How AI is helping decipher ancient Herculaneum scrolls

Record ID: 1983511

  • Title: How AI is helping decipher ancient Herculaneum scrolls
  • Date: 12th March 2025
  • Summary: POMPEII, ITALY (FILE) (Reuters) RUINS OF POMPEII WITH MOUNT VESUVIUS IN BACKGROUND STATUE WITH MOUNT VESUVIUS IN BACKGROUND PILLARS AND STATUE WITH MOUNT VESUVIUS IN BACKGROUND POMPEII, ITALY (FILE) (Reuters) BABY CLAMBERING OVER COBBLES CROWDS OF TOURISTS WALKING AMONGST RUINS TOURIST TAKING PHOTOGRAPH AND WALKING ON COBBLED STREETS OF POMPEII VARIOUS OF PLASTER CASTS OF
  • Embargoed:
  • Keywords: AI Ancient Greece Ancient Rome Bodleian Libraries Diamond Light Source Epicurus Herculaneum Scroll Pompeii University of Kentucky University of Oxford Vesuvius Challenge artificial intelligence
  • Location: NAPLES, POMPEII, HERCULANEUM, ITALY / OXFORD, ENGLAND, UK / FILE LOCATIONS
  • City: NAPLES, POMPEII, HERCULANEUM, ITALY / OXFORD, ENGLAND, UK / FILE LOCATIONS
  • Country: UK
  • Topics: Europe,Science
  • Reuters ID: LVA00E480327022025RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: The interior of a Herculaneum scroll, unseen for nearly 2,000 years, has been imaged for the first time with the help of artificial intelligence (AI), with expectations it will reveal brand new ancient philosophical writings.
    Scientists have performed a non-destructive virtual unrolling of one particular scroll - 'PHerc. 172' - which was buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD and is one of the three Herculaneum scrolls housed at the Bodleian Libraries in Oxford, England.
    Herculaneum, as well as the larger city of Pompeii, were covered in volcanic ash and pumice, which preserved buildings, artefacts, and even human remains, providing invaluable historical and cultural insights.
    The Bodleian Libraries, a renowned group of research libraries at the University of Oxford, teamed up with the Vesuvius Challenge, a global initiative launched in 2023 dedicated to deciphering the contents of the ancient Herculaneum Scrolls without physically unrolling them.
    The teams are using AI to help identify the ink on the scrolls no matter how faint it is, explained Vesuvius Challenge project lead, Stephen Parsons.
    "These scrolls can't be opened physically. It would damage them. And they were damaged themselves by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius," Parsons told Reuters.
    "We put the charred scrolls in a particle accelerator to scan the inside. And then we are developing the software that can extract the text contents of the scroll from that scan. So we're trying to look inside the scrolls and reveal the text," he explained.
    In July 2024, the scroll was scanned at the Diamond Light Source in Oxfordshire, home to Britain's synchrotron, a particle accelerator in which beams travel around a closed-loop path. Electrons are accelerated to near light speeds until they emit light 10 billion times brighter than the sun, then directed into laboratories in 'beamlines' which allow scientists to study minute specimens using x-ray beams in extreme detail without damaging them.
    "We've zoomed in essentially with an x-ray microscope, is how you can think of this, and we're just looking at very, very detailed structures on the surface and identifying where there's ink," said Parsons.
    AI was then trained to spot the ink on the scroll, but not to understand the words, much like a human making a copy of a text without knowing what the words mean. This helped to keep the original text as it was, without any guesses or changes. The AI was a key tool in putting together the images from the scan and making the text clearer, helping to open up the scroll without physically touching it.
    The virtual unrolling of scroll 'PHerc. 172' has revealed substantial parts of the papyrus, including several columns of text. The Vesuvius Challenge is inviting contributions from the global community to interpret the text, with one of the first words deciphered being the Ancient Greek διατροπή, meaning 'disgust'.
    The material found could potentially reshape our understanding of literature from that era, which was heavily engaged with philosophy and especially Epicureanism.
    "The Bodleian text we know is Greek, it looks like philosophy. It's almost certainly going to be a philosophical text. The odds are that it's an epicurean text by Philodemus," researcher Michael McOsker told Reuters.
    "Getting new texts is great. Getting new texts from an author that I've worked on for a decade and a half now is is even better news. But I'll be happy, whatever it is."
    The Vesuvius Challenge, a global initiative launched in 2023 to discover the contents of the Herculaneum Scrolls without physical intervention, continues to invite contributions from researchers worldwide. Work is ongoing to improve software methods and read the entirety of the scrolls.
    But Parsons says 2025 could be a breakthrough year.
    "We think this year we're going to substantially read an entire scroll for the first time. So that would be historic for a single scroll," he said.
    "We think we will be set to reveal quite a few new works from the ancient world."
    (Production: Matt Stock)
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