Naples, June 25: A carbonised papyrus scroll buried during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius nearly 2,000 years ago has been virtually unwrapped and read using artificial intelligence. Researchers uncovered 20 columns of previously hidden text spanning more than a metre of charred papyrus without physically opening the scroll.
The document, known as PHerc 1667, dates to the second or late-third century BC and discusses Stoic philosophy, including ethics, art and human behaviour. It is among the oldest scrolls recovered from a library in Herculaneum, a Roman town destroyed alongside Pompeii in AD 79.
The scroll had suffered significant damage over the centuries. It was broken in half at some point, and earlier attempts to open it caused parts of the outer layers to flake away or disintegrate. Today, only a fragment measuring about 8 cm in height and 2 cm in width survives.
Dr Federica Nicolardi, a papyrologist at the University of Naples Federico II, said, “We don’t have the full scroll, but the surviving object was unwrapped, and that’s a very important result because it shows that we are able to unwrap these objects completely.”
Vesuvius Challenge Breakthrough
The achievement is being announced at a conference in Naples and marks another success for the Vesuvius Challenge, a global competition launched in 2023 to decipher the carbonised Herculaneum scrolls.
The project has awarded hundreds of thousands of dollars to teams that developed AI-based methods to virtually unwrap the scrolls and read hidden text from high-resolution X-ray scans.
The challenge builds on the work of Prof. Brent Seales of the University of Kentucky, who demonstrated that machine-learning algorithms could detect ink on concealed layers by identifying subtle differences in papyrus fibres visible in X-ray images. Supported by donors from Silicon Valley, the competition attracted teams that refined these techniques and advanced the reading of the ancient texts.
Stoic Texts Unearthed
Most texts in the Herculaneum library are linked to the first-century BC Epicurean philosopher and poet Philodemus of Gadara. However, the age and content of PHerc 1667 suggest a different origin.
According to Nicolardi and her colleagues, the text appears to be a Stoic treatise, possibly written by the Greek philosopher Chrysippus, the third head of the Stoic school. The scroll mentions his nephew and student, Aristocreon.
“At first, we were saying this could be an Epicurean talking about Stoic doctrine,” said Nicolardi. “But then I stopped and said, you know, if this was found outside of Herculaneum, we would categorise it as a Stoic work.”
The newly deciphered text explores the Stoic concepts of hormē (impulse) and phronēsis (practical wisdom), warning that behaviour not guided by reason can lead to harmful passions and distract people from their goals. In one passage, the author writes, “We will inquire into something, but we will not grasp it, if in some way we depart from ourselves and from our own nature.”
Researchers also identified the words “Philodemus, On Gods, Book 8” on another virtually unwrapped scroll, revealing for the first time that On Gods was a multi-book work. Previously, only the first book had been known.
“These unopened Herculaneum scrolls look like dead books, but they’re not,” said Nicolardi. “They’re starting to speak again.”
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Reflecting on the progress made, Seales said the focus has now shifted from reading the scrolls to understanding their contents. “People now know that this can be done, and now we’re exploring what [the texts] actually mean,” he said. “For me, that’s the World Cup. I just won the World Cup: that’s my victory.”
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