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12 DIGITAL MIRACLES<br />

Some of <strong>the</strong>se characters can be explained by inspecting <strong>the</strong> photograph<br />

of <strong>the</strong> reverse side of this column: <strong>the</strong> new characters visible in <strong>the</strong> fifth line<br />

appear in reverse very clearly. On <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r h<strong>and</strong>, in <strong>the</strong> region of <strong>the</strong> top<br />

four lines where <strong>the</strong> superimposed characters appear on <strong>the</strong> front, nothing<br />

is visible from <strong>the</strong> back except that <strong>the</strong> scroll is very dark in that region.<br />

One explanation is that a piece of scroll torn from ano<strong>the</strong>r column is stuck<br />

on <strong>the</strong> back (reverse) side of column 17. Clearly, <strong>the</strong> YES processing has<br />

allowed <strong>the</strong> characters of <strong>the</strong> “fifth” line on <strong>the</strong> back to be seen through <strong>the</strong><br />

parchment. It is our conclusion that <strong>the</strong> superimposed characters in <strong>the</strong> top<br />

four lines are being seen through <strong>the</strong> parchment <strong>and</strong> that <strong>the</strong>y are written<br />

on <strong>the</strong> piece of scroll stuck to <strong>the</strong> reverse side. If this assumption is true,<br />

<strong>the</strong> task remains to determine <strong>the</strong> origin of this piece of scroll.<br />

ORIGIN OF THE NEW CHARACTERS<br />

The most likely source of <strong>the</strong> new characters found in column 17 is a<br />

neighboring column. Since <strong>the</strong> scroll was rolled from <strong>the</strong> left to right (<strong>the</strong><br />

Figure 5: An enlarged image of <strong>the</strong> top of column 17 of <strong>the</strong> Temple<br />

Scroll is shown on <strong>the</strong> left. After processing through <strong>the</strong> YES color<br />

space, <strong>the</strong> enhancement is shown on <strong>the</strong> right. A fifth line of characters<br />

is now visible.

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