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Show ;.feMU leaning Scrolls, A Real Task rrEN LEONARD manuscripts are as old as .'jtv. ' ' , i, ran match two -d JJcSeS that the belongwill look ' the original document. : m scribes have been ancient script on .. papyrus. rt alert eyes of Mi's. Srculiofthe lib-J, lib-J, X center of Intercultu-Si, Intercultu-Si, a fake is a fake. Atiya has recently completing, complet-ing, tedious task of pre-: pre-: ns pieces of Arabic papy-,:lch papy-,:lch were acquired by the "ly about five years ago as lous gift. The collection includes a few parchments, a sample sam-ple of inscribed linen and 776 old paper documents. SAMPLES FROM the valuable collection can be seen in the Egypt room of the Utah Museum of Fine Arts on the fourth floor of the Park Building. "It is interesting to see the fakes as well as the real ones," said Mrs. Atiya. An imitation is also shown in the exhibit case. Mrs. Ttiya carefully preserved each delicate piece between glass and numbered each pane for reference. refe-rence. First she cleaned and treated the aging fibers. Many of the papy-ril papy-ril had to be steamed open, weighted weight-ed and dried before being sealed between glass. The collection, safe from further fur-ther deterioration, must now wait for a trained papyrologist who can translate the documents. Mrs. Atiya said she can read parts of some scrolls, but many of the characters used in ancient Arabic Ara-bic writing may retpresent more than a word. Often part of one character is detached and hung onto on-to the next character. ARABIC SCROLLS are more recent re-cent than similar documents in Egypt, Greece and other 'Mediterranean 'Mediter-ranean lands. According to a museum mu-seum leaflet, papyrus for writing was produced in Egypt obout 3000 B. C. The Arabs were last to use papyrus, beginning in the seventh century A. D. and continuing until about 1100. In the late 700's, the Arabs introduced intro-duced paper from China. Thus some of the paper in the University's collection col-lection is as old as the papyrus, which dates back to the first century cen-tury of Islam. Papyrus was made from the pith of large stems of a graceful, green plant growing in the marshes of Lower Egypt. Written upon papyrus are official records, deeds, letters, inventories, receipts, marriage contacts con-tacts and divorce notices, religious chants, indentures and magic charms. Scribes used reed pens and an ink made of soot or vegetable. Sometimes older writings were washed off and the papyrus used a secpnd time. Mrs. Atiya said it was fascinating to see the variety of penmanship and writing techniques on the brown papyrus. But the message of these ancient documents may remain re-main sealed in their glass tombs for some time to come. Arabic papyrologists who hold the key to the ancient script are few and far between! ....II- Jl.l"SWI wlwMKWl H' , jf- ; Tt; f j i ti si- I ; a -S v I i ail H i in ! mi nwMurwuni in -urn ii'-irr ',-rmtrrfBWfm I . LOLA Atiya, curator of the Intercultural Library, displays of the 778 pieces of Arabic parchment now on exhibit. |