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
- ground
- cultures
- thoughts
- creation
- witness
- light
- imagination
- martellus
- traveled
- naïvetés
- uncensored
- moments
- 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
- africa
- asia
- authors
- beinecke
- body
- closer
- columbus
- consulted
- convey
- cover
- creation
- cultures
- degraded
- desert
- detailed
- distant
- ears
- entire
- gave
- giant
- ground
- hallowed
- history
- human
- idea
- illegible
- imaged
- images
- imagination
- imperfections
- inks
- japan
- knew
- large
- learned
- legend
- lens
- library
- light
- located
- long
- looked
- main
- map
- martellus
- mind
- mistakes
- moments
- monsters
- multispectral
- naïvetés
- normal
- objects
- pigments
- problem
- real
- represented
- smoke
- snake
- starlight
- stuttering
- thoughts
- time
- traveled
- ultraviolet
- uncensored
- universe
- witness
- world