palimpsest

Palimpsest is a manuscript page, typically parchment or vellum, from which the original writing has been scraped or washed to make room for new text. The term derives from the Greek palimpsis, from palin “again” and hapsasthai “to rub, scrape.”

In antiquity and the Middle Ages, parchment was costly, so scribes reused it; many ancient texts survive only as palimpsests, with underlying writings often obscured by residual ink. The overwriting can be erased by scraping with a knife, washing with chemicals, or abrading the surface, but traces may endure and the original text can reappear under certain conditions.

Modern technologies such as multispectral imaging, ultraviolet and infrared photography, and digital analysis help recover earlier texts that are not visible to the naked eye. Notable examples include the Archimedes Palimpsest, a 10th-century manuscript that preserves Archimedes’ mathematical writings beneath a later religious text, and Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus, a 5th-century Bible overwritten with Ephraim the Syrian’s writings.

Beyond its physical sense, palimpsest is used metaphorically to describe layered materials or histories—cities, landscapes, or literary works that bear traces of earlier, overwritten forms. In scholarly and cultural contexts, the term highlights how new content can obscure yet coexist with older, recoverable remnants.