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2d ago

AI Deciphers Title and Author of Ancient Herculaneum Scroll for the First Time

Researchers identify Philodemus’s 'On Vices' from a sealed, carbonized scroll using advanced X-ray imaging and machine learning.

The scroll was digitally unwrapped to reveal writing, which researchers are working to decode.
PHerc. 172 was burned nearly 2,000 years ago, when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD.
Title revealed on PHerc. 172 using ink detection model
A scan of the inside of PHerc. 172, which cannot be physically unrolled or it could be damaged.

Overview

  • The scroll, PHerc. 172, was virtually unwrapped to reveal its title and author nearly 2,000 years after being buried in the AD 79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius.
  • The text was identified as 'On Vices,' a philosophical work by the Epicurean thinker Philodemus, marking the first time such details have been extracted from a sealed scroll.
  • The breakthrough was achieved through high-resolution X-ray scans and AI models originally designed for medical imaging, detecting faint traces of carbon-based ink.
  • The discovery earned researchers from the University of Würzburg and the Vesuvius Challenge team a $60,000 prize for identifying the first title and author from the Herculaneum scrolls.
  • Efforts to scan and analyze dozens more scrolls are underway, with researchers aiming to systematically recover texts from one of antiquity’s few surviving libraries.