Ancient Wisdom, Modern Science: Scroll from Herculaneum is Read from Within
Some of the finds from the cities destroyed in the eruption of Vesuvius are ruined beyond restoration. Much was preserved but the destruction was immense, and the greater part of the contents of the houses were lost.
Where they survive they are heavily damaged, and so it is with a charred scroll from Herculaneum, far too delicate to ever open. However, according to a report from the BBC a team using a combination of X-ray imaging and AI may have been able to read it without unfurling it.
From the outside the scroll looks like a lump of charcoal. However enough is preserved of the internal contents to allow modern science to peer inside and see what is written.
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The scroll, which would be some 10 meters long when fully unfurled, is scanned with a synchrotron. This machine projects a powerful X-ray beam onto and through the scroll, creating a 3D model of the entire object.
The machine is able to detect differences as tiny as a few thousands of a millimeter, enough resolution to detect the different layers of the papyrus. The 3D model therefore would, in theory, be able to virtually unravel the papyrus.
After this the virtual surface is scanned using algorithms designed to search for tiny clues which separate ink from papyrus. The two substances are almost indistinguishable and the work is painstaking.
Much remains to be done to decipher the full text, but from what has been seen to date researchers believe it could be a work of philosophy.
However this new technique has ramifications far beyond the contents of a single scroll. Hundreds of such papyrus documents have been found at Herculaneum. There have been a few attempts to lever one or another of them open over the years, but this has never been successful and they have mostly been cast aside.
The Bodleian Library in Oxford holds several examples, and they are seen mostly as curios, unable to be read. However who knows what secrets will lie inside these burnt scrolls now modern science has cracked a way to read them.
Header Image: The virtually unfurled papyrus and scanned by an Artificial Intelligence algorithm, and letters start to become visible. Source: Vesuvius Challenge / BBC.
