Spectral image processing and analysis of the Archimedes Palimpsest

Abstract

The Archimedes Palimpsest is a 10th-century parchment manuscript that was erased in the 13th century and overwritten with a Christian prayer book. The Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, MD, USA has supervised a ten-year collaboration by conservators, imaging scientists, and scholars to image and transcribe the original writings. This paper reports on the variety of optical imaging and image processing techniques used in the project. Image analysis tools to clarify texts included supervised segmentation via a spectral pseudoinverse calculation, deterministic renderings in pseudocolor, and statistical analysis with dynamical pseudocolor rendering. 1. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE CODEX Almost everything known about the work of Archimedes has been gleaned from three codex manuscripts. The first two