LONDON: The University of Oxford is currently seeking volunteers to assist in transcribing ancient manuscripts discovered in Egypt and believed to contain some “lost Gospels.” Researchers believe that the new material will help develop an understanding of the early years of Christianity. The collection of documents found in the Egyptian city of Oxyrhynchus have been dated to between 500 BCE and 1000 CE. According to the university, the manuscripts, many fragmented papyri, are written in Greek, the language of the New Testament. Although the papyri were found about 100 years ago, until now, there has never been worldwide access to a program like the one found at Ancient Lives. “The software is capable of storing all the research teams' findings,” the university said in a statement calling for volunteers. Volunteers will only need to see a photocopy of the segment they are working on and match it to the symbols provided through Ancient Lives. “The program will then record the transcriber's symbol selection, translate the word and store it for later use,” it added. The goal is to gather as much transcriptions as possible in order to assist translators and researchers in piecing together the information available in the documents. There is a belief that the papyri may give clues as to the early church and begin to piece together information about the early days of Christianity. BM
