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the ôeaô sea SCROllS 4 The physical sciences have played a significant role in opening of the Dead Sea Scrolls—termed by some scholars the greatest store of ancient Hebrew documents ever found. Among them is the "Lamech Scroll," whose individual layers of gelatinized leather were almost completely stuck together. But it was unrolled—by James Bieberkraut (left) of Hebrew University—by humidifying the scroll and prying the relaxed leather apart with surgical instruments To the naked eye—even that o f a scholar—much'of* this spart-, of the Thanksgiving Scroll—one of,the Dead Sea Scrolls—is unintelligible (left). But with an infrared photograph (fight), Rabbi Dr. Joseph M. Baumgarten of Baltimore Hebrew College reads (in the lines marked) : "And my heart was writhing with anguish, and my loins with trembling;/ and my groan" cometh verily unto the abyss,/ And i n the chambers of the nether world it is hidden together ( ? ) . / And I dread when I hear Thy juclgment with the mighty in. - ."
For more on the Dead Sea Scrolls, turn to page 4254.
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Two badly oxidized copper scrolls found in the D e a d Sea area were opened at Manchester University, thus anticipating the work of Alsoph H. Corwin (right), chemistry professor at Johns Hopkins University. Corwin was working on a method of reducing the copper oxide with hydrogen in a microchemîcaï combustion furnace Strips of copper oxide paste (top) served as Corwin's experimental model; embossing is still legible when the strip has been reduced to metal (bottom)
V The only Dead Sea Scroll ever in the U. S. w a s the "Lamech Scroll,"' brought here by the Metropolitan Samuel (center) of St. Mark's Monastery in Jerusalem. T h e scroll was examined at Harvard's F o g g - Arte Museum b y John Coolidge (left), director; and Rutherford J. Gettëns (right), chief of technical research. Gettens*- now at Freer Art Gallery, felt he could open the scroll in much t h e way it was later opened, but because of à question of ownership of the scroll, he never had the chance
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