AI Breakthrough Deciphers 2,000-Year-Old Herculaneum Scroll Carbonized by Vesuvius

Villa of the Papyri treasures resurface: AI restores lost works after 2,

UK scientists used AI to "virtually unroll" ancient scrolls charred by Mount Vesuvius nearly 2,000 years ago. UK scientists made a breakthrough in deciphering ancient scrolls charred by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius nearly 2,000 years ago, using artificial intelligence to "virtually unroll" the delicate manuscripts. Researchers at the University of Oxford's Bodleian Libraries and the Vesuvius Challenge deciphered a scroll carbonized by the catastrophic event in 79 CE and are now focusing on translating the revealed text of PHerc. 172. Thanks to a combination of X-ray imaging and artificial intelligence algorithms, experts were able to "virtually unroll" the document without damaging it, marking an advancement in the non-invasive digital restoration of the Herculaneum scrolls. The scroll was placed in a special case and delivered to the Diamond Light Source complex in Oxfordshire, England. There, it was scanned using synchrotron technology, which produces extremely bright beams of light, providing a non-invasive view of the scroll's contents. Once digitally reconstructed, an artificial intelligence system analyzed the images in search of traces of ink, using a neural network to identify patterns in the scan's data. This allowed scientists to trace the scroll's ink and unravel the letters written on PHerc. 172. They think the ink of PHerc. 172 may contain a denser contaminant, potentially lead, that allows the text to be more legible than other Herculaneum scrolls when subjected to X-ray scans. Dr. Brent Seales, a computer scientist at the University of Kentucky, led the charge to adopt X-ray and AI methods for restoring the scrolls and launched the Vesuvius Challenge in 2023, inviting scientists to recover sections of the Herculaneum scrolls. Student programmers Luke Farritor, Egyptian student Youssef Nader, and Swiss student Julian Schilliger won the 2023 Vesuvius Challenge grand prize of $700,000. In October 2023, Farritor and Nader found the ancient Greek word πορφύρας ("purple") on one of the Herculaneum scrolls. Only a few words have been deciphered so far, including the ancient Greek word for "disgust," which appears twice in different columns of text in PHerc. 172. "We need better images, but the team is confident they can further improve the image quality and the readability of the text," said Peter Toth, curator at the Bodleian Library. "An incredible moment in history," said Richard Ovenden, the director of the University Libraries, remarking on the collaboration of librarians, computer scientists, and classical scholars. "The project is a perfect example of libraries, humanities and computer science complementing each other's expertise to understand our common past," he added, according to Gizmodo. The scroll designated PHerc. 172 is one of nearly 2,000 carbonized scrolls and charred papyrus fragments found in the lost Roman town of Herculaneum in 1750, part of the Herculaneum papyri collection burned during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE. The Bodleian Library of the University of Oxford houses several Herculaneum scrolls, including PHerc. 172, which was gifted by Ferdinand IV of Naples and Sicily in the early 19th century. Before the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, a massive collection of scrolls sat in what is known today as the Villa of the Papyri in Herculaneum. It would have been a must-see destination in ancient times, boasting a library of papyri scrolls and extravagant works of art, including frescoes and marble sculptures. Herculaneum, along with nearby Pompeii, was destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE. The heat and volcanic ash from Vesuvius destroyed the city but preserved the parchments, making them unreadable. Scholars and scientists have been searching for ways to decipher the Herculaneum parchments for over 250 years, and efforts to mechanically unroll the excavated scrolls over the years failed and often caused further damage. Experts in ancient history believe that the text could be related to the school of Epicureanism, and Robert Fowler suggested that the author might be the ancient Greek Epicurean philosopher Philodemus. Epicureanism is a philosophy that promotes the pursuit of pleasure through moderation and the appreciation of everyday experiences. The article was written with the assistance of a news analysis system.

AI helps researchers read ancient scroll burned to a crisp in Vesuvius eruption

Writing on PHerc. 172 papyrus, found at Roman mansion in Herculaneum, revealed after 3D X-rays and software competition Researchers have peered inside an ancient scroll that was burned to a crisp in the volcanic eruption that destroyed Pompeii nearly 2,000 years ago. The scroll is one of hundreds found in the library of a Roman mansion in Herculaneum, a town on the west coast of Italy that was wiped out when Mount Vesuvius erupted in AD79. Excavations at the luxury villa, thought to be owned by Julius Caesar's father-in-law, recovered a vast collection of scrolls, but the material was so charred that the black ink was unreadable and the papyri crumbled to dust when researchers tried to open them. The papyrus, known as PHerc. 172, is one of three Herculaneum scrolls housed at the Bodleian libraries. The document was virtually unrolled on a computer, revealing multiple columns of text which scholars at Oxford have now begun to read. One word written in Ancient Greek, διατροπή, meaning disgust, appears twice within a few columns of text, they said. "We are thrilled with the successful imaging of this scroll from the Bodleian Libraries," said Dr Brent Seales, a co-founder of the Vesuvius Challenge, a competition that has spurred dramatic progress in digitally unrolling and reading the scrolls from 3D X-ray images taken at Diamond, the UK's national synchrotron facility in Oxfordshire. "This scroll contains more recoverable text than we have ever seen in a scanned Herculaneum scroll," he added. Last year, Nat Friedman, a US tech executive and founding sponsor of the Vesuvius Challenge, announced that a team of three students, Youssef Nader in Germany, Luke Farritor in the US, and Julian Schilliger in Switzerland, had won the competition's $700,000 (£558,000) grand prize after reading more than 2,000 Greek letters from another Herculaneum scroll. Armed with only 3D X-rays of the works - the burned scrolls are too fragile to handle - the winners developed computer software to virtually unwrap the papyrus. They then used artificial intelligence to detect where ink was present on the papyrus fibres and ultimately read passages of the ancient text. That scroll, thought to have been written by the epicurean philosopher Philodemus, covered sources of pleasure from music to food and explored whether pleasurable experiences arose from the abundant or the scarce, the minor or major constituents of a meal, for example. The Oxford scroll was donated in the 19th century by Ferdinand IV, the king of Naples and Sicily. The ink is more visible in X-rays than that written on other scrolls, suggesting the papyrus was penned in a denser ink. Richard Ovenden, Bodley's Librarian (the head of Oxford's Bodleian Library), said: "It's an incredible moment in history as librarians, computer scientists and scholars of the classical period are collaborating to see the unseen. The astonishing strides forward made with imaging, and AI are enabling us to look inside scrolls that have not been read for almost 2,000 years."

AI Unlocks 2,000-Year-Old Herculaneum Scroll Carbonized by Vesuvius

An method driven by artificial intelligence is making it possible to read texts scorched and left buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE. Researchers at the University of Oxford's Bodleian Libraries and the Vesuvius Challenge have deciphered yet another scroll carbonized by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE. The scrollâ€"designated PHerc. 172â€"is one of nearly 2,000 carbonized scrolls and charred papyrus fragments found in the lost Roman town of Herculaneum in 1750, and one of three now housed at the Libraries. Ferdinand IV of Naples and Sicily gifted it to Oxford in the early 19th century. Like other documents translated as part of the Vesuvius Challengeâ€"a competition that awards cash prizes for translations of the scrolls' textâ€"the documents' now-intelligible wording was made clear with help from artificially intelligent algorithms that make it possible to read the scrolls without painstakingly (and often hazardously) unwrapping them. When Vesuvius erupted, it buried the coastal towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum in ash and volcanic debris. The eruption came as a total surprise to locals, and residents who didn't escape met grisly ends. The area became an archaeological mecca when towns were rediscovered some 1,700 years later. The papyri in the villa of Julius Caesar's father-in-law were carbonized by the eruption's pyroclastic outflow. But residue from the ink on the tightly wrapped documents retained their chemical differences from the rest of the papyrus even in their charred state, and the characters can now be extracted from the documents using cutting-edge software. Experts at the University of Kentucky pioneered this digital unwrapping technique, using X-ray tomography and computer vision to create 3D models of fragile documents, which they then digitally unwrap. A neural network is used to identify patterns in the scan's data that indicate the presence of ink on the papyrus. The challenge recently received a flurry of attention after Luke Farritor, a 23-year-old now working with Elon Musk's team on sensitive federal data, found and translated the first word from an unopened carbonized scroll (the Musk Foundation is a sponsor of the Vesuvius Challenge and has donated over $2 million to the project). Farritor won $40,000 for his individual efforts in October 2023 and was part of a three-person team that won the 2023 grand prize of $700,000. The United Kingdom's Diamond Light Source scanned the scroll in July 2024, and in the intervening six months the scroll's contents was digitally pieced together. So far, the team has detected about the last 26 lines of each column of text; one of the first translated words was the Ancient Greek "διαÏ"Ïοπή," or "disgust," which appears twice in the first columns of text. "It’s an incredible moment in history as librarians, computer scientists and scholars of the classical period are collaborating to see the unseen," said Richard Ovenden, the direct of the University Libraries, in a Bodleian release. "The astonishing strides forward made with imaging and AI are enabling us to look inside scrolls that have not been read for almost 2,000 years. This project is a perfect example of libraries, humanities and computer science complementing each other’s expertise to understand our common past." The core of the papyrusâ€"its innermost contentsâ€"has not yet been deciphered, and the research team is holding out hope that the work's title may be included in that part of the document.

AI gives first tantalising look inside a 2,000- year-old Roman scroll

The scroll was discovered in the town of Herculaneum, a town destroyed in the volcanic eruption that buried neighbouring Pompeii. The contents of a 2,000-year-old burnt scroll from the Roman town of Herculaneum have been seen for the first time with the help of artificial intelligence (AI) and X-ray imaging. The document is one of many scrolls charred by the volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79AD and is too fragile to be physically opened. It comes as part of a project called the Vesuvius Challenge, which is a competition to read ancient scrolls launched in 2023 by Brent Seales, a computer scientist at the University of Kentucky, and Silicon Valley backers. The thick, paper-like material called papyrus cannot be physically opened as it would crumble. The researchers discovered a considerable part of the papyrus and some columns of text. One of the first words to be translated was the Ancient Greek διατροπή meaning 'disgust,' which appears twice within a few columns of text. Efforts are now underway by University of Oxford scholars to interpret more of the text. The scroll was placed inside a synchrotron, a machine that uses electrons to produce a powerful X-ray beam that can look into the scroll without damaging it. The scan creates a 3D reconstruction and then the AI looks for the ink, which then digitally appears. The AI works like 18th-century copyists, replicating what it sees. " This scroll contains more recoverable text than we have ever seen in a scanned Herculaneum scroll," Seales, Co-Founder of Vesuvius Challenge and Principal Investigator of EduceLab said in a statement. "Despite these exciting results, much work remains to improve our software methods so that we can read the entirety of this and the other Herculaneum scrolls," he added. Hundreds of carbonised scrolls were discovered in Herculaneum, buried under volcanic ash. The University of Oxford's Bodleian Library holds several of the scrolls. "It's an incredible moment in history as librarians, computer scientists and scholars of the classical period are collaborating to see the unseen," Richard Ovenden, Bodley's Librarian and Helen Hamlyn Director of the University Libraries, said.

AI and scientists unite to decipher old scrolls charred by the Vesuvius volcano

Scientists hope a mix of artificial intelligence and human expertise will help decipher ancient scrolls carbonized by a volcanic eruption 2,000 years ago. Hundreds of papyrus scrolls were found in the 1750s amid the remains of a lavish villa at the Roman town of Herculaneum, which along with neighboring Pompeii was destroyed when Mt. Vesuvius erupted in A.D. 79. The library of what's called the Villa of the Papyri has the potential to add immeasurably to knowledge of ancient thought if the scrolls, which have been rolled up into the size of a candy bar, could be read. The heat and volcanic ash from Vesuvius destroyed the town and preserved the scrolls, but in an unreadable state, turning them into charred fragile blocks that disintegrate if unrolled physically. Scholars and scientists have worked for more than 250 years on ways to decipher the scrolls, the vast majority of which are held in the National Library of Naples. In 2023, several tech executives sponsored the "Vesuvius Challenge" competition, offering cash rewards for efforts to decipher the scrolls with machine learning, computer vision and geometry. On Wednesday, the challenge announced a "historic breakthrough," saying researchers had managed to generate the first image of the inside of one of the three scrolls held at Oxford University's Bodleian Library. University of Kentucky computer scientist Brent Seales, co-founder of the Vesuvius Challenge, said the organizers were "thrilled with the successful imaging of this scroll." He said it "contains more recoverable text than we have ever seen in a scanned Herculaneum scroll." The scroll was scanned by Diamond Light Source, a lab at Harwell, near Oxford, that uses a particle accelerator known as a synchrotron to create an intensely powerful X-ray. Scientists then used AI to piece together the images, search for ink that reveals where there is writing, and enhance the clarity of the text. The process led to a 3D image of the scroll that allowed experts to unroll it virtually, using a process called segmentation. AI, as it stands, has its limits. Little of the text has been deciphered so far. One of the few words that has been made out is the ancient Greek for "disgust." Scholars are being encouraged to join in the effort to complete the text. "We are still at the beginning of a long process," Peter Toth, the Cornelia Starks Curator of Greek Collections at the Bodleian, told The Associated Press. "We need better images, and they are very positive and very, very confident that they can still improve the image quality and the legibility of the text." Toth also laid out his hope that the technology can be made available locally so that the other two fragile scrolls won't have to be transported to Diamond's headquarters. "Maybe there will be something which can be moved," he said. "And then don't forget that there is like 1000 more scrolls in Naples." © 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

Lost words of 2,000-year-old volcano-charred scroll revealed using AI

However, a major breakthrough has been made, allowing experts to begin reading the texts and bringing them closer to unlocking the secrets of the past. The Herculaneum scrolls, stored in a mansion in the ancient Roman town of Herculaneum, were found among the ruins in the mid-18th century. These scrolls, completely charred from the eruption of Vesuvius, have fascinated researchers ever since. Despite numerous attempts to recover the texts over the years -- using methods like rose water, mercury, and even papyrus juice -- most of the scrolls remained unreadable. For more than 200 years, scholars believed that the majority of these scrolls were irreversibly damaged. However, with advancements in technology, including artificial intelligence, X-ray, and CT scans, some words from the scrolls were recently deciphered. The breakthrough is attributed to a more refined method of digital unrolling that promises to uncover much more. On Wednesday, researchers involved in the Vesuvius Challenge, a competition offering prizes for advancements in unrolling the delicate scrolls, announced that they had virtually "unwrapped" one of the ancient scrolls -- PHerc. 172. This scroll, one of three at the University of Oxford's Bodleian Libraries, has yielded more text than any previously scanned scroll.

'Incredible moment in history:' Particle accelerator and AI offer first peek inside 2,000-year-old Herculaneum scroll

The Herculaneum scroll was buried by Mount Vesuvius' eruption 2,000 years ago. (Image credit: Vesuvius Challenge) A Herculaneum scroll buried by Mount Vesuvius' eruption almost 2,000 years ago is finally legible, now that researchers have used artificial intelligence (AI) and a particle accelerator to peer inside the charred artifact. While the majority of the ancient Greek text is still undeciphered, researchers have identified the words for "foolish" (ἀδιάληπτος), "fear" (φοβ), "disgust" (διατροπή) and "life" (βίου). The team hopes to put these words into context as they analyze the rest of the scroll's contents. The scroll, named scroll PHerc. 172, is one of many that survived the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79. The eruption spat out a pyroclastic flow of volcanic ash, toxic gases and other materials that killed nearly 2,000 people in the ancient Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum while burying thousands of artifacts, including the scrolls. The scrolls were burned and then carbonized in the eruption's aftermath. Today, they are blackened, charred and far too fragile to open, so researchers are using technology to unlock their contents. A team of librarians, computer scientists and scholars announced on Wednesday (Feb. 5) that they had successfully recovered text from PHerc. 172, which is held at the University of Oxford's Bodleian Libraries. Researchers used a synchrotron -- a kind of particle accelerator -- to produce high-resolution X-ray images of the scroll and AI to detect ink on its pages. "It's an incredible moment in history as librarians, computer scientists and scholars of the classical period are collaborating to see the unseen," Richard Ovenden, head of gardens, libraries and museums at the University of Oxford, said in the statement. "The astonishing strides forward made with imaging and AI are enabling us to look inside scrolls that have not been read for almost 2,000 years." Related: 1,900-year-old papyrus 'best-documented Roman court case from Judaea apart from the trial of Jesus' Archeologists excavated the scrolls in Herculaneum in the 1750s. In the early 19th century, Ferdinand IV (who lived from 1751 to 1825), king of Naples and Sicily, later gifted PHerc. 172 and five other scrolls to the then future king of the U.K., George IV, who went on to rule between 1820 and 1830. Ferdinand reportedly gave the scrolls to George in exchange for kangaroos. In 2024, researchers scanned PHerc. 172 in the U.K.'s national synchrotron research lab, Diamond Light Source. The synchrotron accelerates electrons to almost the speed of light, producing intense light that is 10 billion times brighter than the sun, according to Diamond Light Source. Because the light is mainly in the X-ray part of the electromagnetic spectrum, the synchrotron acts like an X-ray machine, only 100 billion times brighter than a standard hospital X-ray machine. Bodleian Libraries teamed up with computer scientists at Vesuvius Challenge, an AI-based competition for deciphering Herculaneum scrolls, which used AI to enhance the clarity of the text revealed in the synchrotron scans, according to the statement. So far, the words decoded point to philosopher and poet Philodemus of Gadara (who lived from around 110 to 30 B.C.). The handwriting in PHerc. 172 is similar to other scrolls attributed to Philodemus and the word "foolish" is characteristic of his work, according to Vesuvius Challenge. Vesuvius Challenge's machine learning tool can detect ink but doesn't understand language or recognize characters like ChatGPT and other large language models. Thus, humans still have to work through ink strokes that the tool finds to decipher the ancient texts within the scroll. "This scroll contains more recoverable text than we have ever seen in a scanned Herculaneum scroll," Vesuvius Challenge co-founder Brent Seales said in the statement. "Despite these exciting results, much work remains to improve our software methods so that we can read the entirety of this and the other Herculaneum scrolls." In 2023, a Vesuvius Challenge contestant used AI to become the first person to identify a word and several letters from a Herculaneum scroll scorched and buried by the Mount Vesuvius eruption. The word, from another scroll, was πορφύραc in ancient Greek, which means "purple dye" or "clothes of purple."

AI and scientists unite to decipher old scrolls charred by the Vesuvius volcano

LONDON -- Scientists hope a mix of artificial intelligence and human expertise will help decipher ancient scrolls carbonized by a volcanic eruption 2,000 years ago. Hundreds of papyrus scrolls were found in the 1750s amid the remains of a lavish villa at the Roman town of Herculaneum, which along with neighboring Pompeii was destroyed when Mt. Vesuvius erupted in A.D. 79. The library of what's called the Villa of the Papyri has the potential to add immeasurably to knowledge of ancient thought if the scrolls, which have been rolled up into the size of a candy bar, could be read. The heat and volcanic ash from Vesuvius destroyed the town and preserved the scrolls, but in an unreadable state, turning them into charred fragile blocks that disintegrate if unrolled physically. Scholars and scientists have worked for more than 250 years on ways to decipher the scrolls, the vast majority of which are held in the National Library of Naples. In 2023, several tech executives sponsored the "Vesuvius Challenge" competition, offering cash rewards for efforts to decipher the scrolls with machine learning, computer vision and geometry. On Wednesday, the challenge announced a "historic breakthrough," saying researchers had managed to generate the first image of the inside of one of the three scrolls held at Oxford University's Bodleian Library. University of Kentucky computer scientist Brent Seales, co-founder of the Vesuvius Challenge, said the organizers were "thrilled with the successful imaging of this scroll." He said it "contains more recoverable text than we have ever seen in a scanned Herculaneum scroll." The scroll was scanned by Diamond Light Source, a lab at Harwell, near Oxford, that uses a particle accelerator known as a synchrotron to create an intensely powerful X-ray. Scientists then used AI to piece together the images, search for ink that reveals where there is writing, and enhance the clarity of the text. The process led to a 3D image of the scroll that allowed experts to unroll it virtually, using a process called segmentation. AI, as it stands, has its limits. Little of the text has been deciphered so far. One of the few words that has been made out is the ancient Greek for "disgust." Scholars are being encouraged to join in the effort to complete the text. "We are still at the beginning of a long process," Peter Toth, the Cornelia Starks Curator of Greek Collections at the Bodleian, told The Associated Press. "We need better images, and they are very positive and very, very confident that they can still improve the image quality and the legibility of the text." Toth also laid out his hope that the technology can be made available locally so that the other two fragile scrolls won't have to be transported to Diamond's headquarters. "Maybe there will be something which can be moved," he said. "And then don't forget that there is like 1000 more scrolls in Naples." -- Havovi Todd of AP Television News contributed to this report.

AI and scientists unite to decipher old scrolls charred by the Vesuvius volcano

LONDON (AP) -- Scientists hope a mix of artificial intelligence and human expertise will help decipher ancient scrolls carbonized by a volcanic eruption 2,000 years ago. Hundreds of papyrus scrolls were found in the 1750s amid the remains of a lavish villa at the Roman town of Herculaneum, which along with neighboring Pompeii was destroyed when Mt. Vesuvius erupted in A.D. 79. The library of what's called the Villa of the Papyri has the potential to add immeasurably to knowledge of ancient thought if the scrolls, which have been rolled up into the size of a candy bar, could be read. The heat and volcanic ash from Vesuvius destroyed the town and preserved the scrolls, but in an unreadable state, turning them into charred fragile blocks that disintegrate if unrolled physically. Scholars and scientists have worked for more than 250 years on ways to decipher the scrolls, the vast majority of which are held in the National Library of Naples. In 2023, several tech executives sponsored the "Vesuvius Challenge" competition, offering cash rewards for efforts to decipher the scrolls with machine learning, computer vision and geometry. On Wednesday, the challenge announced a "historic breakthrough," saying researchers had managed to generate the first image of the inside of one of the three scrolls held at Oxford University's Bodleian Library. University of Kentucky computer scientist Brent Seales, co-founder of the Vesuvius Challenge, said the organizers were "thrilled with the successful imaging of this scroll." He said it "contains more recoverable text than we have ever seen in a scanned Herculaneum scroll." The scroll was scanned by Diamond Light Source, a lab at Harwell, near Oxford, that uses a particle accelerator known as a synchrotron to create an intensely powerful X-ray. Scientists then used AI to piece together the images, search for ink that reveals where there is writing, and enhance the clarity of the text. The process led to a 3D image of the scroll that allowed experts to unroll it virtually, using a process called segmentation. AI, as it stands, has its limits. Little of the text has been deciphered so far. One of the few words that has been made out is the ancient Greek for "disgust." Scholars are being encouraged to join in the effort to complete the text. "We are still at the beginning of a long process," Peter Toth, the Cornelia Starks Curator of Greek Collections at the Bodleian, told The Associated Press. "We need better images, and they are very positive and very, very confident that they can still improve the image quality and the legibility of the text." Toth also laid out his hope that the technology can be made available locally so that the other two fragile scrolls won't have to be transported to Diamond's headquarters. "Maybe there will be something which can be moved," he said. "And then don't forget that there is like 1000 more scrolls in Naples." -- Havovi Todd of AP Television News contributed to this report.

Volcano-scorched Roman scroll is read for the first time in 2000 years

A papyrus scroll carbonised by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius two millennia ago is slowly being read once again thanks to X-ray imaging and machine learning An ancient Roman scroll has been read for the first time since it was charred in the volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius two millennia ago, thanks to artificial intelligence and a high-powered X-ray facility. The papyrus scroll was one of 1800 rescued from a single room in an ornate villa in the Roman town of Herculaneum during the 1750s, which is now the Italian town of Ercolano. All of them were carbonised by the heat of the volcanic debris that buried them. Initially, locals unknowingly burned the scrolls as firewood, but once it was discovered that they contained text, they were saved. Around 200 have since been painstakingly opened and read by mechanical devices based on clocks, which slowly tick and prise the scrolls open millimetre by millimetre. Three of these scrolls are kept at the University of Oxford's Bodleian Library, having been gifted by King George III in 1804. The king had traded a group of kangaroos to King Ferdinand IV of Naples in exchange for the scrolls. The Neapolitan king was constructing an elaborate garden and a collection of animals for his lover. One of these three scrolls, known as PHerc. 172, has now been imaged and analysed using machine learning algorithms. It was scanned at Diamond Light Source in Oxfordshire, home to an extremely high-powered X-ray machine known as a synchrotron, and the resulting data was made available to participants in the Vesuvius Challenge - a competition with a $700,000 grand prize for interpreting text from scrolls. This method is much better than trying to open the scrolls mechanically, says Peter Toth, a curator at the Bodleian Library. "The only problem, or risk, is that the imaging is so special that it cannot be done here, which means that the scroll had to leave the premises. And we were very, very nervous about that," he says. Researchers have so far revealed several columns of text, with about 26 lines in each column. Academics are now hoping to read the whole scroll, but can already make out the Ancient Greek word διατροπή, meaning "disgust." Toth suspects that it will relate in some way to the philosopher Epicurus, as so many of the other scrolls found at the same site have. PHerc. 172 was the only one of the three scrolls at the Bodleian Library deemed stable enough to travel, and then only in a specially 3D-printed case inside another padded box. "The hope is that the technology can improve so much [in the future] that the items do not have to travel anywhere, but the technology can come to us," says Toth.

Herculaneum scrolls breakthrough: Scientists digitally "unroll" 2,000-year-old scroll scorched by Mount Vesuvius

London -- The Herculaneum scrolls have remained one of the many tantalizing mysteries of the ancient world for almost 2,000 years. Burnt to a crisp by lava from Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79, the reams of rolled-up papyrus were discovered in a mansion in Herculaneum -- an ancient Roman town near Pompeii -- in the mid-18th century. Both towns were decimated by the Vesuvius eruption, and most of the scrolls were so badly charred they were impossible to open. Over the next two and a half centuries, attempts were made to unfurl some of the hundreds of scrolls using everything from rose water and mercury to vegetable gas and papyrus juice, according to the New Yorker. The few that could be opened were philosophical texts written in ancient Greek. But most of the scrolls were so badly damaged, they were considered illegible. More recently, researchers managed to decipher some select words using artificial intelligence, X-ray and CT scans to distinguish ink from the papyrus it was printed on. The mystery is still unravelling, and on Wednesday, a major breakthrough was announced. Researchers say they've now managed to digitally unroll and start reading one of the ancient scrolls. The scroll in question, known as PHerc. 172, is one of three stored at the University of Oxford's Bodleian Libraries in England. A team involved in the Vesuvius Challenge, a competition offering prize money to anyone who can help unlock the delicate scrolls, says it has virtually unwrapped the papyrus to reveal columns of text that Oxford scholars have already started working to decipher. "This scroll contains more recoverable text than we have ever seen in a scanned Herculaneum scroll," said Brent Seales, one of the co-founders of the challenge. "We're confident we will be able to read pretty much the whole scroll in its entirety, and it's the first time we've really been able to say that with high confidence," project lead Stephen Parsons told CBS News' partner network BBC News. "Now we can work on making it show up more clearly. We're going to go from a handful of words to really substantial passages." The breakthrough came when the team at the Bodleian Libraries brought the blackened scroll to the Diamond Light Source research facility in nearby Oxfordshire, where technicians used a massive machine called a synchrotron to create a powerful X-ray beam that was able to peer into the fragile relic without damaging it. "It can see things on the scale of a few thousandths of a millimeter," Adrian Mancuso, the facility's director of physical sciences, told the BBC. "We have to work out which layer is different from the next layer so we can unroll that digitally." Last year, the Vesuvius Challenge announced that three young students had won its $700,000 grand prize for using AI to help researchers read about 5% of another scroll, the subject of which was Greek Epicurean philosophy. The scroll that the team at the Bodleian Libraries recently unfurled is assumed to be on the same subject. "I just love that connection with whoever collected them, whoever wrote them, whoever rolled those scrolls up and put them on the shelves," Nicole Gilroy, head of book conservation at the Bodleian Libraries, told the BBC. "There's a real human aspect to it that I just think is really precious."

These ancient scrolls were charred by a volcano - are they now revealing their secrets?

UK scientists say they have made a historic breakthrough in their efforts to decipher 2000-year-old papyrus scrolls that were burned when Mount Vesuvius erupted. Ancient scrolls charred by a volcanic eruption 2,000 years ago may finally be starting to reveal their secrets. UK scientists say they have made a historic breakthrough in their efforts to decipher the artefacts - with the assistance of AI. Hundreds of papyrus scrolls were found in the 1750s in the remains of a lavish villa at the Roman town of Herculaneum, which along with nearby Pompeii was destroyed when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79AD. While the heat and ash from the volcano was catastrophic for the town, it preserved the scrolls - though in an unreadable state. Scholars and scientists have been working for more than 250 years on ways to decipher the scrolls, which are too fragile to be unrolled physically. In 2023, several tech executives sponsored the "Vesuvius Challenge" competition, offering cash prizes for efforts to decipher the scrolls with technology. On Wednesday, the challenge announced a "historic breakthrough," saying researchers had managed to generate the first image of the inside of one of the three scrolls held at Oxford University's Bodleian Library. University of Kentucky computer scientist Brent Seales, co-founder of the challenge, said the organisers were "thrilled with the successful imaging of this scroll", saying it "contains more recoverable text than we have ever seen in a scanned Herculaneum scroll". Read more from Sky News: 'We are no longer living in peacetime': Germany's race to be ready for war Ozzy Osbourne to reunite with Black Sabbath The scroll was scanned by Diamond Light Source, a lab in Harwell, near Oxford, by using a particle accelerator known as a synchrotron to create an intensely powerful X-ray. AI was then used to piece together the images, searching for ink that reveals where writing is located. A 3D image of the scroll can then be formulated that allows experts to unroll it virtually. Little of the text has been deciphered so far. One of the few words that has been made out is the ancient Greek for "disgust". Peter Toth, a curator at the Bodleian Library, said: "We need better images, and they are very positive and very, very confident that they can still improve the image quality and the legibility of the text. "And then don't forget that there is like 1,000 more scrolls in Naples."

AI and Scientists Unite to Decipher Old Scrolls Charred by the Vesuvius Volcano

This undated image made available by Vesuvius Challenge shows a papyrus scroll as one of hundreds of papyrus scrolls found amid the remains of a lavish villa at the Roman town of Herculaneum, which along with neighboring Pompeii was destroyed when Mt. Vesuvius erupted in A.D. 79. (Vesuvius Challenge via AP) LONDON (AP) -- Scientists hope a mix of artificial intelligence and human expertise will help decipher ancient scrolls carbonized by a volcanic eruption 2,000 years ago. Hundreds of papyrus scrolls were found in the 1750s amid the remains of a lavish villa at the Roman town of Herculaneum, which along with neighboring Pompeii was destroyed when Mt. Vesuvius erupted in A.D. 79. The library of what's called the Villa of the Papyri has the potential to add immeasurably to knowledge of ancient thought if the scrolls, which have been rolled up into the size of a candy bar, could be read. The heat and volcanic ash from Vesuvius destroyed the town and preserved the scrolls, but in an unreadable state, turning them into charred fragile blocks that disintegrate if unrolled physically. Scholars and scientists have worked for more than 250 years on ways to decipher the scrolls, the vast majority of which are held in the National Library of Naples. In 2023, several tech executives sponsored the "Vesuvius Challenge" competition, offering cash rewards for efforts to decipher the scrolls with machine learning, computer vision and geometry. On Wednesday, the challenge announced a "historic breakthrough," saying researchers had managed to generate the first image of the inside of one of the three scrolls held at Oxford University's Bodleian Library. University of Kentucky computer scientist Brent Seales, co-founder of the Vesuvius Challenge, said the organizers were "thrilled with the successful imaging of this scroll." He said it "contains more recoverable text than we have ever seen in a scanned Herculaneum scroll." The scroll was scanned by Diamond Light Source, a lab at Harwell, near Oxford, that uses a particle accelerator known as a synchrotron to create an intensely powerful X-ray. Scientists then used AI to piece together the images, search for ink that reveals where there is writing, and enhance the clarity of the text. The process led to a 3D image of the scroll that allowed experts to unroll it virtually, using a process called segmentation. AI, as it stands, has its limits. Little of the text has been deciphered so far. One of the few words that has been made out is the ancient Greek for "disgust." Scholars are being encouraged to join in the effort to complete the text. "We are still at the beginning of a long process," Peter Toth, the Cornelia Starks Curator of Greek Collections at the Bodleian, told The Associated Press. "We need better images, and they are very positive and very, very confident that they can still improve the image quality and the legibility of the text." Toth also laid out his hope that the technology can be made available locally so that the other two fragile scrolls won't have to be transported to Diamond's headquarters. "Maybe there will be something which can be moved," he said. "And then don't forget that there is like 1000 more scrolls in Naples." -- Havovi Todd of AP Television News contributed to this report. Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Scientists look inside burnt scroll for first time in 2,000 years

Scientists have been able to read a badly burnt ancient Roman scroll for the first time in 2,000 years. The scroll was found in the Roman town of Herculaneum and was burnt by the volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79AD, making it too fragile to ever be physically opened. But now, scientists have used a combination of X-ray scans and artificial intelligence to open it 'virtually', revealing its hidden text. The scientists say that more time and work are needed to be able to read the scroll properly, but that the results so far have been very exciting.

First glimpse inside burnt scroll after 2,000 years

A badly burnt scroll from the Roman town of Herculaneum has been digitally "unwrapped", providing the first look inside for 2,000 years. The document, which looks like a lump of charcoal, was charred by the volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79AD and is too fragile to ever be physically opened. But now scientists have used a combination of X-ray imaging and artificial intelligence to virtually unfurl it, revealing rows and columns of text. More work is needed to make the scroll fully legible to decipher its contents, but the team behind the project say the results are very promising.