Infra-red light on ancient scripts

Want to time travel to ancient civilations? Lost manuscripts from Sophocles, Euripides and Hesiod might create the illusion.

Scientists from Oxford University have rendered readable previously illegible works from the Greek auteurs by using infra-red technology and techniques developed from satellite imaging, according to the Independent.

Normally invisible in natural light, the ink on thousands of the ancient manuscripts is now legible under the infra-red light. More than a 1,000 years old, the texts are part of the great papyrus hoard found in the Graeco-Egyptian town of Oxyrhynchus, according to the Independent. The Oxford team is working to analyze thousands more of the documents, which could include a two-centuries old series of Christian gospels.