AI deciphers Vesuvius-damaged scroll long thought to be unreadable

Machine learning researchers have accomplished a significant breakthrough in digital archaeology by successfully revealing the author and title of a carbonized ancient scroll from the Vesuvius eruption. The achievement marks a crucial step forward in unlocking previously inaccessible historical texts through advanced AI techniques, potentially revolutionizing how scholars access and study ancient literature damaged beyond conventional reading methods.

The big picture: Machine learning researchers have won a $60,000 prize for deciphering the title and author of a sealed papyrus scroll carbonized by Mount Vesuvius’s eruption in 79 AD, identifying it as “On Vices” by the Greek philosopher Philodemus.

How they did it: The winning team adapted an AI model typically used for medical image analysis to reveal text from the ancient document.

• Marcel Roth, a student at Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg, and Micha Nowak from Gray Swan AI, repurposed medical imaging AI technology to unlock the previously unreadable text.
• Their breakthrough represents a novel application of machine learning technology in the field of archaeological preservation and textual recovery.

Why this matters: The achievement represents a milestone in efforts to access hundreds of intact but extremely fragile scrolls discovered in Herculaneum in 1752.

• These papyrus scripts, found in an ancient Roman villa, have remained sealed for nearly 2,000 years due to their extreme fragility.
• The technology potentially opens the door to reading an entire collection of ancient texts previously thought lost to history.

Historical context: The Herculaneum scrolls represent one of the most significant caches of ancient literature ever discovered, preserved but rendered seemingly unreadable by the catastrophic volcanic eruption.

• Found in what scholars believe was a private library in a luxurious Roman villa, these scrolls may contain numerous lost works from antiquity.
• Kenneth Lapatin, curator of antiquities at the J. Paul Getty Museum, has emphasized the significance of this technological milestone for accessing this invaluable historical resource.