📜 AI reveals text in 2000-year-old charred scroll from Herculaneum

• X-ray technology and artificial intelligence have for the first time made it possible to read the contents of a charred scroll from Herculaneum without physically opening it.
• The text in the scroll contains Greek text and is believed to be a philosophical work.
• The new technology can be used to read hundreds of other scrolls found in Herculaneum, providing new knowledge about ancient literature and philosophy.

Advanced technology makes the impossible possible

The charred scroll, which resembles a piece of coal, has remained untouched for decades because it is too fragile to open physically. Now researchers at Diamond Light Source in Oxfordshire have used a synchrotron - a particle accelerator that produces powerful X-rays - to scan the scroll without damaging it, reports the BBC.

The scroll contains approximately 10 meters of papyrus that is tightly rolled. Using X-ray radiation, researchers have been able to create a 3D reconstruction of the scroll. Artificial intelligence is then used to identify the ink in the text, which is particularly challenging because both papyrus and ink are made from carbon.

New knowledge about ancient literature

The project, called the Vesuvius Challenge, is an international competition aimed at unlocking the contents of the Herculaneum scrolls. Last year, a team managed to read about 5 percent of another scroll, which turned out to contain Greek Epicurean philosophy.

🏆 The Vesuvius challenge solved! We can read the first scroll

Two thousand years ago, an ancient library of papyrus scrolls was buried under a volcanic eruption. They cannot be unrolled without being destroyed. But thanks to the Vesuvius challenge, several competing teams have managed to read the scrolls anyway. The winning team was awarded $700,000.

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Hundreds of charred scrolls were discovered in Herculaneum, which like its neighbor Pompeii was buried under volcanic ash when Vesuvius erupted in 79 CE. With the new technology, researchers can now examine these scrolls without risk of destroying them. Stephen Parsons, project leader for the Vesuvius Challenge, says that the entire scroll is filled with text and that the team will be able to go from reading individual words to substantial text passages.

Nicole Gilroy, head of book conservation at the Bodleian Library, describes how the work creates a connection to the past by providing insight into who collected, wrote, and rolled up these scrolls 2000 years ago.

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