How the Library of Congress unrolled a 2,000-year-old Buddhist scroll

Japan's elegant Christmas cakes, a Cold War museum, and more. Email not displaying correctly? View in your browser. December 16, 2019 To Unroll a Scroll To unroll a fragile 2,000-year-old text successfully is almost unthinkable but recently, conservators at the Library of Congress found themselves with no other option. They wanted to read the words scrawled inside the Gandhara scroll. Read More → These Cakes Are a Big Deal Starting in November, bakery chains, hotels, restaurants, department stores, supermarkets, and convenience stores all over Japan announce their line-ups of exclusive and often elegantly-decorated Christmas cakes to huge fanfare, with popular cakes selling out far in advance of the holiday. Read more → Warrenton, Virginia Cold War Memories Located in Vint Hill Farms Station, Virginia, this Cold War museum inside a decommissioned United States Army communications base is home to an impressive collection of artifacts and memorabilia from World War II and the Cold War. Read more → What Is ‘Treasure’? Ask the Coroner There’s a lot of history in England, and much of it still lies under the earth. Centuries-old objects turn up from under pastures in Sussex and wash up on the banks of the Thames in central London. But through it all, the duty of declaring which uncovered objects are actually treasure has always fallen to the same people: coroners. Read more → The Curious, Unfinished Quilt A 99-year-old nurse died before she could finish a patriotic quilting project. So a community of feminist crafters continued her work—with a few additions of their own. Read more → OCHOPEE, FLORIDA Abandoned Airport Once planned to be the largest in the world, the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, an isolated airport in the middle of the Everglades, sees more alligators than planes. Read more → From our friends at JSTOR Enchanting Pearls There’s a specific term for irregular pearls: “baroque,” from the Portuguese barroco. These pearls were baroque before anyone thought to apply the term to signify all things lavish, florid, and grotesque. For that, we have misshapen pearls to thank. Read more → Visit AtlasObscura.com · View in Browser · Unsubscribe · See All Newsletters 61 Greenpoint Ave #622, Brooklyn, NY 11222