A manuscript or document where the original writing has been scraped away and written over, yet traces of the earlier text remain visible beneath. A layered surface that tells multiple stories simultaneously.
From Greek palimpsestos, meaning 'scraped again' — palin (again) plus psestos (scraped). Medieval scribes, working with expensive parchment, would literally scrape off old text to reuse the surface. Modern technology has revealed hidden treasures: Archimedes' lost mathematical works were discovered beneath a 13th-century prayer book!
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