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Technology Preserves Israel Declaration of Independence

CBN

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JERUSALEM, Israel -- Innovative technology developed to photograph the ancient Dead Sea Scrolls was used this week to photograph another historical document:  Israel’s Declaration of Independence.

The project was a joint initiative of the Israel State Archives and Israel Antiquities Authority, which developed the technology especially for the Dead Sea Scrolls.

It involves using a “multi-spectral” photographic system shooting “different exposures at a number of wavelengths” from visible to infrared.

“With the unique technology we developed at the Israel Antiquities Authority together with the best scientists in the world…we are happy to help not only in preserving the material heritage from the distant past but the recent cultural heritage as well,’ Pnina Shor, director of the Dead Sea Scrolls Project at the IAA, said in a statement.

“It is exciting and symbolic to document the Declaration of Independence today, one of the cornerstones of the State of Israel, with technology developed specifically for the Dead Sea scrolls - the earliest Hebrew texts, 2,000 years old, which were first discovered on the eve of the establishment of the state, at the time when the Declaration of Independence was written,” Shor added.

A government press release said the document was photographed in order to:

  • Recreate the original appearance of the Declaration of Independence and preserve it for future generations.
  • Provide information regarding the texture of the material from which the scroll is made, its ink and surface.
  • Allow reading written characters appearing on the document which have faded over time.

According to the statement, “a precise and clear copy of the Declaration of Independence was created, as it was when originally signed, prior to the ravages of time that are now visible on it.”

It described the Declaration of Independence, signed in Tel Aviv on May 14, 1948, as “the most important document created in the State of Israel.” 

It also represents the first document “reflecting Jewish sovereignty” since the time of the Hasmonean Dynasty, which lasted about 103 years from 140 BC to 37 BC.

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