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8 hours ago
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It's been left unread for nearly 2,000 years, last glimpsed when the Roman Empire ruled over Europe.
Now, scientists have used AI to virtually unfurl one of the Herculaneum scrolls – the ancient documents buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79.
Known as PHerc. 172, this particular scroll is housed at the Bodleian Libraries in Oxford, and is covered in ancient Greek text written in carbon-based ink.
'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, senior executive Bodleian Libraries.
'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.'
The Herculaneum scrolls are thought to contain profound philosophical and literary texts from ancient Greek and Roman scholars.
The problem is that any attempts to unroll the burnt cylinders will turn them to dust because they are so fragile – meaning the words would be lost forever.
So, scientists have been turning to ingenious methods such as x-ray scanning, ink-detection software and AI to virtually 'unroll' them.
Scientists have virtually unfurled PHerc. 172, one of three Herculaneum scrolls now housed at the Bodleian Libraries in Oxford (pictured)
These ancient rolls of papyrus are thought to contain profound philosophical and literary texts from ancient Greek and Roman scholars
Scientists used Diamond Light Source to create 3D scans and a digital reconstruction of scroll PHerc.172, one of three Herculaneum scrolls housed at Bodleian Libraries.
They then used AI to identify the ink markings on the papyrus – a material similar to paper, made from the pith of the papyrus plant.
Even if scientists were able to physically unfurl the scroll, these ink markings would be invisible to the naked eye due to the burnt papyrus.
Experts have interpreted a few fragments of words of PHerc.172, but they're still yet to decipher full sentences.
One of the first words to be translated is the Ancient Greek διατροπή, a word found in other Herculaneum scrolls that would mean something like 'confusion, agitation, or disgust'.
The word appears twice within a few columns of text, but what exactly it's referring to is as yet unknown.
Similarly, in another segment, the sequence of Greek letters τυγχαν may be the beginning of the verb τυγχάνω, which means 'to happen'.
Intriguingly, the ink seems to appear more clearly in the outer wraps of the scroll, and in some cases, is it only clear every other line – which suggests the scribe dipped their pen once every two lines.
The strides made to unroll this scroll mark a significant step forward in our ability to recover texts from the ancient world, according to academics
Scientists used Diamond Light Source to create 3D scans and a digital reconstruction of scroll PHerc.172, held at Oxford's Bodleian Library
Even if scientists were able to physically unfurl the scroll, these ink markings would be invisible to the naked human eye due to the burnt papyrus
How AI virtually unfurls Herculaneum scrolls
Firstly, at the Diamond Light Source in Oxfordshire, x-rays are shot at the scrolls to create scans and a 3D reconstruction.
AI is used to detect the areas of the papyrus that were touched by ink to reveal the Greek text.
This is made especially difficult due to the use of carbon-based ink when the text was written.
The papyrus was effectively turned to carbon lumps when the Herculaneum villa where the scrolls were kept was engulfed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.
'A human hand wrote this text 2,000 years ago, and it's an unforgettable experience to be the first person in that time to see it,' the team say.
The AI focuses solely on detection of the ink and does not have any understanding of language and cannot recognise characters.
In this way, AI operates much like 18th-century copyists, who were employed to meticulously replicate what they saw in the scrolls without comprehending the text.
Researchers now hope to reach the end of the papyrus (the innermost part of the carbonised scroll) where the colophon with the title of the work may be preserved.
'This scroll contains more recoverable text than we have ever seen in a scanned Herculaneum scroll,' said Dr Brent Seales, co-founder of the Vesuvius Challenge.
'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 scroll.'
Experts are putting a call-out to engineers who can develop AI methods to reveal more of the hidden text as part of the 'Vesuvius Challenge' – with a hefty cash prize up for grabs.
Earlier this year, students won $700,000 (£550,000) when they used AI to work out what's written on another one of the scrolls, held by the Institut de France in Paris.
Scientists say freshly-revealed text is Greek and they've interpreted a few fragments of words, although they're still yet to decipher full sentences
In 1802 or 1803, PHerc. 172 and other scrolls were given by the king of Naples and Sicily, Ferdinand IV, to the future George IV in England
The Italian town of Herculaneum was destroyed - together with Pompeii, Torre Annunziata and Stabiae - by the Vesuvius eruption of AD 79. Pictured, Herculaneum ruins
The saga of the Herculaneum scrolls goes back nearly 2,000 years when the Italian settlements of Pompeii, Torre Annunziata, Stabiae and Herculaneum were destroyed by the Vesuvius eruption of AD 79, killing an estimated 16,000 people.
One of the buildings buried in Herculaneum was a large villa, possibly belonging to Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesonius, the father-in-law of Julius Caesar.
The large library of the villa contained more than 1,800 papyrus scrolls that were turned to carbon lumps in the eruption.
In the 1750s, excavations began on the villa and a number of scrolls were destroyed or thrown away in the belief that they were worthless chunks of charcoal.
Unfortunately, hundreds more were destroyed during attempts to unroll the scrolls, which are mostly held at the National Library in Naples.
A few hundred scrolls were excavated that were never opened, and remain rolled up with their contents sealed away – waiting to reveal potentially profound lessons for modern society.
In 1756, Abbot Piagio, conserver of ancient manuscripts in the Vatican Library, invented a machine that could unroll a single manuscript in four years, but it unfortunately destroyed a lot of the work.
In the early 1800s, PHerc.172 and other scrolls were given to the future George IV of England by Ferdinand IV, the king of Naples and Sicily – allegedly in exchange for some kangaroos – before winding up at the Bodleian Library.
Abbot Piaggio's machine was used to unroll scrolls as early as 1756 in the Vatican Library - but it 'destroyed a lot of the work'
Professor Graziano Ranocchia of the University of Pisa said: 'Thanks to the most advanced imaging diagnostic techniques, we are finally able to read and decipher new sections of texts that previously seemed inaccessible' (pictured: carbonised papyri from Herculaneum)
Hundreds of the scrolls - scorched in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius - were destroyed during early attempts to unroll them
Modern attempts have focused on digital methods to read the texts without physically unrolling the papyri to prevent damage.
Known as 'virtual unrolling', such attempts commonly use X-rays and other light sources to scan the objects and reveal previously unknown text.
One technique called shortwave infrared hyperspectral imaging picks up variations in the way light bounces off the black ink on the papyrus.
A newly discovered passage from one of the scrolls using this technique has revealed that Plato spent his last night blasting a slave girl's 'lack of rhythm' as she played the flute.
The philosopher, who was suffering from a fever, had been listening to music and welcoming guests before he died at the age of 80 or 81 in around 348BC.
The scroll also helped to confirm that Plato was buried at the Academy of Athens, which he founded, but adds the detail that the ancient thinker's resting place was in a designated garden within the university grounds.
How Pompeii and Herculaneum were wiped off the map by devastating eruption of Mount Vesuvius 2,000 years ago
What happened?
Mount Vesuvius erupted in the year AD 79, burying the cities of Pompeii, Oplontis, and Stabiae under ashes and rock fragments, and the city of Herculaneum under a mudflow.
Mount Vesuvius, on the west coast of Italy, is the only active volcano in continental Europe and is thought to be one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world.
Every single resident died instantly when the southern Italian town was hit by a 500°C pyroclastic hot surge.
Pyroclastic flows are a dense collection of hot gas and volcanic materials that flow down the side of an erupting volcano at high speed.
They are more dangerous than lava because they travel faster, at speeds of around 450mph (700 km/h), and at temperatures of 1,000°C.
An administrator and poet called Pliny the younger watched the disaster unfold from a distance.
Letters describing what he saw were found in the 16th century.
His writing suggests that the eruption caught the residents of Pompeii unaware.
Mount Vesuvius erupted in the year AD 79, burying the cities of Pompeii, Oplontis, and Stabiae under ashes and rock fragments, and the city of Herculaneum under a mudflow
He said that a column of smoke 'like an umbrella pine' rose from the volcano and made the towns around it as black as night.
People ran for their lives with torches, screaming and some wept as rain of ash and pumice fell for several hours.
While the eruption lasted for around 24 hours, the first pyroclastic surges began at midnight, causing the volcano's column to collapse.
An avalanche of hot ash, rock and poisonous gas rushed down the side of the volcano at 124mph (199kph), burying victims and remnants of everyday life.
Hundreds of refugees sheltering in the vaulted arcades at the seaside in Herculaneum, clutching their jewelry and money, were killed instantly.
The Orto dei fuggiaschi (The garden of the Fugitives) shows the 13 bodies of victims who were buried by the ashes as they attempted to flee Pompeii during the 79 AD eruption of the Vesuvius volcano
As people fled Pompeii or hid in their homes, their bodies were covered by blankets of the surge.
While Pliny did not estimate how many people died, the event was said to be 'exceptional' and the number of deaths is thought to exceed 10,000.
What have they found?
This event ended the life of the cities but at the same time preserved them until rediscovery by archaeologists nearly 1700 years later.
The excavation of Pompeii, the industrial hub of the region and Herculaneum, a small beach resort, has given unparalleled insight into Roman life.
Archaeologists are continually uncovering more from the ash-covered city.
In May archaeologists uncovered an alleyway of grand houses, with balconies left mostly intact and still in their original hues.
A plaster cast of a dog, from the House of Orpheus, Pompeii, AD 79. Around 30,000 people are believed to have died in the chaos, with bodies still being discovered to this day
Some of the balconies even had amphorae - the conical-shaped terra cotta vases that were used to hold wine and oil in ancient Roman times.
The discovery has been hailed as a 'complete novelty' - and the Italian Culture Ministry hopes they can be restored and opened to the public.
Upper stores have seldom been found among the ruins of the ancient town, which was destroyed by an eruption of Vesuvius volcano and buried under up to six meters of ash and volcanic rubble.
Around 30,000 people are believed to have died in the chaos, with bodies still being discovered to this day.
