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Scientists discover lost languages at Egyptian monastery Tom Whipple, Science Editor August 28 2017, 12:01am, The Times The library at Saint Catherine’s monastery has been in continuous use for 1,500 yearsKHALED ELFIQI Share Save Ancient works not read by humans since the Dark Ages have been found at an Egyptian monastery, using a technique that allows researchers to reconstruct documents long ago scrubbed off parchment. The finds at Saint Catherine’s monastery on the Sinai peninsula hailed a “new golden age of discovery”, according to the scientists behind the research, who believe that the methods could reveal many other lost texts. They have been chronicling the monastery’s library, which has been in continuous use for 1,500 years, but which is today threatened by growing Islamic fundamentalism and attacks on Christians in the region. Among the discoveries were three ancient Greek medical texts that were previously unknown to scholars, as well as the earliest copies of some from Hippocrates. The scientists have also found documents written in extremely rare languages such as Caucasian Albanian, which until now has been known only from scattered stone inscriptions. They said that the techniques being developed meant that lost classical texts, including those by thinkers such as Aristotle, could now be found hiding in plain sight on parchments in libraries across the world. Because parchment was historically valuable, it was common to reuse it. Many ancient texts are believed to have been lost because monks wrote copies of the Bible on top of them. The scientists use photographs taken using different parts of the light spectrum and from different angles, to highlight the traces of ink left by the earliest scribes before it was washed off. The images are then combined using computer algorithms to reveal the text beneath. The work comes as such collections face increasing peril. In Sinai, security forces engaged in a deadly gun battle this year with militants. Isis claimed responsibility for the attack. Timbuktu library was saved from jihadists when a librarian hid its manuscripts. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/scientists-discover-lost-languages-in-find-at-egyptian-monastery-qkvd6l9ps