- The Vesuvius Challenge decodes scrolls affected by the 79 AD eruption
- Another scroll has just been partially read by the AI
- This despite the fact that the parchment had been rolled up and badly burned.
Look at the ancient PHerc 1667 scroll, recovered from the ancient Roman city of Herculaneum which was smothered by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79, and you would think there wasn’t much chance of finding out what was written on it. It is rolled up, burned and blackened, and impossible to open without destroying most of it.
However, using the latest AI techniques, researchers on the Vesuvius Challenge project (via The Guardian) have now been able to read 20 columns of confidential text, describing the much-discussed Stoic philosophy at the time – and its connection to ethics, art and human behavior.
Here’s how it works: Without needing to open this scroll and others like it, a combination of X-rays and AI algorithms can be used to recognize the subtle differences between the papyrus fibers encased in the charred manuscript. This tells researchers where the ink is.
Further AI processing can identify and complete fragments of lettering and suggest possibilities for what might be missing. It is then up to human researchers to read and interpret what the writing actually means – an approach that has seen multiple successes since the Vesuvius Challenge launched in 2023.
Search the texts
Experts believe that PHerc 1667 may actually date from two or three centuries before the eruption of Vesuvius, making it an intriguing look into the ancient past. The same cloud of fire and ash that enveloped Herculaneum also (and more famously) covered Pompeii, although the two cities were preserved in very different ways.
Researchers working on the project say the scroll is one of several manuscripts believed to be inside a library and part of a luxurious Roman villa. Previously, the scroll had already been broken in two – it now measures just 8 cm (3.15 inches) in length – and part of it disintegrated following previous attempts to open it.
Each new discovery reveals more about the manuscript collection as a whole, including how these texts relate to each other and their authors. Initial analysis suggests that this particular scroll may have been written by the Greek philosopher Chrysippus, a prominent member of the Stoic school.
“People now know it can be done and we are now exploring what [the texts] “Actually, it means,” one of the research team, computer scientist Professor Brent Seales of the University of Kentucky, told the Guardian. “For me, it’s the World Cup. I’ve just won the World Cup: it’s my victory.”
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