AI software reads entire text from carbonised Herculaneum scroll

Researchers have recovered the full surviving text from a carbonised papyrus scroll using 3D scans and AI software without physically unrolling it. The scroll comes from the library at Herculaneum, which was buried by the AD 79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius along with Pompeii.

The scroll had been examined by scholars since its discovery in 1752. Earlier physical attempts to open it left only fragments readable, and the ink is nearly indistinguishable from the charred material to human eyes.

Digital unwrapping process Since 2023, the Vesuvius Challenge project has scanned dozens of scrolls with particle accelerators and released the data for an online community to develop AI tools. The software digitally unwraps the scrolls and detects ink at resolutions down to 2 micrometres.

The newly readable section spans 22 columns across 1.5 metres of text from a 2-centimetre-wide core. The text discusses ethics, art and human nature and references Stoic doctrine.

Content and authorship The scroll mentions the nephew of the Greek Stoic philosopher Chrysippus, making him the most likely author according to Federica Nicolardi at the University of Naples Federico II. Another scroll from the same collection has been identified as On Gods, Book 8 by the Epicurean philosopher Philodemus.

Brent Seales at the University of Kentucky said the AI models are currently adapted to individual scrolls but could eventually read any scroll in the collection once trained on more examples. Nicholas Freer at the University of Newcastle said the techniques could transform understanding of ancient worlds because hundreds of scrolls remain unopened.