Ancient Wisdom
From the New York Times via Making Light:
Here, Virge reconstructs the discovery process (using the barest scraps of evidence):
[Reviel Netz examines the ancient and largely illegible text]
"Here is some sort of a block puzzle. Here we can just make out the word that translates to "multitude" and it seems to be used several times."
[A small but bright globe lights up in the historians head]
"This can have but one possible explanation. Archimedes must have discovered the mathematics of combinatorics. That must be what the rest of the lost manuscript is about. I shall tell the world in my new book."
Well call me a cynic and throw me to the inquisition. When you have only the tiniest scraps of text you have a lot of scope to create plausible explanations that fit. Netz, an Archimedes fan, would seem to have a lot of good reasons to promote his "ancients knew it all" discovery. I'll remain skeptical.
An assistant professor historic
rediscovered works combinatoric.
He (despite the monks' cleaning)
gave the manuscript meaning
to further his fame meteoric.