# Ancient Texts Revealed! IR Photography. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 18, 2005, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-texts-revealed-ir-photography/299897 "2005-04-18T15:02:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2005, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-texts-revealed-ir-photography/299897/21 "2005-04-18T23:27:29Z")
IIRC, the did this with the scrolls found at Nag Hammadi and the Dead Sea Scrolls decades ago. Wonder what took them so long to figure out that they could do it with other things? ---
**Author:** ![VampyChick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/5daacb/32.png) [@VampyChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VampyChick)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2005, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-texts-revealed-ir-photography/299897/22 "2005-04-19T00:45:20Z")
I am so excited about this. I was babbling about it at my friends yesterday. And then one of my friends said they should have stayed buried, after all, they were thrown away in the first place for a reason, and then, well, I don’t think we’re friends any more. ---
**Author:** ![Governor\_Quinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@Governor\_Quinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Governor_Quinn)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2005, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-texts-revealed-ir-photography/299897/23 "2005-04-19T01:13:37Z")
> [@Banger](#): > > Do you think this means that there are actual completed works in there, and not just fragments? Imagine a complete Sophocles or Euripides play! Or another play by Aristophanes or Menander. This certainly is an exciting find. ---
**Author:** ![SlowMindThinking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@SlowMindThinking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlowMindThinking)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2005, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-texts-revealed-ir-photography/299897/24 "2005-04-19T02:30:03Z")
> [@MonkeyMule](#): > > err I know you have a slow thining mind and all that, but um…whats with the multi postan hour apart? Just wondering > > also this kicks all kinds of awesome booty. > > 😃 My connection at work sucks, and I always get an error message. That, and meetings suck too. ---
**Author:** ![Duke\_of\_Rat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Duke\_of\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke_of_Rat)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2005, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-texts-revealed-ir-photography/299897/25 "2005-04-19T02:56:07Z")
> [@Soul Brother Number Two](#): > > I cannot believe how fucking cool this is. I won’t be able to stop thinking about it all day. > > What if there really are early Christian writings? What if they contradict (gasp) what’s already in the Bible? What contortional writhings will the Bible literalists go through to protect their beliefs? I can’t wait! Yeah, it would be awesome for people to have taken time out from worshiping goats (or whatever they worshiped) to specifically debunk the religions of today! Amazing! Now where did I put my gilded calf icon… ---
**Author:** ![Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/soul_brother_number_two/32/3515_2.png) [@Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soul_Brother_Number_Two)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2005, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-texts-revealed-ir-photography/299897/26 "2005-04-19T03:38:27Z")
I knew as soon as I posted I didn’t say it right. I am much more excited about the other cool stuff. The Gospels stuff just kinda crossed my mind as I was reading the OP. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2005, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-texts-revealed-ir-photography/299897/27 "2005-04-19T08:48:53Z")
Speculation: So the papyri range from 100-500 CE. I wonder if they’re victims that partially escaped the series of disasters that eventually destroyed the Library of Alexandria. These disasters reportedly started about the time of Julius Caesar, but the Library and Musaeum supposedly survived in one form or another until the anti-pagan purge of about 400 CE. Another reason to hate Fundies, of course. The papyri were reportedly discovered within a mummified crocodile. I wonder if they were being smuggled out of harm’s way, and were discovered? Oxyrhynchus is waaaaaaaaay upstream of Alexandria, but I suppose it’s just possible that someone was trying to move them upcountry. Juicy side-note: Oxyrhychus once warred with it’s neighbor city Cynopolis, because the Cynopolites were catching and eating the sacred oxyrhynchus fish. In retaliation, the Oxyrhynchites began catching and eating the sacred animals of Cynopolis (the animal after which the city was named,) dogs. It escalated to open warfare, and the Roman legions had to be sent in to calm the fracas. The moral? Religion has always had the effect of making one’s brain all soft. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-texts-revealed-ir-photography/299897.md?page=1)