Was a Dead Sea Scroll found in Amy Winehouse's hair?

 


Nope, of course not!. But back in 2008, I did lead a team to digitise the Dea Sea Scrolls. It got so much press coverage at the time that it led to this charming parody news story. I'm sat bored at the airport when Facebook memories suggest this from 14 years ago today, so I checked it out and it still makes me laugh.

The text states:

JERUSALEM (CAP) - Scholars of the Dead Sea scrolls, ancient Hebrew texts previously found only in caves near the West Bank, have announced that the latest scroll was discovered when singer Amy Winehouse plunged a hand into her voluminous beehive to extract a vial of cocaine, around which the scroll had become wrapped.

"Although we can't condone the use of illicit drugs, we're delighted that Ms. Winehouse chose this moment in history to retrieve her vile of cocaine," said an appreciative Simon Tanner, whose team of researchers is working to digitalize the Dead sea scrolls.

"Scholars the world over are extremely gratified to have in their possession a text that may close some of the gaps in our understanding," added Tanner. "We can only hope that she has additional vials of more pleasant things to retrieve in the near future."

According to sources close to the emphysema-stricken singer, Winehouse had apparently mistaken the Dead sea scroll for a hot-air roller that had gone missing in 2002. However, its mysterious script led her friend, Jeremy Firth, to salvage the scroll out of a spare bedroom reserved as the singer's hair-construction warehouse.

When asked what had inspired him to call the Israel Museum to inspect the artifact, Firth modestly replied, "Oh, well, it's just one thing leading to another, isn't it."

Firth also said he was sure that when Winehouse awakened "sometime next week" she would be thrilled to learn that her beehive had offered up a rare contribution to history, adding, "Perhaps Madame Tussauds will now place her figure alongside the scientists and discoverers."

Pundits believe the discovery will lead to a re-assessment of the historical relevance of teased hair.

- Kate Heidel Contributing Writer
Source: https://cap-news.com/story.php?id=200809011

The actual work we did to set up the digitising of the Dead Sea Scrolls is explained in this academic journal article:

Tanner, S & Bearman, G 2009, Digitising the Dead Sea Scrolls. in Archiving 2009. The Society for Imaging Science and Technology, Arlington, VA, pp. 119-123.
Available at: https://library.imaging.org/archiving/articles/6/1/art00025

One day I will write the true life mad story of the behind-the-scenes wrangling to get this project done, but today's not that day...

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