A charred scroll has been digitally deciphered for the first time in 2,000 years after it was buried in the ancient Italian city of Herculaneum following the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.
The scroll, which was burnt during the devastating 79AD eruption, is too delicate to be unrolled.
However, through virtual unwrapping using AI and X-ray imaging, experts have been able to uncover columns and rows of written text.
Stephen Parsons, project lead for the Vesuvius Challenge, said: “We’re confident we will be able to read pretty much the whole scroll in its entirety, and it’s the first time we’ve really been able to say that with high confidence.”
While more work is needed to make the scroll fully readable, the team of experts is optimistic about deciphering the entire document, believed to be a work of philosophy.
Some letters of the work are already visible, though further refinement of the imaging and AI techniques is expected to reveal substantial passages of text.
The discovery marks a significant advancement in the study of ancient texts, providing a non-invasive method to explore these valuable historical documents without causing them any damage.
The scroll is part of a larger collection of hundreds of carbonised scrolls discovered in Herculaneum, many of which have remained untouched for decades due to how delicate they are and their inability to be physically opened.
This discovery represents a major breakthrough in studying ancient texts without causing any damage to them and using advanced technologies for historical research.
Herculaneum was an ancient city of about 4,000 to 5,000 inhabitants in Italy. It was wiped out alongside the cities of Pompeii, Torre Annunziata, and Stabiae by the volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius.
Herculaneum was discovered in 1709 by Prince D’Elbeuf, but serious excavation didn’t begin until 100 years later, hindered by the depth of its burial.
While it is estimated that Pompeii was buried under about four to six meters of ash, Herculaneum was buried under a massive 25 metres of volcanic material.
Last year, experts succeeded in deciphering approximately 5% of another scroll, which was a text on Greek Epicurean philosophy, and it is believed that this one could be on the same subject.
The team of experts are working on decoding more of the text and seeing if this is really the case.