The text from the Scrolls of Herculaneum, which was carbonized by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, has been deciphered for the first time/EduceLab/University of Kentucky
2024.02.08 Thu posted at 15:52 JST
(CNN) Researchers from universities in the United States and other countries have recently deciphered the nearly complete text of the “Scrolls of Herculaneum,” which were charred by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. The discovery provides a glimpse into the thinking of nearly 2,000 years ago.
The Scrolls of Herculaneum are among the hundreds of papyri that survived the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Because it was carbonized, the scroll crumbled when you tried to open it, and even if there was any writing on it, it was almost impossible to read with the naked eye.
Now, using computer technology and advanced artificial intelligence (AI), researchers are now able to analyze the scrolls without opening the extremely fragile documents and risking damage. According to an announcement on the 5th by computer scientists who launched the “Vesuvius Volcano Challenge,” a deciphering competition, more than 2,000 characters have been deciphered so far.
The first word was deciphered in October last year by Luke Fariter, a computer science student at the University of Nebraska, and Yusef Nader, a graduate student at Free University of Berlin. Julian Siliger, a robotics student from ETH Zurich, joined the team earlier this year, and together they won the contest’s grand prize of $700,000. The grand prize will be awarded to the first team to decipher 85% of the letters in four consecutive sentences within the scroll.
The three researchers used a technology called “virtual opening” to decipher the text. By scanning a curled up scroll using computed tomography (CT), it is now possible to virtually flatten the scroll and use advanced AI to detect ink on the page. After the three discovered the Greek letters, specialized papyrus scholars from England, France, and Italy joined in the analysis work.
Papyrus virtually flattened by the winning team
More than 1,000 charred scrolls have been recovered from the site of the Vesuvius eruption. Mount Vesuvius is a volcano near Naples, Italy, whose eruption covered the ancient Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum in volcanic mud. The carbonized document, now known as the Scroll of Herculaneum, is believed to have been recovered from the home of Julius Caesar’s stepfather, according to the University of Kentucky.
The deciphered text contained words written by the philosopher Philodemus. Philodemus appears to have been the philosopher in charge of the library where the scroll was found.
In his deciphered text, Philodemus writes about “pleasure” and considers whether the abundance of things available affects the amount of pleasure. His first sentence says, “As with food, it is hard to believe that something that is scarce can give us infinitely more pleasure than something that is abundant.”
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2024-02-08 06:52:00
