)
That is mystifying and I’m confused… just like the article said. Wow!
I wonder what kind of profoundly fantastical arcane knowledge is locked within the squiggly lines on that animal hide. Maybe Dan Brown knows.
We need these informations to understand more about our past.
Just think what the ancients might have accomplished if they’d had access to ‘modern’ technology.
Thing is, One assumes that the scribes writing over the old text would be doing so because for some reason they felt the old text had less value than what was to be written over ti.
Now, what if that were true, and we damaged the more important, albeit newer, text, in attempting to decipher the older text beneath?
Age alone does not necessarily bestow value on something. If it did, I’d be rich and famous! *chuckle* And inanity and stupidity are at least as old as wisdom.
Interesting………..
T person- not just those who don’t know about history are doomed to relive it. The more familiar with history have no alternate escape plan either. But it’s not sad. Not if it last more than two weeks it isn’t. Then it qualifies as depression. See, you’re expected to enjoy this circus no matter who the elephants trample. Even more so when they do. It’s nothing personal. It’s just policy.
The show must go on.
Believe it or not, it was monks who preserved culture by preserving and transcribing the classics like Homer’s “the Iliad.” They also educated many young minds before there schools were prevalent. You people who like to disparage religious culture need to read your history.
WHY DON’T PEOPLE RESPECT HISTORY:(
Interesting… NOT!
to je means “it is”, pronounced kind of like tow yeh, he’s speaking some kind of a slavic language, my guess would be he’s from slovenia.
Oui, Write Out.
kool i want to decipher the books too and wat is robert talkinfg about
Funny how complex the mind is, isn’t it? Even back then we were discovering new things every day.
We’re “so advanced” and people are looking into ancient history to learn things. So, that doesn’t make us that advanced does it? Just sayin’. Lol.
It’s really awesome to know these significant facts from the past. Well, technology now is really doing a great job.
Cheers,
Such ignorance of us in history but now more information is retrieving back.
It’s amazing that they could even do that! Hopefully with technology like this we can discover even more about the culture and lifestyle of our ancestors!
@Cayl and other people: Robert is speaking Croatian. He says: This is interesting! I wonder why they did it. (Use Google Translate.)
@Jedná Se o Náhodný Název: Hahahahaha. Líbí se mi to. To je legrační. Nelze myslet na nic jiného říct.
Anyway, this is pretty cool. I like the post.
I have been a calligrapher for almost 30 years so I have known of palimpsests for a long time. How great to see that even now” the powers that be” are discovering more beneath the old manuscript writings, which help us learn more about those periods in history. It also sings the praises of working on such a ‘tough’ material as vellum, one certainly would find it very difficult to treat paper in the same way. Vellum has proved itself over the centuries. I would much rather have a piece of manuscript quality vellum than shoes, bag wallet etc made from the same material (eg mostly calfskin!).
wow after reading this… I was hungry!!!!
good info
It’s interesting to see how nobody has made any mention on how the church tried to intervene with science once again… what the pope was trying to do is get rid of science and write something ‘holy’ (prayers) over it… I think it’s fascinating how current science can decipher what these palimpsests are hiding underneath.. I wish I could read more about them and the kind of things that were being ‘erased’ and the reasoning behind it.
It’s fascinating that the Christian church has always been praised as the keeper of history, come to find out they erased (or burned) that history which didn’t suit their needs and agenda, then proceeded to “document” history as they believed it to be rather than recording the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
Maybe in a way they did preserve history, even though their intention at the time was to destroy it.
Seriously?- ze interezt and shtudy (or reading unt conziderashion if you prefer) oaf hiztory yah? ( i.e. every zingle ting before ze prezent-vhezha ancient hischtory or more contemporary) iz not zo much unt endeavor to uneart zome mysteriouz arkane lost knowlitch of ze ancientz, (ze ancientz voult be shimply amazt by our knowlitch). Nine. It iz unt interizt unt ze prozess uf vhich ze presznt iz komprized.
Knowing nawzing about hischtory iz zimilar to looking out ont ze oschun vit der perzeption limitet to only zhat vhich iz aboff ze vasah lien. Ve stant aboff ze vasah lien of hischtory. It iz interesint to have zome rough idea oaf vhat der every tought, noschun, idea unt vord ztands upon… at leascht I tink zo, yah?
In answer to “Summertime in Japan on October 22, 2011 at 11:51 am”
The Archamedies Palimsest was written on large pages that were turned 90 degrees, creased in the middle, and written on with a different kind of ink to create two smaller pages for a pocket-sized prayer book. The faint indentations and markings left from the original were separated with modern camera, lighting, and computer techniques.
I found a human within another human!
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