A 2,000-year-old burnt scroll from the Roman town of Herculaneum has been partially revealed for the first time thanks to artificial intelligence (AI) and X-ray imaging. The scroll, part of a collection charred by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79AD, is too fragile to be opened physically. This discovery is part of the Vesuvius Challenge, a project launched in 2023 by computer scientist Brent Seales and Silicon Valley backers. The scroll, made of papyrus, was placed inside a synchrotron, allowing researchers to digitally reconstruct and translate parts of the text. The AI technology is able to identify ink and replicate it like 18th-century copyists. The University of Oxford is now working to interpret more of the text.
Brent Seales, co-founder of the Vesuvius Challenge, expressed excitement over the amount of recoverable text found in the scanned Herculaneum scroll, acknowledging that further software development is needed to fully decipher it and other scrolls. The University of Oxford’s Bodleian Library houses several of these carbonised scrolls, offering a unique opportunity for collaboration among librarians, computer scientists, and scholars of the classical period. Richard Ovenden, Bodley’s Librarian, described the cooperation as an incredible moment in history, allowing experts to see the unseen parts of ancient texts. The discovery marks a significant advancement in the study of ancient literature and showcases the potential of combining technology and classical scholarship to uncover the secrets of the past.
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