AI Deciphers 2,000-Year-Old Vesuvius Scroll, Revealing Lost Greek Philosophical Work

AI reveals title of 'unreadable' Vesuvius scroll for first time

Two researchers in the field of machine learning have won US$60,000 for being the first to reveal the title and author of a sealed papyrus scroll carbonized by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in Italy in AD 79. The crucial lines identify the work as part of On Vices by the Greek philosopher Philodemus. Winners Marcel Roth, a student at Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg in Germany, and Micha Nowak at Gray Swan AI, an Internet-security company based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, adapted an artificial intelligence (AI) model normally used for analysing medical images to decipher the text. The work is a milestone in efforts to read a cache of ancient scrolls found in the ruins of the ancient Roman town of Herculaneum, says Kenneth Lapatin, curator of antiquities at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, California. The rolled-up papyrus scripts were discovered in 1752 in an ancient Roman villa. Hundreds of intact Herculaneum scrolls survive, but are too fragile to open. Roth and Nowak were announced as the winners of the First Title Prize on 6 May. The award is part of the Vesuvius Challenge, a competition set up in 2023 that offers huge cash prizes for the development of AI models that can spot ink in high-resolution computed tomography scans of the scrolls. The duo worked on a scroll that is held at the Bodleian Libraries at the University of Oxford, UK, and was scanned at the nearby Diamond Light Source particle accelerator last year. Roth and Nowak trained their AI model by painstakingly annotating ink visible on the scans by hand, labelling areas as ink or not ink. After many rounds of training, the model was able to pick out ink that isn't visible to the human eye, resulting in clearly legible images of the manuscript's title. It's no surprise that the work is by Philodemus, says Lapatin; many scholars think the scrolls were once part of his personal library. The newly revealed work seems to be Book 1 of his On Vices series, although this is yet to be confirmed. In addition to containing Greek words that translate to 'confusion', 'fear' and 'disgust', it mentions perfume and barbers' shops, probably as part of a metaphor or anecdote. Vesuvius Challenge judge Michael McOsker, a papyrologist at University College London, is confident researchers will soon be reading the whole scroll. "The pace of work is really astounding," he says.

AI Identifies Author of Charred Scroll Buried by Vesuvius for 2,000 Years

A sealed Herculaneum scroll yields its secretsâ€"revealing a lost philosophical treatise by Philodemus through virtual unwrapping. For the first time, researchers have identified the author and title of a document that’s been locked inside a charred scroll for nearly 2,000 yearsâ€"without peeling back a single layer. The scroll, PHerc. 172, was recovered from the ruins of Herculaneum, the ancient Roman town buried by the ash and debris of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE. The scroll is one of three Herculaneum scrolls that now reside at Oxford's Bodleian Libraries. Thanks to high-resolution scans and some seriously clever machine learning, scholars were able to virtually “unwrap†the papyrus and read the name inside: On Vices, by the Epicurean philosopher Philodemus. The treatiseâ€"its full name being On Vices and Their Opposite Virtues and In Whom They Are and About What, according to Fine Books Magazine, is basically ancient self-help, exploring how to live a virtuous life by avoiding vice. Philodemus wrote the work in the first century BCE and it is now being read for the first time since it was buried in the devastating volcanic eruption nearly 2,000 years ago. The discoveryâ€"confirmed by multiple research teamsâ€"earned the project’s collaborators the $60,000 First Title Prize from the Vesuvius Challenge, an open-science competition that’s been making ancient texts readable using AI. In recent years, artificial intelligence has been instrumental in deciphering the ancient, carbonized scrolls from Herculaneum, a Roman town buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79. These scrolls, first discovered in the 18th century in what is now known as the Villa of the Papyri, comprise one of the only surviving libraries from the classical world. Due to their fragile, charred condition, traditional (read: manual) methods of unrolling the scrolls often destroyed them. Now, researchers are using advanced imaging and machine learning to read these texts without ever opening them. The turning point came in 2015, when scientists used X-ray tomography to read a different ancient scroll from En-Gedi, creating a 3D scan that could be virtually “unwrapped.†Building on this, researchers at the University of Kentucky developed the Volume Cartographer, a program that uses micro-CT imaging to detect the faint traces of carbon-based ink on the scrolls. Because the ink contains no metal, unlike many ancient writing materials, a neural network had to be trained to recognize subtle patterns indicating ink on the carbonized papyrus. In 2019, researchers successfully demonstrated this technique, setting the stage for broader applications. These breakthroughs culminated in the Vesuvius Challenge, launched in 2023 to crowdsource the decoding of unopened scrolls. Participants use AI toolsâ€"particularly convolutional neural networks and transformer modelsâ€"to identify and reconstruct text within the scrolls. In October 2023, the first word (“purpleâ€) was read from an unopened scroll, earning a $40,000 prize. The challenge continues, with prizes offered for deciphering additional text and improving the technology. Brent Seales, a computer scientist at the University of Kentucky and co-founder of the Vesuvius Challenge, told The Guardian that the team's current bottleneck is cleaning, organizing, and enhancing the scan data so that researchers can actually interpret the carbonized ink as text. Importantly, the digital unwrapping process is guided by human expertise. AI highlights likely areas of ink on the ancient documents, but scholars interpret the patterns to determine if they form coherent words or phrases. The goal is not only to recover lost philosophical texts, many of which are possibly by Epicurus or his followers, but also to establish a scalable system for digitizing and decoding ancient textsâ€"transforming our understanding of the classical world.

AI decodes 2,000-year-old Greek scroll's secrets without opening it

The scroll was scanned in July at Diamond Light Source, the UK's national synchrotron facility in Oxfordshire. Unusually, traces of ink appeared in the X-ray images, enabling researchers to identify the text. Now part of the Vesuvius Challenge -- a global initiative launched in 2023 to read the carbonized texts without physically unrolling them -- an Italian farmer discovered the scrolls in the 18th century from a villa believed to be once owned by the father-in-law of Julius Caesar, preserved under layers of mud and ash. For centuries, scholars struggled to read these scrolls, which were so badly burned that they disintegrated when researchers attempted to unroll them, and the ink was invisible on the carbonized papyrus. Scientists have deployed several methods, including chemicals and even gases, but these methods have often damaged or destroyed the ancient texts. Now, technological advances have made it possible to read their contents without causing further damage. Photograph of PHerc. 172 (Bodleian Libraries, Oxford University) Using high-resolution scans and AI analysis, graduate students Marcel Roth and Michał Nowak from the University of Würzburg, along with Vesuvius Challenge researcher Sean Johnson, deciphered the scroll's author as Philodemus and the title as On Vices -- a breakthrough later confirmed by a team of papyrology experts.

AI decodes 2,000-year-old burned, still-rolled scroll: Reveals title and author after centuries

In a remarkable confluence of classical scholarship and modern innovation, researchers have finally uncovered the author and title of a charred scroll that lay unread for nearly 2,000 years. Buried beneath the volcanic fury of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, this blackened relic from the Roman town of Herculaneum is rewriting history -- without ever being unrolled. Known as PHerc. 172, the scroll is part of a collection discovered in the 18th century in what is believed to be the luxurious villa of Julius Caesar's father-in-law. Preserved under layers of ash and mud, these scrolls were carbonized during the eruption and rendered so fragile that any attempt to open them risked destruction. For centuries, their secrets remained locked away -- until now. Enter the Vesuvius Challenge, a global initiative launched in 2023 with a mission as ambitious as any archaeological excavation: decode the unreadable using artificial intelligence. Scholars, scientists, and tech enthusiasts from around the world were invited to virtually unwrap these scrolls using machine learning and advanced imaging. It was through this challenge that Marcel Roth and Micha Nowak, graduate students at the University of Würzburg, made their groundbreaking discovery. Independently verified and supported by Vesuvius Challenge researcher Sean Johnson, the scroll has been identified as a work by Greek philosopher Philodemus, titled "On Vices." This is the first time in history that a title has been read from one of the unopened Herculaneum scrolls. Philodemus was no ordinary writer. A student of Epicurus, he championed the pursuit of pleasure and reasoned living as the path to a good life. His ethical treatise On Vices and Their Opposite Virtues and In Whom They Are and About What delves into human behavior with surprising modern relevance. The Bodleian Libraries at Oxford University, where the scroll is now housed, speculate that this newly identified work could be the first in the series -- though the Greek letter that indicates its place is still open to interpretation. Michael McOsker, a papyrologist from University College London and a member of the Vesuvius Challenge team, called the discovery "a very exciting development." Other texts from the same series -- such as On Property Management and On Arrogance -- have previously been physically unrolled, but this new digital find provides a missing piece in Philodemus' philosophical puzzle. The revelations don't end there. In October 2023, AI helped researchers decode the first full word -- "porphyras", meaning purple -- from one of the unopened papyri. Then, in February, the word "disgust" was found twice in PHerc. 172, adding emotional depth to the ethical discourse within. Each decoded word, phrase, and paragraph is a step closer to reconstructing a lost world of thought, discourse, and intellectual richness that lay dormant beneath the earth for centuries. This discovery is not just a win for historians and classicists -- it's a triumph for humanity's eternal quest to know itself. As artificial intelligence breathes life into ancient ashes, the voices of long-dead philosophers echo once more, reminding us that the search for meaning, virtue, and truth is as timeless as the words now being revealed -- letter by digital letter.

AI deciphers text of charred scroll in Vesuvius challenge

The scroll named PHerc. 172, one of three from Herculaneum housed at the Bodleian Libraries in Oxford, was scanned last July. A charred scroll recovered from a Roman villa buried under ash during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE was identified as a work by the ancient Greek philosopher Philodemus. Researchers discovered the title and author of the Herculaneum papyrus after scanning it with X-rays that digitally unwrapped the sheets, revealing details for the first time using this method. The text is part of a multi-volume work titled On Evil, written by Philodemus, an Epicurean philosopher of the first century BCE. The scroll contains traces of ink that reveal the ancient Greek word for "disgust" at least twice, providing insights into the content of the work. The papyrus is one of three from Herculaneum housed at the Bodleian Libraries in Oxford. It was scanned last July at Diamond Light Source, the UK's national synchrotron facility in Oxfordshire. Unusually, some ink was visible in the X-ray images of the scroll, which allowed researchers to identify the text. "It's the first scroll where the ink could just be seen on the scan," said Dr. Michael McOsker, a papyrologist at University College London. "Nobody knew what it was about. We didn't even know if it had writing on," he added in comments reported by The Guardian. The scroll is among hundreds found in the library of a Roman villa thought to have been owned by Julius Caesar's father-in-law. The villa was buried under tons of ash and pumice when the city of Herculaneum, along with Pompeii, was destroyed by the eruption of Vesuvius. Excavations in the 18th century recovered many of the ancient papyri, most of which are held at the National Library of Naples. The documents are so badly burnt that they crumble when researchers try to unroll them, and the ink is unreadable on the carbonized papyrus. Although most papyri were preserved only as charred fragments, new technologies now allow for non-destructive reading of their content. The latest work builds on earlier breakthroughs from the Vesuvius Challenge, a global competition launched in 2023 that offers cash prizes for progress in reading the scrolls using three-dimensional X-rays. Sean Johnson, as part of the Vesuvius Challenge, and separately Marcel Roth and Mika Novak at the University of Würzburg, identified the title and author of the text in the innermost section of the scroll. This research won the first prize of $60,000 (£45,200) in the competition. In addition to On Evil and Philodemus, an "A" that appears on the scroll may indicate that it is the first part of the work. On Evil includes at least ten volumes covering topics such as arrogance, greed, flattery, and household management. Dr. Brent Seales, a computer scientist at the University of Kentucky who co-founded the Vesuvius Challenge, stated, "We see ink samples in many of the new papyri we have scanned, but we have not yet turned them into coherent text." He explained, "That's our current bottleneck: converting the massive scan data into organized sections that are properly segmented, virtually flattened, and enhanced so that the evidence of ink can then be interpreted as actual text." Research activity is accelerating, with eighteen scrolls scanned at Diamond in March, and another twenty being analyzed this week at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble. Soon, experts hope to know much more about the papyri. "The pace is ramping up very quickly," said Dr. McOsker. "All of the technological progress that's been made on this has been in the last three to five years and on the timescales of classicists, that's unbelievable," he concluded. "Everything we're getting from the Herculaneum library is new to us." Although traces of ink were identified in many new scrolls, scientists emphasize that converting these data into coherent texts remains a challenge. The development of artificial intelligence software and algorithms has been instrumental in making progress. Last year, a team of students with computer science knowledge shared the grand prize of $700,000 in the Vesuvius Challenge for developing AI software that allowed them to read 2,000 ancient Greek letters from another scroll. The discovery of the scroll was made as part of an international collaboration involving University College London, the University of Oxford, and the Bodleian Libraries. The scientific approach of using X-ray scanning to extract details from ancient papyrus is being used successfully, enabling scholars to uncover lost works of antiquity without causing further damage to the fragile materials. The article was written with the assistance of a news analysis system.