What is palimpsest definition?

A palimpsest is a manuscript or other written document that has been reused or overwritten with new text, often leaving remnants of the original text visible. The term originally referred specifically to parchment or vellum manuscripts that had been scraped and re-prepared for writing, with the original writing often still visible in the underlying layers. The term is now also used more broadly to refer to any document or artifact that has been reused or repurposed in some way, leaving traces of the original material or meaning. The study of palimpsests, including the technique of recovering, analyzing, and interpreting the underlying layers of texts, is an important area of research in fields such as archaeology, history, and literature.