US EditionAI Deciphers Title and Author of Ancient Herculaneum Scroll for the First Time
- Researchers Marcel Roth and Micha Nowak identified the title and author of a sealed, charred scroll from Herculaneum, dating back to the volcanic disaster at Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.
- The discovery resulted from the 2023 Vesuvius Challenge, which encouraged decoding fragile scrolls without unrolling them by using AI and digital imaging.
- The team virtually unwrapped scroll PHerc. 172 with machine learning and identified it as 'On Vices,' an ethical treatise by the Epicurean philosopher Philodemus.
- The decoding included finding Greek words like 'porphyras' meaning purple and 'disgust' appearing twice, which experts called a very exciting development for understanding Philodemus' ethics.
- This milestone sets a precedent for reading ancient texts virtually and may provide deeper insights into classical philosophy and the full 'On Vices' series.
26 Articles
26 Articles
X-Ray Scans Reveal Title and Author of Charred Herculaneum Scroll - Archaeology Magazine
HERCULANEUM, ITALY—The library of the so-called Villa of the Papyri in Herculaneum contained hundreds of ancient literary works when the Roman city was destroyed by Mount Vesuvius in a.d. 79. The eruption left the papyrus scrolls in charred carbonized bundles that archaeologists discovered in the eighteenth century. They have been much too delicate for experts to open, but recent technological advances are now allowing researchers to virtually u…
Würzburg AI experts were the first people in almost 2000 years to read what is inside a charred papyrus roll. The briquette is now regarded as an important script of a Greek philosopher.
Charred Vesuvius Scroll Gives Up Its Author
There's been a "very exciting development" in the two-year-old Vesuvius Challenge, an effort to decode ancient scrolls charred by the AD79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius. As unrolling the 2,000-year-old carbonized scrolls unearthed in Herculaneum guarantee damage, if not total destruction, scholars have been using powerful 3D X-rays and artificial...
In a prize competition, they are trying to read texts that were charred in 1979 using the latest AI models.
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