Overview
- Researchers announced Thursday that they have for the first time virtually unwrapped and read the full surviving text of a closed Herculaneum scroll known as PHerc. 1667 using high‑resolution phase‑contrast X‑ray imaging and computational reconstruction.
- The team reconstructed the scroll’s internal surface, flattened it into a readable sheet, and used machine‑learning models to amplify faint ink signals so papyrologists could transcribe continuous passages across roughly 22 columns.
- Papyrologists say the recovered PHerc. 1667 text treats ethics and human nature in a Stoic register and names Aristocreon, while separate scans independently confirmed ink inside PHerc. Paris 4 and identified PHerc. 139 as Philodemus’ On Gods, Book 8.
- All scan data, reconstructed surfaces, transcriptions and code have been released openly and the Vesuvius Challenge has offered a $1 million prize to the first team that fully reads another scroll to accelerate verification and wider participation.
- Experts caution that full scholarly editions and historical interpretation will take time because readings require careful transcription, peer review and scaling of imaging and algorithms to the more than 600 unopened scrolls and unexcavated parts of the villa.