Herculaneum buried under a layer of ash
In 79 AD, the eruption of Vesuvius buried the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum under a layer of ash and rock. In the latter town, in a luxurious villa called the Villa of the Papyruses, there was the only known, preserved library from ancient times.
More than 1,800 papyrus scrolls were suddenly burned and preserved in this special way under extreme conditions. Unfortunately, over the centuries, attempts to develop and read them have most often ended in complete destruction. Delicate, charred layers crumbled into dust, and priceless texts were lost forever.
Scientists have recreated the process of burning the scrolls
To develop an effective reading method, a team of researchers decided to recreate the process that affected ancient scrolls. Douglas Seiler, a Berkeley SETI collaborator, used authentic papyrus and traditional writing tools, reed pens from Egypt, and traditionally made ink from Japan. The papyrus contains fragments of the Bible, quotes from "Star Wars" and classic science-fiction series.
The scrolls were then rolled up and exposed to high temperatures in an almost oxygen-free atmosphere, which led to their charring, in a manner analogous to what happened at Herculaneum. Model scrolls, created today based on the ancient ones, allow testing and improving algorithms without the risk of damaging priceless artifacts.
This makes the letters visible
The discovery of the significance of the presence of lead in ancient inks turned out to be crucial. Researchers have shown that even minimal amounts of this element make the letters perfectly visible in X-ray tomography. Lead absorbs X-ray radiation 25 times more strongly than charred papyrus, thanks to which texts written in such ink stand out clearly from the background.
In practice, this means that rolls containing lead-based ink can be virtually "unrolled" and read with the help of artificial intelligence without the risk of destruction. Additionally, the researchers demonstrated that a portable X-ray fluorescence scanner could easily detect the presence of lead in a charred scroll, allowing them to quickly identify items worth further testing.
What was the first word read?
To date, only a few of the Herculaneum scrolls have been virtually unrolled and read, and none of them have previously been tested for the presence of lead in the ink. Previous attempts to unroll the scrolls, undertaken since their discovery in 1752, most often ended in their destruction. The texts already read include previously unknown works by the Epicurean philosopher Philodemos, who lived in Herculaneum shortly before the eruption of Vesuvius.
In 2023, the international Vesuvius Challenge competition was initiated, the aim of which was to read fragments of texts from virtually unfolded scrolls. The main prize of $700,000 attracted scientists and enthusiasts from all over the world.
After just five months, with the help of AI, the first word was deciphered - "πορφύραc" (purple). In the following years, AI allowed the reading of entire columns of text, including previously unknown epicurean philosophical treatises and commentaries on Stoic philosophy.
A real treasure for science
This year, a team led by Brent Seales managed to decipher fragments of the PHerc scroll. 1667, which had previously been nearly destroyed during development attempts. The discovered text turned out to be a commentary on Stoic philosophy and may date back to the 2nd or 3rd century BC, making it one of the oldest surviving scrolls from Herculaneum.
As Leah Packard-Grams, a papyrologist from Berkeley, emphasizes, the ability to read authentic words written by ancient people is an extraordinary experience. Working on papyri from Tebtunis, preserved thanks to the dry sands of Egypt, allows you to learn about everyday life from thousands of years ago. However, in her opinion, it is the scrolls from Herculaneum, frozen in time by the catastrophe, that constitute a real treasure for science and are a testimony to the intellectual life of the Roman elites.
