比死海卷軸本身更有意義的，是它的制作技術(shù)

New research on one of the most fascinating Dead Sea Scrolls suggests there's something highly unusual about where and how it was made.

對(duì)最引人入勝的死海古卷之一的最新研究表明，這幅古卷的產(chǎn)地和制作方式非常不同尋常。

Estimated to be close to 2,000 years old, the remarkably well-preserved Dead Sea Scrolls contain ancient texts of great historical importance. Since the initial discovery in 1947 by Bedouin shepherds, scholars have reconstructed over 900 of these ancient Hebrew texts. While the majority are in tatters, a handful remain intact, even to this day.

據(jù)估計(jì)，這些保存完好的死海卷軸已有近2000年的歷史，其中包含了具有重大歷史意義的古代文獻(xiàn)。自1947年貝都因牧羊人首次發(fā)現(xiàn)以來(lái)，學(xué)者們已經(jīng)重建了900多個(gè)古希伯來(lái)文文本。直到今天，雖然大多數(shù)人已經(jīng)破敗不堪，但仍有一小部分人完好無(wú)損。

The Temple Scroll is one of the largest and best-preserved of the bunch. It's also amongst the most special.

寺院的卷軸是其中最大、保存最好的一批。它也是最特別的。

Found in a cave just north of the Dead Sea, in 1956 the text was allegedly sold by a group of Bedouins to an antiquities dealer, who then wrapped it in cellophane and put it in a shoebox under a floorboard for safe-keeping. Eleven years later, when scholars at last got their hands on it, the precious manuscript was severely damaged by moisture.

1956年，在死海北部的一個(gè)山洞里發(fā)現(xiàn)了這段文字，據(jù)稱這段文字被一群貝多因人賣給了一個(gè)古董商，然后他用玻璃紙包起來(lái)，放在地板下的鞋盒里，以備保管。11年后，當(dāng)學(xué)者們終于動(dòng)手時(shí)，珍貴的手稿被濕氣嚴(yán)重?fù)p壞。

Today, the Temple Scroll is the thinnest of all the Dead Sea Scrolls discovered. At just one-tenth of a millimetre (roughly 250th of an inch), the writing material is razor thin, and yet this remarkable manuscript still unrolls for more than 8 metres, providing the clearest and whitest writing surface in the collection.

今天，寺廟卷軸是所有發(fā)現(xiàn)的死海卷軸中最薄的。只有十分之一毫米(約250英寸)的書寫材料是非常薄的，然而這一非凡的手稿仍然展開超過8米，提供了收藏中最清晰和最潔白的書寫表面。

While ancient techniques for parchment-making differed in the East and the West, most were made from animal skin that had been cleaned and scoured of all hair and fat. This skin was then stretched and dried, and sometimes rubbed with salt, too. Eastern parchments were various shades of brown, while Western parchments were usually un-tanned.

雖然古代的羊皮紙制作技術(shù)在東方和西方有所不同，但大多數(shù)羊皮紙是用動(dòng)物的皮膚制成的，動(dòng)物的皮膚已經(jīng)被清洗過，并被洗去了所有的毛發(fā)和脂肪。然后，皮膚被拉伸和干燥，有時(shí)還會(huì)被鹽摩擦。東部的羊皮紙是各種顏色的棕色，而西部的羊皮紙通常沒有曬黑。

The Temple Scroll doesn't fall into either of these categories. It is different from other scrolls in that its text appears on the 'flesh' side and not the 'hair' side. What's more, the ink on this particular parchment appears to sit on an inorganic layer, just above the surface.

寺廟卷軸不屬于這兩類。它不同于其他的卷軸，因?yàn)樗奈谋境霈F(xiàn)在“肉”的一面，而不是“毛”的一面。更重要的是，這張羊皮紙上的墨水似乎就在表面的無(wú)機(jī)層上。

Researchers wanted to figure out why, so taking a tiny fragment of the scroll - about 2.5 cm wide (1 inch) - they used a variety of non-invasive tools to map the parchment's chemical composition in high resolution.

研究人員想弄清楚原因，于是拿了一小塊卷軸——大約2.5厘米寬(1英寸)——用各種非侵入性工具，以高分辨率繪制羊皮紙的化學(xué)成分圖。

"These methods allow us to maintain the materials of interest under more environmentally friendly conditions," explains James Weave, a scanning electron microscopist from Harvard University, "while we collect hundreds of thousands of different elemental and chemical spectra across the surface of the sample, mapping out its compositional variability in extreme detail."

“這些方法允許我們保持興趣的材料更環(huán)保的條件下,“詹姆斯編織解釋說(shuō),掃描電子顯微鏡工作者從哈佛大學(xué),“雖然我們收集成千上萬(wàn)的不同元素在樣品的表面和化學(xué)光譜,映射出它的成分變化極端細(xì)節(jié)。”

What they found was completely unexpected: a previously unknown technique for making parchment in ancient times.

他們的發(fā)現(xiàn)完全出乎意料:一種以前不為人知的古代羊皮紙制作技術(shù)。

Spread in varying concentrations across the surface, the team identified an odd mix of sulphur, sodium, and calcium. These elements suggest a special coating - laced with various salts - was somehow applied to the parchment before any words were written.

研究小組將不同濃度的硫、鈉和鈣分散在火星表面，發(fā)現(xiàn)了一種奇怪的混合物。這些元素表明羊皮紙上有一層特殊的涂層，上面撒有各種各樣的鹽，在書寫之前就已經(jīng)涂上了。

"[T]his study has far-reaching implications beyond the Dead Sea Scrolls," says chemist Ira Rabin from Hamburg University in Germany.

德國(guó)漢堡大學(xué)的化學(xué)家艾拉·拉賓說(shuō):“他的研究意義深遠(yuǎn)，超越了死海古卷。”