full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Gregory Heyworth: How I'm discovering the secrets of ancient texts

Unscramble the Blue Letters

Or consider the 1491 mlauelrts Map, which we imaged at Yale's Beinecke Library. This was the map that Columbus likely consulted before he trelevad to the New World and which gave him his idea of what Asia looked like and where Japan was located. The prbelom with this map is that its inks and pigments had so degraded over time that this large, nearly seven-foot map, made the world look like a giant desert. Until now, we had very little idea, detailed idea, that is, of what Columbus knew of the world and how world creultus were represented. The main legend of the map was entirely illegible under normal lhgit. Ultraviolet did very little for it. Multispectral gave us everything. In Asia, we learned of monsters with ears so long that they could cover the creature's entire body. In Africa, about a snake who could cause the gronud to smoke. Like starlight, which can convey images of the way the Universe looked in the distant past, so multispectral light can take us back to the first stuttering mnomtes of an object's ctiorean. Through this lens, we weisnts the mistakes, the changes of mind, the ntéïevas, the unsrenoced toughths, the imperfections of the human itngamoiain that allow these hallowed objects and their authors to become more real, that make history closer to us.

Open Cloze

Or consider the 1491 _________ Map, which we imaged at Yale's Beinecke Library. This was the map that Columbus likely consulted before he ________ to the New World and which gave him his idea of what Asia looked like and where Japan was located. The _______ with this map is that its inks and pigments had so degraded over time that this large, nearly seven-foot map, made the world look like a giant desert. Until now, we had very little idea, detailed idea, that is, of what Columbus knew of the world and how world ________ were represented. The main legend of the map was entirely illegible under normal _____. Ultraviolet did very little for it. Multispectral gave us everything. In Asia, we learned of monsters with ears so long that they could cover the creature's entire body. In Africa, about a snake who could cause the ______ to smoke. Like starlight, which can convey images of the way the Universe looked in the distant past, so multispectral light can take us back to the first stuttering _______ of an object's ________. Through this lens, we _______ the mistakes, the changes of mind, the ________, the __________ ________, the imperfections of the human ___________ that allow these hallowed objects and their authors to become more real, that make history closer to us.

Solution

  1. ground
  2. cultures
  3. thoughts
  4. creation
  5. witness
  6. light
  7. imagination
  8. martellus
  9. traveled
  10. naïvetés
  11. uncensored
  12. moments
  13. problem

Original Text

Or consider the 1491 Martellus Map, which we imaged at Yale's Beinecke Library. This was the map that Columbus likely consulted before he traveled to the New World and which gave him his idea of what Asia looked like and where Japan was located. The problem with this map is that its inks and pigments had so degraded over time that this large, nearly seven-foot map, made the world look like a giant desert. Until now, we had very little idea, detailed idea, that is, of what Columbus knew of the world and how world cultures were represented. The main legend of the map was entirely illegible under normal light. Ultraviolet did very little for it. Multispectral gave us everything. In Asia, we learned of monsters with ears so long that they could cover the creature's entire body. In Africa, about a snake who could cause the ground to smoke. Like starlight, which can convey images of the way the Universe looked in the distant past, so multispectral light can take us back to the first stuttering moments of an object's creation. Through this lens, we witness the mistakes, the changes of mind, the naïvetés, the uncensored thoughts, the imperfections of the human imagination that allow these hallowed objects and their authors to become more real, that make history closer to us.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
multispectral imaging 5
multispectral light 2
dead sea 2
oldest book 2

Important Words

  1. africa
  2. asia
  3. authors
  4. beinecke
  5. body
  6. closer
  7. columbus
  8. consulted
  9. convey
  10. cover
  11. creation
  12. cultures
  13. degraded
  14. desert
  15. detailed
  16. distant
  17. ears
  18. entire
  19. gave
  20. giant
  21. ground
  22. hallowed
  23. history
  24. human
  25. idea
  26. illegible
  27. imaged
  28. images
  29. imagination
  30. imperfections
  31. inks
  32. japan
  33. knew
  34. large
  35. learned
  36. legend
  37. lens
  38. library
  39. light
  40. located
  41. long
  42. looked
  43. main
  44. map
  45. martellus
  46. mind
  47. mistakes
  48. moments
  49. monsters
  50. multispectral
  51. naïvetés
  52. normal
  53. objects
  54. pigments
  55. problem
  56. real
  57. represented
  58. smoke
  59. snake
  60. starlight
  61. stuttering
  62. thoughts
  63. time
  64. traveled
  65. ultraviolet
  66. uncensored
  67. universe
  68. witness
  69. world