Researchers used x-rays to read this 400-year-old burned parchment

The content of a 16th century scroll left unreadable by severe burns was discovered by scientists who used X-rays to replenish the 400-year-old message.

The withered parchment was found at Diss Heywood Manor in Norwich, England, left in a pile of crumpled charred paper that was melted, making the text unreadable. But using advanced medical radiography techniques, researchers at Cardiff University were able to decipher the obscure message, once considered completely lost for history.

X-ray techniques have created thousands of cross-sections of the text, brightening the writing to make it brighter and more readable. These chopped cross-sections were then integrated into a computer algorithm that links the pieces together, thus unraveling the parchment to make it a flattened and readable version.

The team, led by computer vision professor Paul Rosin, is now asking for more texts too fragile to be open, in the hope of alleviating the burden of history researchers who are reluctant to consider fragile objects.

"We know that there are many historical documents in museums and archives that are too fragile to be opened or unwrapped, so we would be delighted to be able to experiment with our new techniques," Rosin said in a press release.

The use of X-ray technology to analyze the content of historical documents is not new. In 2013, a parchment damaged by water of the 15th century was read using similar techniques.

In the case of the last parchment, the review revealed that it was a government document that "contained details on land deals, peace disturbances, payment of fines, jury names and information on land maintenance ".

There is nothing like using modern technologies to better understand 16th century governance in the English countryside.

Source: Cardiff University via motherboard