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- Words from charred Herculaneum scroll revealed after 2,000 years
Words from charred Herculaneum scroll revealed after 2,000 years
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A team of researchers, combining their expertise in AI and ancient studies, has made significant progress in deciphering an ancient scroll discovered in Herculaneum, a Roman town destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. The scroll, initially charred and rolled up, was virtually "unfurled" using X-ray imaging and computer software, allowing the researchers to access its contents. Although the scroll is still not fully legible, the researchers' efforts represent a notable step forward in the process of uncovering the scroll's secrets.
We can tell the entire scroll is full of text.
Now we can work on making it show up more clearly. We're going to go from a handful of words to really substantial passages.
We're confident we will be able to read pretty much the whole scroll in its entirety, and it's the first time we've really been able to say that with high confidence.
I just love that connection with whoever collected them, whoever wrote them, whoever rolled those scrolls up and put them on the shelves. There's a real human aspect to it that I just think is really precious.
We've never been convinced before that any of the techniques would be safe enough or effective enough to get any information from the scrolls.
It can see things on the scale of a few thousandths of a millimetre.
We have to work out which layer is different from the next layer so we can unroll that digitally.
