AN ANCIENT scroll that had nearly turned to charcoal in the volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79AD may be about to have its secrets revealed.
After 2,000years, the contents of the scroll can be seen once more after scientists used a combination of X-ray imaging and artificial intelligence (AI) to see inside.
The papyrus scroll hasn’t actually been unravelled – and doing so would likely turn it to dust.
Instead, scientists have cleverly digitally unwrapped it, exposing rows and columns of text.
The team now has the task of deciphering the text, but they say the results are looking promising.
“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,” said Stephen Parsons, project lead for the Vesuvius Challenge, an international competition attempting to unlock the Herculaneum scrolls.
Some letters are already legible, according to researchers, who believe it could be a work of philosophy.
The scroll was discovered in Herculaneum, an ancient Roman town that was buried under the massive volcanic cloud from Mount Vesuvius.
Hundreds of scrolls were found in Herculaneum, which had all essentially turned to carbon.
In the past, some of the documents were unravelled but crumbled into pieces.
The University of Oxford’s Bodleian Library holds a number of the scrolls, but they have been left untouched for decades.
Recent advancements in technology, allowing the scrolls to be 3D reconstructed by powerful X-ray beams without damaging them, prompted this latest scroll to be taken out of storage.
Researchers have to identify each layer of the scroll.
AI is then used to detect the ink – a tricky feat since both the papyrus (thick paper) and the ink have both turned to carbon and are now almost indistinguishable.
Once the ink has been detected, it is digitally painted onto the scroll.
We can tell the entire scroll is full of text. Now we can work on making it show up more clearly.
Stephen Parsons, project lead for the Vesuvius Challenge
“We can tell the entire scroll is full of text,” said Parsons.
“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.”
Experts at the Bodleian took the scroll to the UK’s national synchrotron facility, Diamond Light Source in Oxfordshire.
A synchrotron is an advanced X-ray machine that can examine materials on an atomic level.
How AI & X-rays are unravelling scroll secrets
AI and X-rays are revolutionising the study of ancient scrolls by enabling researchers to virtually “unroll” and decipher texts that are too fragile to handle physically.
X-rays, particularly advanced methods like X-ray micro-computed tomography (micro-CT), create highly detailed 3D scans of scrolls.
These scans capture the layers of tightly wound or damaged parchment or papyrus without physically unrolling them, preserving their integrity.
X-rays can also detect variations in density caused by metallic or carbon-based inks used in ancient writing.
AI algorithms, particularly those using deep learning, can segment layers of text by identifying and separating individual layers of the scroll from 3D X-ray data, isolating the text for analysis.
They can also recognise text by enhancing faint markings or patterns corresponding to ancient writing, often revealing characters that are invisible to the naked eye.
AI algorithms can reconstruct incomplete sections as well. Machine-learning models can fill in the gaps or predict any missing text.
For scrolls where X-rays detect ink differences, AI can distinguish metallic inks – typically used in later periods of history – from carbon-based inks, enabling a more detailed and context-sensitive interpretation.
Advanced imaging can also track even faint remnants of ink strokes, reconstructing text in incredible detail.
Last year, the Vesuvius Challenge team managed to read about 5% of another Herculaneum scroll.
The ancient text was an example of Greek Epicurean philosophy – which the Bodleian’s scroll is also expected to be.
The competition has even put a prize fund of £400,000 on the line for anyone who can decipher another Herculaneum relic known as PHerc.172.
PHerc.172 is one of roughly 800 scrolls unearthed in the Villa of the Papyri, a luxurious estate believed to have belonged to Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus, Julius Caesar’s father-in-law.
The villa, based in the ancient Herculaneum, is thought to house one of the finest libraries of antiquity, including works of Greek philosophy and possibly undiscovered Roman literature.
The first milestone in the Vesuvius Challenge was reached in February 2024, when three students shared a $700,000 prize for reading parts of another scroll.
The success of the competition has attracted tech moguls like Elon Musk, who funded later phases of the competition.
The destruction of Pompeii – what happened in 79 AD?
- Pompeii was an ancient Roman city near modern Naples, in the Campania region of Italy.
- It was destroyed, along with the Roman town of Herculaneum and many villas in the surrounding area, and buried under volcanic ash in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.
- The violent explosion killed the city’s inhabitants, with the site lost for around 1,500 years until its initial rediscovery in 1599 and broader rediscovery almost 150 years later.
- The thermal energy released from Vesuvius was said to be a hundred thousand times that of the nuclear blasts at Hiroshima-Nagasaki.
- The remains beneath the city have been preserved for more than a millenium due to the lack of air and moisture in the ground.
- During excavations, plaster was injected into the voids in the ash layers that once held human bodies, allowing scientists to recreate their exact poses at the time of their deaths.
- Mount Vesuvius is arguably the most dangerous volcano on earth.
- It had been inactive for almost a century before roaring back into life and destroying Pompeii.
- Since then, it has exploded around three dozen more times – most recently in 1944 – and stands in close proximity to three million people.
- Although its current status is dormant, Vesuvius is an “extremely active” and unpredictable volcano, according to experts.
- To this day, scientists are finding cultural, architectural and human remains on the banks of Mount Vesuvius.
- Excavations at thermal baths in Pompeii’s ruins in February revealed the skeleton of a crouching child who perished in the 79 AD eruption.
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