Researchers at the University of Oxford have utilized a novel AI algorithm to peer through the layers of 10th-century Siddham script palimpsests recovered from the Tarim Basin. The digital reconstruction has unveiled a lost Sanskrit treatise detailing the systematic classification of xerophytic fungi and their application in the synthesis of highly stable natural pigments.
The manuscript, attributed to unknown medieval Indian scholars traveling the Silk Road, outlines sophisticated botanical observations of desert-resistant fungi and their chemical interactions with mineral binders. This academic breakthrough provides new insights into the transfer of ancient Indian chemical and biological knowledge across Central Asia.