Sciences. Scrolls from Herculaneum – The scroll was read without opening it. It was supposed to belong to Julius Caesar's father-in-law

When the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD destroyed Pompeii, an explosion of heat, volcanic ash and pumice formed from lava also reached nearby Herculaneum. It did not withstand the elements, among other things: hundreds of rolled papyrus sheets, kept in the library of one of the city's magnificent Roman villas.

Excavations carried out in the 18th century allowed the discovery of more than a thousand complete or partially preserved manuscripts on the property that may have belonged to Julius Caesar's father-in-law. Due to the passage of time and contact with heat, the manuscripts became charred and became completely impossible to open, and the black ink used on the papyrus also became invisible.

After nearly two thousand years, it may be possible to read these scrolls again, according to the British newspaper The Guardian. All thanks to the Vesuvius Challenge – a competition announced in 2023 by Brent Sills, a computer expert from the University of Kentucky, and representatives of Silicon Valley. The competition offered high cash prizes for reading the text from one of these impossible-to-roll scrolls. For this purpose, precise and high-resolution examinations of the nodes were performed using a CT scanner.

Nat Friedman, businessman and sponsor of the challenge, declared the competition a success on Monday. As announced, the three-person team members: Youssef Nader from Germany, Luke Varitor from the USA and Julian Schliger from Switzerland won PLN 700,000. slot. To read more than 2 thousand Greek letters from one of the scrolls.

How was it possible to read part of a charred scroll without opening it? Thanks to artificial intelligence. An algorithm was created that learned to detect the presence of ink residue on papyrus, and then CT-derived scroll images were actually “developed.” “We are entering a new era,” says Brent Sales, who led the effort to read the scrolls. Now he wants to create a portable scanner that would allow him to view the scrolls without taking them out of his collection.

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Papyrologists who examined the text extracted from the Black Papyrus were impressed by this achievement. “It changes the rules of the game,” says Robert Fowler, retired professor of Greek from the University of Bristol and president of the Herculaneum Society, quoted by The Guardian. – This is the beginning of a revolution in the field of papyrology in Herculaneum and, more broadly, in Greek philosophy. Dr. Federica Niccolardi, a papyrologist from the University of Naples, adds that this is the only library that has survived from the era of ancient Rome.

It is not certain who was the author of the decoded scroll from Herculaneum. “Possibly Philodemus of Gadaria,” Fowler says of the author. -His style is very rude, which is typical of him. He says the same topic also suits him. The author of the text read by experts discusses the sources of pleasure, mentioning music and food – especially capers, and whether the pleasure obtained from the combination of different elements results from the presence of those that are dominant or those that are less present; From abundance or from lack.

– I think it begs the question: What is the source of pleasure when we deal with a mixture of things? Is it the dominant element, the least present, or just a mixture of both? – says Fowler. The author of the text is also critical of his philosophical opponents, writing that they “have nothing to say about pleasure, or nothing at all and in detail.”

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The rest of the first scroll to be deciphered, as well as hundreds of subsequent scrolls from Herculaneum, are still waiting to be read. As the researchers noted, its charring may now be of inestimable value, because it has survived to this day. Fowler adds that the technology used in the Vesuvius scroll could be applied to any papyrus, such as those preserved in Egyptian mummies. There can be everything: from letters and property titles, through laundry lists, to receipts. They can shed light on the lives of ordinary Egyptians. “Entire boxes of these things wait in the back rooms of museums,” says Fowler.

A competition to read the later parts of the scrolls will be held this year. The new goal is a reading of 85 percent. Scroll and lay the foundations to read all the scrolls that have already been recovered. Scientists also want to fully automate the process of examining papyrus surfaces and improve ink detection on the most damaged parts.

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