Writing Both Hidden or Just Interesting
Sometimes we find hidden ancient texts in the strangest places. One of the reasons for this is the fact the writing material was very rare and expensive in ancient times so much of it was reused. The original writing would be washed off or covered in some way and new writing put on top of it. Historians were surprised to find hidden writing on medieval parchments. Originally the parchment had contained ancient philosophical writings, which had been erased and written over. Often it was not recognized that the original writing was more important than what was being written over it. A parchment had been rewritten with the prophetic books of the Greek Old Testament. What was found under the medieval writing was writing by the great ancient Greek writer Euripides. Euripides was discussing Aristotle. Historians were beside themselves with joy at finding this.
One researcher has announced he has found a hidden writing system that dates back 30,000 years. He says it is in the ancient megalithic site of Sacsayhuamán. He announced his belief the secret writing system is embedded in the construction of the site. If this is true it could answer a lot of questions for us, such as how did these ancient people move rocks weighing many tons and how did they fit them together so perfectly even a razor blade or sheet of paper can’t fit between them. Sacsayhuamán has been a mystery that has plagued many an investigator since we are not capable even today of building such a place.
A scholar in Manchester, England claims he has found a hidden code in the ancient writings of Plato. He said his discovery was partially lucky. He went on to say he had looked at Plato’s works in the original scroll form and noticed that after every twelve lines there was a passage discussing music. In Plato’s time in ancient Greece music was based on a twelve note scale not an eight note scale like we use today. The scholar went on to say Plato couldn’t tell people he was a closet Pythagorean. Pythagoras believed mathematics and music were the key to the universe. In Plato’s time the Pythagoreans were persecuted, because of this it would’ve been too dangerous for Plato to come out and said he supported them. Socrates had been the teacher of Plato and he was executed for religious heresy and supporting Pythagoras was religious heresy in Plato’s time.
Hidden writings have been found in the spines of early printed books. When the printing press came out handwritten books became a thing of the past, much like when eight track tapes met cassettes and then cassettes were replaced by CDs. It turns out some of the paper from these old hand written books were used to reinforce the spines of early printed books. That paper was also used in the covers of these books. When historians discovered this fact they realized they were in a quandary. They wanted to see what was written in these covers and spines, but they didn’t want to destroy the early printed books to get to this writing. The solution was finally found using macro X-ray fluorescence spectrometry. Investigators are now able to scan the bindings and covers and image what is hidden underneath. Scientists are calling this a treasure trove since it turns out one in five early books have pieces of hand written books in them.
Historians have discovered there is a mysterious text hidden in England’s oldest Bible. The Bible was published in 1535 and there are only seven known copies of it existing today. A researcher at Queen Mary University of London discovered this hidden text after intensive research. The Bible contained hidden notations. The researcher noticed that heavy paper had been glued over blank parts of the Bible and he wanted to see if there was anything under them, but he didn’t want to damage the book. It turned out the heavy paper was hiding writing underneath and this writing explained the Reformation. The name of the researcher was Doctor Poleg and after studying the Bible he decided to ask for help and called upon Doctor Graham Davis a specialist in 3D X-ray imaging. Combining the X-ray imaging with a procedure from Doctor Poleg and software which was created by Doctor Davis they were able to read what was underneath the paper. What they found were notations which told people what parts of the Bible to read on certain days.
The tablet was found with writing on it in the city of Tartaria, Alba County, Romania. What makes this tablet so important is the fact when it was dated it was found to be at least 6,500 years old which meant it was the oldest writing ever found. The tablet was discovered in 1961 in an ancient religious complex and it wasn’t the only one, there were three of them. Two of the tablets were covered with pictographic writing and were at least a thousand years older than the Samarian Clay tablets which were found. A Clay pot was found which has been dated at being 5,500 years old which also had writing on it. So far we have not been able to decipher what is the meaning of the writing.
We’ve all heard about the Dead Sea Scrolls by now and how they were found in the West Bank. The first ones were found in either late 1946 or early 1947. They date back around 2,000 years. Since then thousands of fragments of scrolls have been found in at least ten nearby caves. These fragments account for between eight hundred and nine hundred manuscripts. The scrolls seem to have a somewhat strange time line. Some were sold to a Syrian Orthodox Archbishop of Jerusalem and he offered them to several universities in the United States and even advertised them in the Wall Street Journal under the category “Miscellaneous Items for Sale”. An Israeli archaeologist secretly negotiated their purchase on behalf of the newly established state of Israel. Almost all of the Hebrew Bible is represented in the Dead Sea Scrolls, but Hebrew is not the only language found in them. What many people don’t know is one of the manuscripts was from the Qumran and called the Copper Scroll and many believe it is an ancient treasure map which lists several dozen gold and silver treasures. It lists sixty-four underground hiding places around Israel that supposedly contain these treasures. None have been recovered and no one knows if there is even a basis for these listings.
