Last year, we reported that Google was partnering up with the Israel Antiquities Authority to make a digital collection of the famous Dead Sea Scrolls. Today, that historic partnership has culminated in the launch of the Digital Dead Sea Scrolls. In addition to being the oldest known copy of the Hebrew Bible, the scrolls, which date back to the Second Temple Period, give us an amazing insight of what life was like in ancient Israel.

Five complete scrolls have been put online so far, all with interactive high-resolution images, as well as short explanatory videos and background information on the texts and their history.

“The Dead Sea Scrolls Project with the Israel Museum enriches and preserves an important part of world heritage by making it accessible to all on the internet,” said Professor Yossi Matias, Managing Director of Google’s R&D Center in Israel. “Having been involved in similar projects in the past, including the Google Art Project, Yad Vashem Holocaust Collection, and the Prado Museum in Madrid, we have seen how people around the world can enhance their knowledge and understanding of key historical events by accessing documents and collections online. We hope one day to make all existing knowledge in historical archives and collections available to all, including putting additional Dead Sea Scroll documents online.”

When you have something as priceless as the Dead Sea scrolls, you can’t just throw it on a scanner. Instead, digital photograpyArdon Bar-Ham allows us to see details which are invisible to the naked eye. The process, using an ultra-high resolution camera, produces images about two hundred times higher in resolution than those produced by standard cameras. Each snapshot used state-of-the-art UV-protected flash tubes and an exposure time of 1/4000th of a second to minimize any damage.

But enough talking, head on over to the home of the Digital Dead Sea Scrolls and explore this amazing find yourself!