a parchment or the like from which writing has been partially or completely erased to make room for another text.

something that has a new layer, aspect, or appearance that builds on its past and allows us to see or perceive parts of this past: Most of what we actually see when we view any culture is a historical palimpsest, with traces of former times. Today's towering Romanesque-Gothic structure is a palimpsest, the result of numerous additions and reconstructions. Memory is a palimpsest that is continually being written over, but never perfectly so.