The look of two hands scribing

Qumran Cave   (Photo by Dan Lundberg)

With the naked eye, the look of two hands scribing could be undetectably similar.  Yet naked eyes are being digitally clothed these days, which can make all the difference.

When researchers took a recent look at the Dead Sea Scrolls with the help of artificial intelligence, they realized that two different people had lent a hand to that effort.  Slight differences of handwriting within the Great Isaiah halves indicated a change of scribes.

After all, this particular scroll is more than 22 feet long!  Perhaps Scribe One needed a good long vacation after finishing the first half…

Resources

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2275298-ai-analysis-shows-two-scribes-wrote-one-of-the-dead-sea-scrolls/

Copyright April 23, 2021 by Linda Van Slyke   All Rights Reserved