Editing Dead Sea Scrolls (section)

==Photography and assembly==
Since the Dead Sea Scrolls were initially held by different parties during and after the excavation process, they were not all photographed by the same organization.

===First photographs (1948)===
The first individual to photograph a portion of the collection was Trever, who was a resident for the American Schools of Oriental Research.{{r|VanderKamFlint2005}}{{rp|68}} He photographed three of the scrolls discovered in Cave 1 on 21 February 1948, both on black-and-white and color film.{{r|VanderKamFlint2005}}{{rp|26}}{{r|Evans-Guide}}{{rp|396}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bib-arch.org/online-exclusives/dead-sea-scrolls-04.asp |title=Dead Sea Scrolls |publisher=Biblical Archaeology Society |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120531102302/http://www.bib-arch.org/online-exclusives/dead-sea-scrolls-04.asp |archive-date=31 May 2012}}</ref> Although an amateur photographer, the quality of his photographs often exceeded the visibility of the scrolls themselves as, over the years, the ink of the texts quickly deteriorated after they were removed from their linen wrappings.

===Infrared photography and plate assembly (1952–1967)===
A majority of the collection from the Qumran caves was acquired by the Palestine Archaeological Museum. The museum had the scrolls photographed by [[Najib Albina]], a local Arab photographer trained by [[Lewis Larsson]] of the [[American Colony, Jerusalem|American Colony]] in Jerusalem,<ref>Israel Antiquities Authority Personnel Records. Dated 1952 and 1960.</ref> Between 1952 and 1967, Albina documented the five-stage process of the sorting and assembly of the scrolls, done by the curator and staff of the Palestine Archaeological Museum, using [[infrared photography]]. Using a process known today as broadband fluorescence infrared photography, or NIR photography, Najib and the team at the museum produced over 1,750 photographic plates of the scrolls and fragments.{{r|VanderKamFlint2005}}{{rp|68}}<ref>{{cite journal |last=Verhoeven |first=G. |title=Imaging the invisible using modified digital still cameras for straightforward and low-cost archaeological near-infrared photography |journal=Journal of Archaeological Science |volume=35 |issue=12 |pages=3087–3100 |year=2008 |doi=10.1016/j.jas.2008.06.012|bibcode=2008JArSc..35.3087V }}</ref><ref>Dorrell, Peter G. ''Photography in Archaeology and Conservation'' 2nd Edition. 1994.</ref><ref>American Schools of Oriental Research. ''The Biblical Archaeologist''. Volumes 55–56. 1992.</ref> The photographs were taken with the scrolls laid out on animal skin using large format film, which caused the text to stand out, making the plates especially useful for assembling fragments.{{r|VanderKamFlint2005}}{{rp|68}} These are the earliest photographs of the museum's collection, which was the most complete in the world at the time, and they recorded the fragments and scrolls before their further decay in storage, so they are often considered the best recorded copies of the scrolls.<ref>Shanks, Hershel. ''Freeing the Dead Sea Scrolls: And Other Adventures of an Archaeology Outsider'' (2010).</ref>

===Digital infrared imaging (1993–2012)===
[[File:Infrared Fragment Photographed by Nasa.jpg|thumb|right|A previously unreadable fragment of the Dead Sea Scrolls photographed by the [[Jet Propulsion Laboratory]] using digital infrared technology. Translated into English it reads: "He wrote the words of Noah."]]

Beginning in 1993, the United States [[NASA|National Aeronautics and Space Administration]] (NASA) used digital infrared imaging technology to produce photographs of Dead Sea Scrolls fragments.{{r|nasa.gov}} In partnership with the Ancient Biblical Manuscript Center and West Semitic Research, NASA's [[Jet Propulsion Laboratory]] successfully worked to expand on the use of infrared photography previously used to evaluate ancient manuscripts by expanding the range of spectra at which images are photographed.<ref name="Other Ancient Documents 1675">{{cite web|title=Multi-Spectral Digital Imaging of Dead Sea Scrolls and Other Ancient Documents |url=http://www.trs-new.jpl.nasa.gov/dspace/bitstream/2014/35946/1/93-1675.pdf |access-date=31 May 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100527084809/http://trs-new.jpl.nasa.gov/dspace/bitstream/2014/35946/1/93-1675.pdf |archive-date=27 May 2010}}</ref> 

NASA used [[multispectral imaging]] adapted from its remote sensing and planetary probes in order to reveal previously illegible text on the fragments.{{r|Other Ancient Documents 1675}} The process uses a [[liquid crystal tunable filter]] in order to photograph the scrolls at specific wavelengths of light and, as a result, image distortion is significantly diminished.<ref name="nasa.gov">{{cite web|url=http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/technologies/scrolls.html|title=Seeing into the Past|publisher=NASA|access-date=31 May 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120503075726/http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/technologies/scrolls.html|archive-date=3 May 2012|url-status=live}}</ref> This method was used with select fragments to reveal text and details a larger light spectrum could not reveal.{{r|nasa.gov}} The camera and digital imaging assembly were developed specifically for the purpose of photographing illegible ancient texts.<ref>{{cite web |author=Libman |first1=Elena |last2=Bitler |first2=Tania |last3=Shor |first3=Pnina |title=Conservation, Science and Scholarly Collaboration |url=http://www.antiquities.org.il/article_Item_eng.asp?sec_id=17&sub_subj_id=391&id=760 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120121142607/http://antiquities.org.il/article_Item_eng.asp?sec_id=17&sub_subj_id=391&id=760 |archive-date=21 January 2012 |access-date=9 June 2012 |publisher=Israel Antiquities Authority}}</ref>

On 18 December 2012<ref>{{cite web |last=Miller |first=Eyal |url=http://googleblog.blogspot.co.il/2012/12/in-beginningbringing-scrolls-of-genesis.html |title=Official Blog: "In the beginning"...&nbsp;bringing the scrolls of Genesis and the Ten Commandments online |publisher=Googleblog.blogspot.co.il |date=18 December 2012 |access-date=26 March 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130101114104/http://googleblog.blogspot.co.il/2012/12/in-beginningbringing-scrolls-of-genesis.html |archive-date=1 January 2013 |url-status=dead}}</ref> the first output of this project was launched together with Google on the dedicated site ''Deadseascrolls.org.il.''<ref name="DSSDL-Main">{{cite web | title=Dead seascrolls.org/il | url=https://www.deadseascrolls.org.il | access-date=1 November 2023}}</ref> The site contains both digitizations of old images taken in the 1950s and about 1,000 images taken with multispectral imaging.<ref>{{cite web | title=The Digital Library: About the Project | url=https://www.deadseascrolls.org.il/about-the-project/the-digital-library | publisher=The Dead Sea Scrolls | access-date=1 November 2023}}</ref>

===DNA scroll assembly (2006–2020)===
Scientists with the IAA have used [[DNA]] from the parchment on which the fragments were written, in concert with infrared digital photography, to assist in the reassembly of the scrolls. For scrolls written on parchment made from animal hide and papyrus, scientists with the museum are using DNA code to associate fragments with different scrolls and to help scholars determine which scrolls may hold greater significance based on the type of material that was used.{{r|aaas.org}} In a paper published in 2020 in the journal ''Cell'', researchers from [[Tel Aviv University]] have shown that DNA extracted from the scrolls can be used to sort different scroll fragments not only based on the animal species but also based on variations in the nuclear genome of individual fragments. This effort enabled the researchers to match different fragments to each other based on their genetics and separate fragments which were falsely connected in the past.<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1016/j.cell.2020.04.046|title=Illuminating Genetic Mysteries of the Dead Sea Scrolls|year=2020|last1=Anava|first1=Sarit|last2=Neuhof|first2=Moran|last3=Gingold|first3=Hila|last4=Sagy|first4=Or|last5=Munters|first5=Arielle|last6=Svensson|first6=Emma M.|last7=Afshinnekoo|first7=Ebrahim|last8=Danko|first8=David|last9=Foox|first9=Jonathan|last10=Shor|first10=Pnina|last11=Riestra|first11=Beatriz|last12=Huchon|first12=Dorothée|last13=Mason|first13=Christopher E.|last14=Mizrahi|first14=Noam|last15=Jakobsson|first15=Mattias|last16=Rechavi|first16=Oded|journal=Cell|volume=181|issue=6|pages=1218–1231.e27|pmid=32492404|s2cid=219300081|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-dna-unlocks-the-secrets-of-the-dead-sea-scrolls-1.8897769 |title=DNA Unlocks the Secrets of the Dead Sea Scrolls |newspaper=Haaretz |access-date=13 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200613043300/https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-dna-unlocks-the-secrets-of-the-dead-sea-scrolls-1.8897769 |archive-date=13 June 2020 |url-status=live}}</ref>

===Digitization project (2011–2016)===
In partnership with Google, the Museum of Jerusalem is working to photograph the Dead Sea Scrolls and make them available to the public digitally, albeit not in the [[public domain]].<ref name="ReferenceC">{{cite web | url=http://dss.collections.imj.org.il/project | title=Digital Dead Sea Scrolls at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem – The Project | access-date=4 November 2023}}</ref> The lead photographer of the project, Ardon Bar-Hama, and his team are utilizing the [[Alpa]] 12 MAX camera accompanied with a [[Leaf (Israeli company)|Leaf]] Aptus-II back to produce ultra-high resolution digital images of the scrolls and fragments.<ref name="idealab.talkingpointsmemo.com">{{cite web|url=http://idealab.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/09/how-one-photographer-helped-google-digitize-the-dead-sea-scrolls.php |title=How One Photographer Helped Google Digitize The Dead Sea Scrolls|url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120111014825/http://idealab.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/09/how-one-photographer-helped-google-digitize-the-dead-sea-scrolls.php |archive-date=11 January 2012}}</ref> With photos taken at 1,200 [[Pixel|megapixels]], the results are digital images that can be used to distinguish details that are invisible to the naked eye. In order to minimize damage to the scrolls and fragments, photographers are using a 1/4000th of a second [[Exposure (photography)|exposure]] time and UV-protected flash tubes.{{r|ReferenceC}} The digital photography project was estimated in 2011 to cost 3.5 million U.S. dollars.{{r|idealab.talkingpointsmemo.com}}