Dead Sea Scrolls to go online

Scientists in Israel are to undertake a huge project to digitise the Dead Sea Scrolls, which include the oldest known version of the Hebrew Bible, and make it available on the internet.

To bring the 2,000-year-old scrolls into the digital age, scientists will use American space technology developed by NASA.

When the project is completed, it is hoped that surfers all over the world will be able to access these ancient manuscripts.

"Now for the first time the scrolls will be a computer-click away," said Pnina Shor, who is responsible for the conservation of artefacts at the Israeli Antiquities Authority.

"This will ensure that the scrolls are preserved for another 2,000 years," Shor continued.

Previous to the digitisation process, only a handful of scholars have been allowed access to the scrolls, which were discovered by accident in 1947 by a young Bedouin shepherd looking for his sheep.

This week, archivists in Germany finished digitising over six million documents on the Nazis' slave labour program during the Second World War.

The documents will now be available to view on the web at Holocaust memorial centres in the US, Poland, Israel and and Germany.

www.antiquities.org.il/home_eng.asp