Major Breakthrough

[Demson]

Thousands of previously illegible manuscripts containing work by some of the greats of classical literature are being read for the first time using technology which experts believe will unlock the secrets of the ancient world.

 

 

Read more about it here.

 

Edit: This might be more appropiate for Archaeological News: The World.

Edited April 17, 2005 by Demson

[longbow]

" a series of Christian gospels which have been lost for up to 2,000 years."

Hope theres something juicy in them.L

[Ursus]

This is an absolutely extraordinary break through.

[Augustus]

Yes I have future employment!

[Ursus]

Indeed ... a second Rennaisance ... its good to be a classics buff right now.

[Fatboy]

This is just incredible. Coupled with the imminent excavation of the library at Herculaneum we should be entering a golden age for the study of the classical world.

 

Also...those Gospels will really stir things up, heh heh could be fun.

[Ursus]

Eh. When the Gnostic gospels were found, the church just shrugged and declared them non authentic. That's probably what will happen here.

 

But one "religion" that might be impacted by the discovery is Greco-Roman mythology. We know of all the myths that we have, it's only a fraction of what survived. The Illiad was simply the climax of a much longer Trojan War cycle. If we can discover some of the pieces of the lost epic, Western Literature will be rewritten.

[Primus Pilus]

Of the countless lost books (not even counting those we aren't aware of) I would really like to read Claudius' work on the Etruscans.

[Q Valerius Scerio]

Or some authentic works of Epicurus - now that would be enlightening. They say they're going to do the same with the stash at Herculaneum.

[Primus Pilus]

Indeed, it seems implausible to me that we won't eventually 'discover' that many works we thought to be lost are just hung up in some bureaucratic/archaeological red tape. Thats the shame of it really.

[Marcus Regulus]

Actually this is quite exciting but PP is right this will be caught up in beurcratic red tape for a while as everybody fights for rights to look at them. Could be great though.

 

" a series of Christian gospels which have been lost for up to 2,000 years."

Hope theres something juicy in them.L

 

Yeah maybe, but what if they turn out to be originals and/or exemplars of the original writtings and confirm the Greek New Testament as it stands? One way or another this is going to get interesting. The Dead Sea Scrolls did that for the Old Testament.

 

Eh. When the Gnostic gospels were found, the church just shrugged and declared them non authentic. That's probably what will happen here.

 

 

The Gnostic gospels were dismissed for good reasons and I might point out that none of them disproved the existing gospels, but I have a question: what if the above happens and the gospels discovered confirm the current New Testament as is? -- my guess is that others will dismiss them as unauthentic . Denial knows no religion.

[Ursus]

You make a very fair point, Marcus. However, I personally have no emotional involvement in either proving or disproving those particular texts. Hesiod, however, may get my juices flowing...