We May Soon Be Able to Read Long-Lost Ancient Scrolls Damaged by the Eruption of Mount Vesuvius
Lead in the ink made the lettering visible in X-ray scans, and researchers say unopened Herculaneum scrolls could be screened for easier recovery.
- On Wednesday, researchers published a study in PLOS One demonstrating that detecting lead-enriched ink within charred Herculaneum scrolls could enable scientists to read ancient texts without physically opening them.
- When Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79, it buried the Herculaneum Library under 70 feet of ash, carbonizing papyrus scrolls into brittle rolls nearly impossible to open without destroying them.
- Douglas Seiler and his team created test scrolls using leaded ink, then charred them in a furnace to simulate volcanic conditions, proving that lead provides a clearer signal for X-ray tomography.
- Using X-ray tomography and AI, the team successfully read portions of the test scrolls, providing "a low-risk method to develop algorithms without endangering the priceless artifacts," the researchers wrote.
- Researchers now suggest scanning unopened Herculaneum scrolls for lead to identify those with a "higher probability of being successfully read," potentially unlocking long-lost writings from Roman intellectual circles preserved nearly 2,000 years.
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Science Writing, 16 Sep (EFE).- In 79 A.D. the ashes of the volcano Vesuvius buried the Italian city of Herculano and, with it, the more than a thousand papyrus rolls of the city library that kept ancient knowledge -known today - and that the eruption turned into charred paper. [...] The post Search Lead in Ink, the method that could help read papyrus over 2000 years old was first published in HolaNews.
We may soon be able to read long-lost ancient scrolls damaged by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius
X-ray technology and artificial intelligence—along with the discovery of lead in the ink of fragments from a collection of ancient Roman scrolls—could soon help scientists read long-lost texts buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE, according to a study published Sept. 16, 2026, in the journal PLOS One by Douglas Seiler, an affiliate of the University of California, Berkeley, U.S.; Jacob Michael LaManna of the National Institute of St…
New trick could reveal text on 2,000-year-old scrolls charred by eruption of Mount Vesuvius
Using X-ray technologies and custom-made software, researchers were able to read text they wrote on a fake ancient scroll designed to mimic those destroyed at Herculaneum in A.D. 79.
Metrópoles
gazetaweb.comDuring experiments, scientists created a fake papyrus, burned it and managed to read back what was later written
Some scientists manufacture and burn papyrus with lead ink to train AI to decipher the carbonized rolls of Herculano. The entry Papyros del Vesuvius and AI: so read the texts that Herculano gave for lost was first published in What!.
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