Archimedes Palimpsest

A thousand year-old text is giving us some interesting insight into ancient Greece. The Archimedes Palimpsest was sold by Christie's in 1998 for $2 million. Sure, another old book... but this story is particularly cool. The palimpsest is mostly composed of work by the Greek mathematician Archimedes, but it also features a pages written by other authors, including Hyperides, an Athenian orator and politician who lived during the fourth century B.C. This copy of the text was probably transcribed sometime in the 10th century onto parchment leaves into a codex. The palimpsest is believed to have been pieced together by Byzantine monks in the 12th or 13th century. The monks weren't interested in the Greek texts, though... they dismantled that 10th century codex, washed the parchment leaves, folded them, cut them, and made a Christian liturgical text. All was not lost, though. The erasure was incomplete and the original writing can be read using digital processing of ultraviolet, X-ray, and visible light.

Pretty cool, huh?

Read more on the Archimedes Palimpsest website, in the NY Times, or on Wikipedia.