Particle.news
Download on the App Store
6 ARTICLES
·
15h ago

Researchers Virtually Unwrap and Read the Surviving Surface of a Herculaneum Scroll

High‑resolution synchrotron scans plus machine‑learning ink detection recovered continuous Greek text from PHerc. 1667, signaling a new non‑destructive path for reading Herculaneum scrolls.

Ancient Greek text on a black background in white characters.
Image
Image
Image

Overview

  • A team using phase‑contrast synchrotron micro‑CT and improved geometric unwrapping has for the first time read the entire surviving surface of PHerc. 1667 without physically opening the roll.
  • The recovered segment yields roughly 1.5 metres of continuous ancient Greek across about 20–22 columns and reads as a Stoic ethical treatise that names Aristocreon, linking it to Chrysippus’s circle.
  • The project combined three‑dimensional imaging with machine learning trained to detect faint ink textures, producing extremely large datasets at facilities including the ESRF and Diamond Light Source.
  • Researchers also identified PHerc. 139 as Philodemus’s On Gods, Book 8 and extracted more than 70 columns from PHerc. 172, while releasing scans and methods publicly to enable wider study.
  • The Vesuvius Challenge and University of Kentucky offered a $1 million prize to spur further full scroll reads, but scholars caution that detailed transcription, peer review and scaling to 600+ unopened scrolls will take substantial time and resources.