AI Deciphers Title and Author of Ancient Herculaneum Scroll for the First Time

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...

AI Reveals Title and Author of Scroll Burned by Vesuvius That No One Could Read for 2,000 Years

A particle accelerator and AI helped scholars read a scroll buried since 79 AD.

Title Of Ancient Burnt Herculaneum Scroll Identified For First Time In 2,000 Years

Contestants in the ongoing Vesuvius Challenge continue to reveal more information about the calcified scrolls once buried by the ancient eruption.

In a prize competition, they are trying to read texts that were charred in 1979 using the latest AI models.