Text Document To Transcend Time- Dead Sea Scrolls

The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in large pottery jars between 1947 and 1956 in eleven different caves about 13 miles east from Jerusalem. Although the discovery mostly consisted of disjointed text and many pieces that were destroyed to the point they could not be restored, the Dead Sea Scrolls have been named one of the greatest manuscript discoveries of modern time. The Scrolls are estimated to have been written between 200 B.C. and 68 C.E./A.D. and contain mostly Hebrew, some Aramaic, and only a few texts in Greek. They mostly are made of animal skin, but there is some use of papyrus and one even made of copper. The text has been analyzed and reported to be a carbon-based ink median and is described to read, right to left, with no use of punctuation, other than an infrequent paragraph indent. Experts have reported that in some instances there are not even spaces between words.

Looking at samples of these Scrolls, I am amazed. They were created so long ago but have so much impact today. They affirm issues in the Jewish and Christian communities. Even looking at the structure of the text written by someone’s hand thousands of years ago, probably by candlelight, it is amazing to notice the consistent letting of each line, as well as, the strong right align with the ragged left edge. I also notice the use of columns and their width is quite consistent.

The fact that these Scrolls were discovered, salvaged, pieced back together and read over 2000 years later leads me to believe the author met his objective. The were not just a personal to-do-list for the author, they were much more important. The fact the author was documenting events, history, and the instructions of God, in this case, it was vital that the author write in a form that could be interpreted. The authors needed their writing to transcend time. They were handling “Gods Word”, His divine instruction to his people. They needed their typography to be as clear as they could get it. They have indeed accomplished this as these writings have been analyzed and interpreted.

See Dead See Scroll Samples:

RESOURCES:
Online lecture
Typographic Design: Form and Communication
http://www.centuryone.com/25dssfacts.html
http://ninjaradio.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/scroll1.jpg
http://www.ibiblio.org/expo/deadsea.scrolls.exhibit/intro.html