Google announced today that it is helping bring 5,000 images of scroll fragments from the Dead Sea Scrolls online by providing Google Storage, App Engine, Maps, YouTube and Google image technology to the Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library.
This supplements earlier efforts by Google and the Israel Museum to make the Dead Sea Scrolls accessible online.
“The Israel Antiquities Authority is launching the Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library, an online collection of some 5,000 images of scroll fragments, at a quality never seen before,” explains Google in a blog post. “The texts include one of the earliest known copies of the Book of Deuteronomy, which includes the Ten Commandments; part of Chapter 1 of the Book of Genesis, which describes the creation of the world; and hundreds more 2,000-year-old texts, shedding light on the time when Jesus lived and preached, and on the history of Judaism.”
“Millions of users and scholars can discover and decipher details invisible to the naked eye, at 1215 dpi resolution,” says Google. “The site displays infrared and color images that are equal in quality to the Scrolls themselves. There’s a database containing information for about 900 of the manuscripts, as well as interactive content pages.”
In October, Google helped to bring more history online by lending its services to 42 historical exhibitions related to Apartheid, D-Day, the Holocaust, and more, by way of the Google Cultural Institute.
